Hey Guy's I’m new here as this is my first Ford, a black 2004 BA XR8 Ute that I bought as of Dec 08, but since Ive had the Ute ive been having some problems that are becoming very frustrating.
I had the vehicle serviced two weeks ago and told the guys at the Ford dealer to check everything as I didn’t know its service history, so they performed a 90000kms service and they found the following problems/recommendations but never really gave a decent explanation of what to do,

I was told the following -

- Diff is noisy and I was told there was a bolt missing from the diff flange and grease had thrown out of the rear C/V joint onto the tail shaft – well I can’t hear any noises and if there was a bolt missing why wasn’t it replaced?
- Left hand front engine mount broken – but I wasn’t given an explanation
- Right hand front Ball joint worn – again no explanation
- Left hand front tyre worn on inside - again no explanation of how bad
- Power steering found noisy and leaking and it is recommended that it be replace in future
- I told them that at times the motor is excessively noisy on idle, there response was slight overhead cam and valve train noise also power steering noisy – my concern is the last time I had a similar noise I had the heads replaced on my commodore!
- I told them that I have been having a problem with 2nd gear jumping out sometimes, they told me they couldn’t find the fault during a test, ive also had trouble engaging reverse as well

Im also getting a little annoyed that the Boss motor has no balls under 2000rpm, are there any decent mods to getting it moving along a bit quicker?

And to top it all off, I had the Ute only 6 days when a dog run out in front and caused the damage you see below, ah cars can be so much fun!

Im hoping that someone here can shed a little light on these problems as im not that mechanically minded plus I don’t know a lot about problem with falcons and the Boss V8, The Ute is it very good condition and looks great but these problems are really starting to get me down please help!

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Last edited by walshy05 on Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

A few more pictures

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The boss V8 will always feel dead down low, even when you spend some money on it because the top end on these engines are great in comparison. The ECU takes a bit of torque out down low to preserve the clutch so a flash tune can overcome this plus there are the usual mods such as a good cold air intake and a decent exhaust. Does yours have the six speed manual?

I know my cammed windsor makes my BA feel dead down low but the BA leaves it for dead 80% of the time.

the jumping out of 2nd is common. Ford replace the gear lever boot to a more solid one to hold it there better. Diffs are another weak point. Bearings fail early. Just wait til it's very noisy before you touch it. Ball joints are common too to have excessive play. Engine noise at start up is the chain tensioners in the front of motor.

bout standard for that km! i'd say it had a hard life too cause not many xr8's get p***y footed!

Its a series 1, 5 speed manual

A friend of the family who used to have an XR8 ute did say that this could be the problem, and thanks for the advice, its really appreciated!

for the down low power - blower!

and with it jumping out of second gear, cant that be related to the broken engine mount? as it allows the engine/gearbox to move around too much

yeah, get ECU flashed to get rid of torque protection. but you should understand Ford have torque protection for a reason

1 If it's still under warranty get it fixed, it's a known quality control problem.
2 Driven hard previously, you'll need to get it replaced.
3 Normal wear and tear, get it replaced.
4 Bad/no wheel alignment, get the alignment fixed.
5 Again if under warranty get them to replace it.
6 Timing chain tensioners, again a warranty job.
7 Dynno about second, check fluid levels to fix up reverse.
8 As already said, it's not that it's gutless, it just that when the cams kick in it's so much better.
9 Sorry to hear.

Thanks for the responses,
The ute is an 04' model and I think the original ford warranty is 3 years, so I would say that it has expired, and i dont have any paper work to say that there was any extended warranty. All though I have heard of people still having part of the repair costs paid for on known factory problems/faults even after the warranty has expired.

With checking the in relation to the gear box fluid, im fairly sure they did say that they had check the fluid levels and that they were fine

If someone could also give an estimate for the cost on some of these items it would be appreciated

yeh, as data said about the diffs with quality control problems. We used to service 3 ba xr8 utes for a customer and all had noisy diffs. They went back to ford for warranty, but still came back with the same noises. If youve got the dosh, a 9" would be a nice choice

No it wouldn't. Heavy, suck power, and expensive.

If it's not warrantable, get it built by a real diff workshop, once built right there'll be no problem.

Nearly 100 percent of the time it's the bearings that go noisy. Never the gears, so i don't see how it's the builder's fault. It's not the way ford build them, it's the oil they come with from factory. It causes the bearings to pit.

hey mate, if your looking for someone to do the work on your ute, i can do it at home at dealership quality for cheap. Let us know if your interested. I could do the tensioner's, diff, ball joint and maybe other.