hey 4 banger guys,

my friend bought himself a 1990 Ford Corsair Ghia sedan today, Automatic 2.4L, power windows, power mirrors, really comfy velour seats, new tyres, and 3 months rego for $800. pretty good deal?

now are there any problems these cars run in to? i noticed as i drove it to his house (he cant drive it yet) the exhaust leaks about where the rear axle is, and also a tiny tiny leak at the exhaust manifold.

the auto also shifts a bit hard and sloppy.

im just after a bit of general info on it.

any help is appreciated. cheers fellas

Do the timing belt, they go about every 40,000k's.
That's about all i know. A mate of mine had one once i tried to steer clear of it as much as possible.
All in all though not too bad a car. It took all the s**t he dished out on it for 12months. It was a manual, so, Reverse Helli's anyone?

I had a burgundy ghia auto up untilllast year. For what it was it went really well. Problems I had with mine were a busted engine mount, and the firm but sloppy gearbox. Most of my problems were cooling system related. I was losing water like you would not believe but no mechanic could trace it. In the end a welsh plug let go and the motor seized as it over heated.

But my biggest problem in that car was the throttle cable. They would just break down from the under bonnet heat and fail near the throttle body every time. Its a very common problem with the 2.4L for some reason as every wrecking yard we went to did not have any good cables for the 2.4L. They had all failed in the same way. The funny thing is its a non existant problem on the 2.0L

still got it somewhere by any chance? it needs the 2 parking lights at the front replaced lol

ahh


nice cars
basically a re badged nissan pintara

is the 2.4 the one with the twin plug head? i cant remember, mate had one way back in 97 and was a great car from what i recall, but manual not slushbox

with the sloppy auto get the tranny oil flushed and tranny serviced should bring it back to good

yeah i reckon for 800 bucks it was a bargain. its only done 217,000km too. its in great nick cept for a small scrape above the rear wheel arch and the paint has faded a bit.

2.0L had the twin spark.

2.4 had a 3 valve head. I scrapped mine last year. Got nothing for it cause I pulled the engine out.

The auto's in them shifted hard when cold, and fairly smooth when hot.
The 2.4 ( KA24 ) went a lot harder than the 2.0 ( CA20 ).

Souds like it could be a good reliable car. give the pant a good cut and polish, fix the exhaust and hopefuly only other thing to watch is the front cv's

Oh s**t yeah. But man they had a short first gear. 40km/h at 6000rpm. In standard trim they could more than hold their own against quite a few cars and a KA24 powered corsair would be the perfect candidate for a turbo conversion.

and they have an lsd as well i believe...
just need to do the usual crap for older cars.. just maintain it. service regulary and it should be good.

I'm a Corsair owner. It is a 90 2.4 auto Ghia sedan. treat the car like s**t and it will pretty much keep going. treat it well and it won't miss a beat. I have had mine for about 15 years and I am the second owner. 2 years ago I fried the gear box. replaced it and no problem since. 10 years ago I needed a new brake master cylinder. And that is pretty much it until recently. I have replaced the engine mounts as they where wearing out and the steering rod ends as they too where getting on and becoming loose... (= more wear on tyre as there is some movement) and there have been a few little maintenance things but nothing major other than what I have mentioned in the last 15 years. Just keep it serviced. you know oil water etc....

There are belts on the 2.4, however it is a timing chain not belt. Make sure you keep it oiled. If the guides for the chain break...then you have probs. plastic in the sump (and who knows where else), cracked water pump casing, timing is out cause the chain will jump bent valves etc... Don't do this. This is my latrest problem, however the motor has not missed a beat for the last 19 years, so it's pretty good. if it costs me $1900 to fix that's only $100/per year...

One big thing to watch for is the front end lights. Head lights and corner lights. They are rare as hens teeth.... very difficult to find. You mention that your friends car is missing some... you are going to find it difficult to replacethem. I know of perfectly good cars that are off the road because of the light.

Not all is lost though, basically all the mechanical is interchangeable with the Nissan pintara U12. and the panels can bolt straight on. You can put a pintara font end on it and use the pintara lights, they are more common.

The Corsair does not have an LSD. The pintara TRX and I think Ti do. Personally the only prob I've had with the coolant is a stuck thermostat. replaced it and no prob since. No prob with throttle cable.

All round I think the class is a very reliable platform. but each individual car is different.