Does anyone have any hints on what to look for on a ba 6 cyl with a crap idle. Its not too bad in gear (auto) but when put into park or neutral the idle is crap. does not missfire under load or use any water,oil etc. Has done 62000kms.

Pull the throttle body off and give it a really good clean (i just use carby cleaner) This has been a very common occurance with the BA. I think there is a few members on here that have the same issue.. aswell as myself.

yeh give the throttle body a good clean out, and if ur cars dun some decent Km's, take it to ur local workshop and get ur injectors cleaned/ultrasonic(ed), should drive like new..

i had the same problem. I pulled out the throttle body and gave it a thorough clean. Hasnt missed a beat since.

Ive done the throttle body clean and have given it a couple of good runs since. Still have the same idle, any other ideas?

Idle speed controller? Do BA's still have those?
Does the idle fluctuate when in park or nuetral and you turn the steering wheel left and right? Does it nearly stall?

No ISC on BA. Too much carby cleaner in the throttle and it can get into the TPS (BAD). Make sure you use a rag. The injector rail will get a build up of crap at no 5 AND 6, and they respond very well to an ijector service/carbon clean, but to clean the rail you need to remove the pressure regulator at the rail(circlip) crank the engine( fuel pump operates flushing the rail) and then do carbon clean service with a new fuel filter. I know this sounds involved and judging the cynical respnses lately regarding Ford Dealers( Who generally sell people this excellent operation when they dont need it
under the guise of preventative maintenance,making the customer suspicious of the dealer) is one of the best things Ive done to my BA. Ive gone from 400 Ks to a tank around town to over 520.

Ok BA 6cylinder falcons have problems with the cam solenoids gunning up.Easy to clean remove intake piping,remove the throttle body,remove the spark plug plastic cover,then disconnect and remove each coil pack (it is not too important if you get them mixed up because they are sequential),remove the cam solenoid seals at the front of the rocker vocer they are held in with 7mm head bolts,remove the rocker cover.

Now the cam solenoids are located right behind the timing chain,remove the 8mm head bolts (be very careful not to drop these bolts,remember which solenoid goes on the intake or exhaust side.

Use some kero or good cleaning agents in a small container,soak the solenoids in there for 5mins make up some small test wires to actuate the solenoids whilst submersed in the cleaning solution a couple of times should do.Use a 12 volt power supply.

Then spray them clean with a brake clean and blow them clean with compressed air.Then in another container use either a 5w/30 or 10w30 grade oil and submerse the solenoids in there and also apply power to them to get the oil to lubricate the inner parts of the solenoids then slide them back into the head.

Put the engine back to gether in reverse order get the engine to operationg temperature and then change the oil and filter.

This is very common on the BA 6's.Also carbon build up is another problem with them,ford do sell a cleaning spary that you can use at major service intervals.

I would also check your fuel pressure,i have replaced a few fuel regs on the BA's just faulty items.Would make the engines run rough pumping in too much fuel,one car i did had 480kpa fuel pressure at idle which is way too much should be around 240 to 280kpa.

mine was idleing crap and i gave the throttle body a good clean and the problem stoped

High fuel pressure coz the regs blocked. u can clean em. If the OCVs( oil control valves) are jamming it will run like a total bag of s**t and be undriveable. Itll also have codes in it like lean run(p1135) rich run(p1138) quiz error (p2105) and speed limiter reached (p2115). Sick ay.

How much would i expect to pay for a carbon/injector rail clean. Is it something i can do myself. Im a marine mechanic by trade and if the items are readily available can i do it myself or is there special equipment required?

ford released a calibration update to stop this very early in BA falcons life (around mid 2003) which purges these solenoids on startup.

I have actually seen cars which have no compression and wont start fixed with a reflash and 30 seconds of cranking.

Thanks guys for your help was experiencing the same issues will give it a go and see what happens......

My car has (over the past few weeks) gotten to a point where every time i stop too quickly, the engine stalls and like mentioned has an idle of which is nothing to be proud of. I stalled the engine 7 times in maccas drive through the other day, not cool.

I'll go through a few of these remedies in the next couple of days and see if anything fixes it. But i don't know how i can go about getting ECU 'updates', any flashing Ford does could render my car undriveable

in my BA XR6 the idle fluctuates when in park or nuetral and if you turn the steering wheel left and right it nearly stalls.

it also stalls at low speeds through car parks occasionally. not lately

ive been driving the car in tiptronic for a few weeks now and seems to be dependent on it. i can use "D" up to 3rd gear without problems. If i use "D" and allow it to go thought to 4th gear it will randomly jolt while crusing and when slowing down, and stall at low speeds. this seems to only happen if the auto goes from 3rd to 4th gear, as it slips.
when i say it slips, its like it gets to the point that its going to change to 4th, the revs drop like they would to be in 4th but its still 3rd with less power, it gets the revs back up with the same level of acceleration, then it goes to 4th. this variation in revs is only about 200rpm

im guessing that there would be a couple of different causes to my problems, all of the thing i have read about to look at would be TPS, clean throttle body and cam solenoids. i have cleaned the throttle body out with no results, next i will test the TPS, then have a look into the cam solenoids.

but if there are any other thoughts on this, especially the slipping gear in my 4spd auto, i would greatly appreciate hearing them..........