Faults:
Heater tap had to be replaced
Two water hoses needed replacement
Airbox exploded
Two sets of rotors and two sets of brake pads in only 37,000km
Transmission repeatedly leaked oil
Transmission was randomly shifting
Engine was burning off lots of oil
Engine produced a lot of soot under high load, resulting in emission of thick black smoke
Brakes fading severely under stress
Plastic headlights turned yellow.
General Comments:
When I purchased the car, it was pretty good looking with only minor blemishes like a very worn steering wheel and a burn mark on the drivers seat.
The first six months, all was fairly well, but then the trouble started. Within the next six months, the car was in the garage three times with severe water leaks. After about 10,000km, I had to replace rotors and pads at the front, after another 20,000km another set of rotors and pads was due. I am heavy on the accelerator and therefore heavy on the brakes, but I have never managed to wear down a set of rotors, or pads for that matter, in just 20,000km. The brakes did bite fairly well when cold, but under a bit of stress, they faded very quickly and at dangerous levels.
At one stage the engine backfired and literally ripped the airbox into pieces. This resulted in pieces of plastic being sucked into the intake manifold and one larger piece held the butterfly valve fully open, so I lost all control over the acceleration of the engine. The only way to stop the car was to turn the engine off in the middle of a freeway.
The transmission was pretty rough shifting and had the tendency to randomly shift back for no reason. One second you are cruising on the freeway doing 110km/h, the next, the transmission shifts back into second, reving the engine almost into the limiter. When you took the foot off the accelerator, it shifted back up and as soon as you put the foot down again, it did the back shift again. Putting the auto into neutral and back into "D" fixed the problem, but only for a short time. From what I've heard, that's a fairly common problem with the EF Falcons.
The fuel economy was also pretty bad. within city traffic, less than 14 litres/100km was impossible and 14-15 the standard when running on petrol, 20l/100km when running on LPG. Even on long distance trips, less than 12 litres was very rare. Sure, a 4 litre engine is pretty thirsty, but this is extreme. You can tell the car was built when petrol was still dirt cheap.
I have no Idea who had the bright Idea to fit the car with plastic headlights, but it was a bad one. They may not break as easily as glass does, but instead, they turn yellow, resulting in a pretty poor visibility at night.
I also didn't think the car was very well built. In the interior, everything was rattling, squeaking and humming and the front suspension was also very noisy. I do realise that many of these noises develop with age, but I've had older cars that didn't have these problems.
If it wasn't for all the trouble I had with it, the Falcon would have been a pretty nice car. It was decent looking, comfortable, spacious and a nice ride on long distance trips.
I am willing to accept that the car was a lemon. If it wasn't, I couldn't understand how anybody would possibly consider buying a Falcon. But lemon or not, I've had two Fords in my life and both were crap, to say the least. It's enough for me to not ever buy a Ford again.
11th May 2006, 02:08
I reckon stick to your Camry. I'm sure it is a lot less troublesome :).