G'day all,

Just bought a AU 2001 falcon for 900$ today registered, big upgrade from my old eb which has been around australia without a problem,

Something is not right with it however, the lady who i bought it off did inform me it has a slight miss on the highway, but not what i discovered when stopped at a set of lights if you try to take off with about 1/4 throttle it will miss and shudder horribly, same when going up a hill or just giving it abit of throttle, however if you plant it she will take off fine,

Have been doing abit of reading around on these forums, and could be a couple of things i think, plugs and leads,dizzy(if it has one) and just bad fuel, the last owner informed me the car had been sitting for just over a month so i ran most of the fuel out today and put half a tank of Bp ultimate in her, Opened her up abit and doesn't shutter or miss as bad as what it did but still does it,

was reading on one thread which sounded similar to whats happening where a aux shaft went on a au motor? but i could be wrong

if parked in neutral however she will rev out fine and cant find a flat spot when in nuetral, just misses and shudders under load? did read on another thread here about opening the bonnet when dark and seeing if there is any arcing going on, will try that later

was thinking of scrabbing the eb today but thinking i may wait a while as i did read some parts are interchangeable, she's done over 35,000 k in the last 6 months and hit around 7 roos

also noticed with the AU there could be a dodgy boot seal somewhere as there is rust on the inner side of the boot where the number plate is located and a small amount of water leaks into the boot when lifted from the left hand side, not to concerned about this at the moment but would like to get onto it soon enough


thanks all for any help/advice

You will probably find its a combo of coil pack, leads and plugs.

I would advise changing the fuel filter and the Air filter. I would also clean out the Fuel rail and the best way to do that is to remove it and CLEAN it out properly. There may be dirt and crap in where the Fuel pressure regulator inserts into the fuel rail.


There is a valve on the side of the throttle body called the TPS, that can be the culprit as well, used to play up when they were new. Check out the Air Flow valve which sits on top of the Throttle Body as these can stick and, while you are at it, check that all the inlet manifold bolts are tight.


It's Ford's fault. They have 2 rubber blank plugs in the bottom of the inner boot skin and they serve NO purpose other than to cause Rust I think Take the silly buggers OUT. Here are picks.

Left Side

Right Side

Thanks so much for your help and advice,! what a great help, found those little rubber plugs, took them out, do you think that will stop the boot leaking ?

thanks again

the miss, definately coil pack, strangely enough ive had the same issue in an au twice in a year and both times were coil pack..

the water leak is coming through your boot spoiler, undo the bolts lift the spoiler up and use urethane or silicon on any hole that go on the inner side of the boot lid, eg where the brake light wires run through...

ah righto cheers Troy, might hunt around for another coil pack, since i posted a couple of days ago, i have put new plugs in, leads, injector cleaner and filled up again with bp ultimate, Now it actually doesnt miss....well i guess it still does a little bit , when you put your foot down now it jerks back and forth until the revs hit around 3700rpm then she really takes off, it's hard to explain but the power just isn't there until those revs get up

thanks mate

G'day Havik_racing,

If you feather the accelerator pedal lightly does the power feel alright, then when you push it a bit harder engine power just dies in the a***?

Also when its cold in the morning, does the power/acceleration feel good, then later on after a restart start playing up?

Have you ever done the pcm(engine controller) procedure?

Cheers Mick