Ford Reviews

This version of the Ford 5.4-litre V8 is not universally admired by mechanics. It can tend to run hot, and it’s quite common for this unit to suffer from stretched timing chains, worn chain tensioners and guides. Any problem in the area of the timing chains can lead to a misfire or stumble, and it can be worse when the engine is hot and the oil pressure that powers the timing chain mechanisms starts to fall away.

The best advice is to have the car electronically scanned. This might pinpoint the problem by throwing up a fault code that a mechanic can decipher (including the camshaft timing fault we’re talking about). Don’t continue to throw new parts at the engine; that’s a great way to waste time and money and still not fix the problem.

This era of Australin Fords had a bit of a habit of having their body computers go on the blink. When that happened, a whole bunch of things could start acting up, but the central locking was a prime suspect.

When a car thinks it has a door, bonnet or bootlid opened, it will often refuse to lock, preferring instead to warn the driver that the car is not secure. And when the body computer is confused, it can interpret a closed door as an open one. But before you take it to an auto electrician to be sorted, try this: Take a can of lubricating spray and apply some to the little door sensor inside the door jamb. This is the micro switch that tells the computer what’s going on, and if the switch is full of dust or jammed, that won’t happen. Sometimes freeing the switch will make the problem go away.

The other thing to try is to disconnect the car’s battery and leave it overnight before reconnecting it. Sometimes this will actually reset the body computer. It doesn’t work every time, but sometimes it will do the trick.

There are a lot of variables here. One person’s idea of fully restored can vary enormously from somebody else’s. Is the car in mint, factory condition, or in good driving condition? Is it modified in any way? Is it a weird or undesirable colour? Does it have competition history? These are all things that will make a huge difference to the asking price.

Classic cars will make better money if they’re in standard form and with all the desirable options fitted, including a manual (versus automatic) transmission. But even then, the post-Covid market for such things is pretty volatile and even something like another Trump tariff announcement (affecting superannuation values) could send prices tumbling.

However, as a (very) ball-park figure, a good condition, unmolested Capri V6 GT from 1972 should start the bidding around $50,000 or $60,000.