Rust around bot hinges, drive shaft center bearing, diff bushes, hood lining, disc brake shudder and wear, turbo problems. Nice open road car with heaps of grunt. Love mine even with all the problems.
melonhead1,
Jan 21, 1:49pm
The owners of these must feel the power and then drive them like they stole them and wonder why they start eating parts. You simply can't expect a consumer car to hold together if you thrash it, be nice to your cars!
warrenp,
Jan 22, 11:22am
Get this man a Tui ;)
chook90,
Jan 22, 3:53pm
Utter crap! Truth is that the reliability issues tabled in most cases were showing in the first 24 months of use in most BAs.
Brake shudder was so well known on the BA that Ford issued a series of service bulletins on the topic - nothing to do with thrashing and everything to do with building a heavy car to a budget.
Turbo failure is inevitably tracked back to blockage in the micro filter in the turbo oil feed line. Again the result of engineering to a budget and I have seen first hand evidence of a number of Ford franchises in New Zealand who have been responsible for the servicing of cars yet have never even stocked one of the filters their own service manual dictates must be done.
Transmission. The BTA4 auto was weak to start with. If you did the slightest research you would realise that the FPV Typhoon (Later to become the F6) was not released until BA2 - the reason being that neither the BTA4 Auto or the 5 speed manual were capable of handling the torque - both were right on the edge with the standard XR6T.
Now if you wish to argue that body electronic modules, door lock actuators, heater mixer shafts, bonnet release cables, coil packs, electric window switches, rusting boot channels, drooping front bumper bars are due to the car being thrashed you might begin to look silly.
Don't forget of course that a number of the blue variants were known for the paint falling off - head into a brushless carwash and you come out with no paint. Yet again acknowledged by Ford and covered under warranty.
Truth of the matter is that the B series was the final nail in the coffin of Ford Australia - the build quality and appalling design flaws saw sales decline and recovery was not wonderful when the FG was released.
cone1,
Feb 4, 6:18pm
Don't care about the faults, I've thrashed mine and it loves it. If you service it properly it will give you lots of fun.
hydroman08,
Jan 5, 11:03am
Hi all,
Im looking at purchasing a 2003 XR6T. What should I look out for? Its relatively low mileage, and has been with the same family since new. They have all service records at the one dealership they have always used.
Thanks
jason18,
Jan 5, 11:07am
Check gearbox changes nicely. Check for turbo noises. Check diff for clunks Ba suffer from random Elec problems so check for any odd things
serf407,
Jan 5, 11:24am
Rust in the usual places. Ford (Aus) made a tiny bit bit more effort with the BF, BF2 and FG. It might be an idea for comparative purposes to see what you can find in the ZF 6 speed auto or 5/6 speed manual. You can always give a 4 speed auto the Mal Wood treatment etc. http://www.autotechengineering.com.au/Ford/Transmission_upgrades.html
jaydeess,
Jan 5, 12:27pm
rust. both my territory and falcon suffer from it, rust stop them its fine.
pericles1,
Jan 5, 1:07pm
I've seen BA XR6 turbo 5 speed manuals that have gearbox and diff problems. The 4 speed auto isn't that great either. As serf407 said try find a 6 speed ZF auto or 6 speed manual. Besides that they are built EXTREMELY cheaply, rust on the outside and as for the interior, door cards fall apart, rattles in numerous places, switches always fail. this from cars that have done 120k.
jason18,
Jan 5, 1:09pm
Even the 6 speed gearbox isn't flash. Plenty of them fail early too. Two people I know have had the 6 speed autos replaced on late model low km cars.
monaro17,
Jan 5, 1:24pm
As above as well as suspension knocks
chook90,
Jan 5, 2:20pm
OK. LOTS. let me repeat that LOTS to look out for.
Turbos prone to failure - usually due to negligent dealers/owners not replacing the filter in the oil feed line. DO NOT assume that because it has regular services that the job was done - mine was serviced by Ford dealers who had never even stocked the filter that Ford recommend replacing.
Brakes - Built to a budget rubbish. Most shudder like hell and are not great at stopping what is a big heavy car. Unless it has something decent on there budget to throw some good quality rotors and pads at it.
Suspension - probably rooted. Once again, big, heavy 12 year old car that was built to a budget. Shocks, springs, sway bar linkages and ALL bushes.
Electrics - Another example of Fords great build quality. Window switches & central locking most common.
Heater Mixer - check that the temperature does actually change. The heater mixed shaft is known to fail and is bloody expensive to replace unless you do it yourself. Trust me, you DO NOT want to do it yourself.
Transmission - Budget a good service if it is a 4 speed auto irrespective of what records you get with it. Also budget to install an aftermarket transmission cooler - the factory cooler built into the radiator fails commonly and you get oil/water cross contamination, stuffed trans and engine in a worst case scenario.
Rust - check around the boot and rear window area for most likely places.
Frankly I think the BA and BF build quality were the nail in Ford Australia's coffin and as much as I love mine the simple truth is that the cost of ownership has been bloody outrageous.
kazbanz,
Jan 6, 9:33am
1) make sure that every function of the aircon/heater works properly.-Theres a $20 part that breaks but requires the entire dash to be removed in order to replace it. 2)Make sure the bonnet release works properly.The handle has a tendancy to break -From memory caused by corrosion in the cable. 3)Check for shudder under brakes and do drive it at 100km/h and feel for shake in the steering. -the front disks aren't the best and are prone to warping. 4)check for uneven tyre wear.
inkapuka,
Jan 6, 10:12am
Or just buy a vy vz commodore less problems
pericles1,
Jan 6, 10:39am
And stil have a shitty build quality. buy an E55 AMG, faster, well built and so much more car for the money.
glang,
Jan 6, 10:41am
Wow, this model sounds like absolute rubbish, I thought it was just european cars that were troublesome. Great replies - an interesting read on what I thought were good cars.
franc123,
Jan 6, 10:44am
You'd bloody well hope so considering how much more it cost when it was brand new. You Europhiles tend to forget this for some reason. There are also reasons why these vehicles can be bought for similar money in the used market compared to those cheap and nasty common brands these days and why they aren't easy to sell.
hydroman08,
Jan 6, 10:51am
Thanks for all the help guys. Going to go have a look at it soon, and will have a look for all these things.
kazbanz,
Jan 6, 10:53am
Glang-in the case of my reply I was giving the faults Im aware of cropping up over a few years of dealing with this model
inkapuka,
Jan 6, 11:43am
Funny how you can buy a 100k merc for 20k and less than 15 years old and yeat a holden or ford cost 40-70 new and stil sell for less than half for a. 03 sort of year
pericles1,
Jan 6, 12:22pm
I'm by no means a Europhile, I prefer to stick to my turbocharged Japanese sedan that is well built unlike Auzzy junk, no silly over-engineered electrical system like euros and when I need parts (not that anything ever goes wrong with it) I don't have to pay daylight robbery prices.
jason18,
Jan 6, 2:23pm
I just did. Problems already
carclan,
Jan 6, 4:24pm
Blown up diff and a screwed auto, knacked central locking door locks, broken seat mouldings, broked cup holder lid, saggy boot and bonnet struts, make sure you have it scanned for BEM faults.
inkapuka,
Jan 6, 6:51pm
Thats less faults than the coon i myself had a vx and only ever had 3 problems only a water leak on the backplate and screwd the trans from burnouts and then the tranny blew a bolt to the inside of the bell housing otherwise didnt touch the electrics or motor apart from water leak.
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