Hey all, dropped a deposit down on a 99 AU Fairmont last weekend. 177,000kms, XR6 front and skirts, Tickford 17s, lowered and dual fuel. This thing was straight as an arrow and clean as hell. Much cleaner than all of the BAs and BFs i'd been looking at with less kms and double the price, hence me dropping some cash on it.

It goes in for RWC tomorrow and hopefully will have it in my hands by the weekend. After owning 27 cars, this is my second ever auto and first Aussie car. I'll be using this for daily duties and towing my track car so won't be going wild on it but will be making a few upgrades to bring it to where I want it.

So planned mods are as follows:
- Extractors, hi-flow cat and exhaust. I dont want it loud, droning or obnoxious so want at least 2 mufflers in and possibly a hot-dog resonator.

- Modify intake to smoother BF one, xr6/8 bigger airbox entry

- LSD if it doesn't have one already fitted

- Front and Rear brake upgrade to BA Xr6 T all round. Braided lines, slotted rotors

- Front and rear sway bars

- Auto trans cooler

- Possible head work: VCT? Porting, cam etc etc.. I can do all of this s**t myself but am a newb when it comes to these so will take some guidance as to route. If it runs on gas and the stock ECU it will be done. Especially if i can do it with mixing and matching factory bits.

This should do me for a while. Im used to small, nimble cars that handle on rails and stop on a dime. My last car was a starlet GT with 170kw atw (840kg wet) with brakes bigger than your falcons, slicks, sway bars, strut braces, LSD, custom dampened coilovers and hours of R&D in suspension setup. So, this will never be that i can at least take a bit of the barge out of it.

I'll chuck some pics up when i get it and update as I go. If you have any tips or tricks to let me know that would be great as learning all of the different changes and small eccentricities between models is a deep pool to jump in. Im a toyota guy!!

Cheers,
Stu

sounds like your on the right track, i suggest cuttting the airbox and fitting a secondary intake rather than fitting an xr8 snorkel, diff gears would probably be best mod for towing, and trans cooler is good for any falcon with the 4 spd.

So i picked this up this morning. Needed a few things for RWC and am stoked i rolled it into the deal.
Got myself new windscreen, wipers, rear pads and disc machine, 4 new tyres (some s**t cheapo brand) and everything else was good. Still - $1400 worth of stuff included so i got a ripper of a deal on this, 12 months reg too.

Anyway....

how many differant styles of the AU XR front are there??

Just had a closer look underneath this thing. Bonuses include.....

Pedders SportsRyder all round - i thought they were stock struts. It's riding on King Lows rear (may be SLs) and pedders red up front.

It also has to me what looks like a 2.5 inch cat-back exhaust. I assumed it was stock because it was so quiet. It has 2 large mufflers in the middle and a third at the rear. I may cut the rear out, get a bit more rumble and growl into it. Will get my verniers out and double check it all when I get it in the air.

Can't tell if its LSD or not and I can't see a diff tag either but imagine it is a single pegger. Will check this when i get under it properly. Either way, I have just saved a bit of cash not needing to get a cat back or some proper shocks in it.

Mad2: I think there is 2 (series 1 and s2/3) but i'm not a Ford guy so am not 100% sure. I think this is the series 2 front, highline bonnet and grill.

Also, i used Imgur and thats how the pic has come out. I can't seem to link one in so it all shows. Glitch in the forum?

So a few issues have popped up on my drive to and from work: 45 mins on the freeway each way.

1) After about half an hour of cruising at 100km/h it is dropping from 4th/OD into 3rd and revving at 3k @100. I couldnt get my OBD2 dongle to connect to Forscan so took it to a mechanic tonight. P0753 shift solenoid A.

So, plan is to fit a large oil cooler, do a full flush and replace the solenoid while the pan is off. Now, i know that this code can be caused by other factors such as inhibitor etc so will test resistance of them all first and check the inhibitor too. Either way a full flush and fit of the cooler is on the cards.

I have also noticed that there is a fair rocking of the shifter over bumps. I suspect my trans and engine mounts are a bit on the soft side. Does anyone make uprated items? May as well do it while i'm at it.

Stu

Nice car hopefully the flush and stuff fix the issues. Good deal 2 by the sounds.

Cheers mate. I thought it was

I ended up putting it in to a local trans shop this arvo to have the flush and solenoid replaced. I cost up oil, filter, solenoid and the fact i would need to get the code cleared again... was only about $50 extra to get them to do it. I used to be a mechanic so the work isnt hard but my time is worth more than the money right now.

Will get it back tomorrow and see. Told the bloke to check the trans mount and inhibitor switch while he was there...

We'll fingers crossed when you get it back all will be sorted

So picked this up Friday arvo. Flush, filter and gasket, new Solenoid A and it seems to be good. Shifts seem a fair bit firmer and more positive and it stays in OD on the freeway. how 'adaptive' are these autos? Do they really learn or behave much differently?

Purchased a cooler off ebay tonight and will find some time to fit that in when it arrives.

Will be holding off doing mods for a while. My wallet has been taking a hammering this year and i actually want to do some travel at some point. Still, watch this space

Update:
I have now done 30,000kms in this thing and towed the track car a couple of times. Nothing has gone wrong and it is a nice country highway cruiser, which it does every day. Ideally, i'd like it a touch higher for towing duties but it handles nicely the way it sits now. I should really get around to fitting the trans cooler but I am not really pushing it towing or driving it hard.

Things i now need to fix....
Centre console hinge snapped on me about 6 months ago and i've just dealt with it.
Driver door unlock gear cog needs to be replaced
Driver window glass mounts need to be tightened
Replace upper v-belt tensioner. She is squealing her head off.
I need to tune the gas a touch
I need to wash it.

I'm currently looking at upgrading the brakes so am hunting cheap parts for s2/s3 upgrade and will run BA discs/calipers. The rear upgrade i havent looked at yet but may pop an LSD in at the same time. What sort of revs do the 3.45s spin at sitting on 100?

Grabbed s tensioner pulley kit off eBay for $25 and chucked them in tonight. I think i was cutting it pretty close - the top pulley was absolutely screwed and was about to detonate.

Im also picking up a VCT motor this weekend. I'll be pulling the head and binning the rest. I'll port the inlet/exhaust, do some cleaning up around the valves and bowls, lapping/tipping and getting it skimmed. No rush coz i won't have the time to do a head swap till Christmas/New Year but the price is cheap, I'll be OS for a couple of months later in the year and it gives me time to do it slowly.

More to come as i get to it. Chucking s**t up more as a reminder of things to do and what I have actually done.