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Slow AU!

6K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  NAPARM 
#1 ·
Hey Guys,

I have a 2000 AUII Forte with a K&N panel filter, 2.5in exhaust and Genie Extractors. The car feels soooooooo slow until it hits 2500rpm. It goes pretty well in high revs, but I think an Excel could beat me off the line! The car seems to be running fine and doesn't chew fuel or anything, it has also just had the plugs and leads changed.

I thought the BBM may have been unplugged, but that wasn't the problem. How do I extract the fault codes from an AU? Does anyone have any ideas? It's really annoying me.

Daniel
 
#2 ·
Bar the K&N I have the same mods on my AU XR6. It too is pretty lame under similar revs. But when the sucker hits mid range and top speeds it pulls pretty hard.

The T series intake has helped the throttle response well but low down go in my opinion is crap.

As for the excel beating you on take off. Believe it. I had one and the first gear in it caned (99 x3 twin cam). Even on a quick downshift or two the engines snap violently forward when accelerating. The exhaust system when it was fitted dulled some of that tho.

With a standard falcon you just gotta get past first gear before the excitement kicks in. From then on it's ok.

Can't help you on the fault codes sorry.
 
#3 ·
EAII_Fairmont said:
Hey Guys,

I have a 2000 AUII Forte with a K&N panel filter, 2.5in exhaust and Genie Extractors. The car feels soooooooo slow until it hits 2500rpm. It goes pretty well in high revs, but I think an Excel could beat me off the line! The car seems to be running fine and doesn't chew fuel or anything, it has also just had the plugs and leads changed.

I thought the BBM may have been unplugged, but that wasn't the problem. How do I extract the fault codes from an AU? Does anyone have any ideas? It's really annoying me.

Daniel
Is the car auto or manual?
 
#4 ·
A possible factor, I think larger exhaust systems increase top end power at the expense of low-end power. If this is the problem, a diff ratio upgrade will be the solution. Ford are idiots for even thinking about using 3.08s with the tall BT-R ratios anyway.
 
#5 ·
I think the diff has a lot to do with it. The EB was a 3.27 and would eat the AU for breakfast off the line.

It was doing it before I put the exhaust on. Maybe I've just gotten used to it and need more power! It's a bit strange though that as soon as the car hit 2500rpm, you can actually feel the step up in power. It's like when a turbo spools up and kicks in, but on a lesser scale. Thats why I thought the BBM may have been disconnected or similar.

I will be getting a Crow Stage 2 possibly 3 (if I can get away with it without ECU mods) in the next month or so, that may help it. After that an XR6 3.45 LSD diff centre. Does anyone know if the E-series centres will fit the AU?
 
#7 ·
Yeah I hate the diff! I will be getting a 3.45 LSD asap.

I just think something must be a miss by the big surge of power that comes in at 2500rpm. It's a very very noticable jump in power, surely it can't be normal. From memory the BBM doesn't change till 3800rpm, so it's not that. I got no idea.
 
#8 ·
EvilChief did you convert yours from auto??

I am looking at doing this to mine, but just wondering how different converting an AU is to an EA/EB. I have converted 2 E-series, so I am confident in doing the job myself, I just want to know whats different. How much did it cost you?
 
#12 ·
EAII_Fairmont said:
Yeah I hate the diff! I will be getting a 3.45 LSD asap.

I just think something must be a miss by the big surge of power that comes in at 2500rpm. It's a very very noticable jump in power, surely it can't be normal. From memory the BBM doesn't change till 3800rpm, so it's not that. I got no idea.
I had the same thing in our wagon - until today (ie a surge from 2500 onwards). Today (or yesterday, actually), I fitted a 3" pipe from the air box to the flex bend piping (ie the first section of intake piping) - it has made a huge difference to the response. There is still a lag, but I reckon it's moved down to about 1500/1800 rpm now (just around the stall speed of the auto).
 
#13 ·
AUII Auto's are a dog off line because of the gearing. 1st gear is 15.4KMh/1000rpm which is hard even for the torquey I6 to get going.

Even Ford dropped first and second ratios in the BA auto to help a bit. AU autos run 2.39/1.45/1.00/0.68 ratios, BA's run 2.45/1.49/1.00/0.68.

I wouldn't recommend changing to a BA gearbox though.

Money no object then you change to XR6 running gear. 3.45:1 LSD diff, 225/50R16 lower profile tyres. this drops the gearing 12% or to 13.5KMh/1000rpm and you get really good acceleration.

Bad news though is the speed limiter stops the car at 160kmh now even if your speedo will still read 180.

If you only adjust the speedo with a speedo corrector the car will sit on the rev limiter in second and not change up.

To do it properly you need an XR6 ecu and a grey speedo drive gear.

This all seemed too hard and too expensive to me so I have opted for the slighty cheaper and easier option of going to 225/45R16 tyres (very expensive in 92W load rating) which drops the gearing to 14.2kmh/100rpm and black speedo drive gear to correct the speeedo. Th car now revs to 5600rpm in second before it changes up though. Fortunately my Dev3HL cam has power all the way up there otherwise on a stock engine it would be a waste of time.
 
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