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Last update: 09/10/2005 |
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About FORDSCORPIO.CO.UK
It is their care that the gear engages, it is Steve C, Pete C, and Eric R, the Founders of WWW.FORDSCORPIO.CO.UK, welcome you to the finest, largest, most detailed and comprehensive single-marque car site on the Web, dedicated to the best large European saloon ever made by Ford. This is a site written by and for enthusiasts and owners of the Ford Scorpio 1995-on. HISTORY How did all this begin? In the beginning there was the Ford Scorpio. Introduced in the end of 1994 and vilified for its controversial front treatment (not at all controversial now) - sales of the marque were far less than expected and many thousands stood in fields awaiting a buyer. Production was swiftly reined back and sales never reached Granada numbers, which was a shame because Ford had spend millions on Noise, Vibration and Harshness, (NVH), new suspension, new engines, the latest engine management (EECV) and multiplex wiring systems. Their finest long distance tourer ended production in July 1998. With no Haynes manual, owners struggled to get any information on their model. Eric R wrote some articles about his 24V Estate for a Granada Enthusiasts site, and through the Scorpio Forum met Pete C in 2000. Both exchanged information and built up useful contacts inside the motor industry, and over the next year they were able to help many owners with useful advice. It is humbling to remember how little we knew about the car then - we had to fight for every little scrap of info - from the MOT garages, from Ford Main Dealers, service managers, independent garages' servicing manuals and from other Scorpio owners. On the Forum we soon built up a lively community - but it all ended when in late 2000 some of our posts on the Forum were removed without explanation, and Pete C and Eric R withdrew from the Granada site. This left owners without a forum - so in October 2000 Pete C set up a Message List on his own server. This had just got started when Steve C, an IT professional and 24V owner, offered to host the mail List and a dedicated Scorpio site on his own server. He dismantled Eric R's old Granada Enthusiast Scorpio pages and installed them into FORDSCORPIO.CO.UK with a new Scorpio Forum added later. Steve has spent the intervening years working through server crashes, motherboard faults and house moves to keep the site running. Over the past four years there have been some triumphs - patient research and hard work have paid dividends. Here are the highlights - February 2001 - FORDSCORPIO.CO.ÚK launched. Steve C disassembled the old pages from the Granada site and redesigned them (with cleaner HTML, lol) into the new site, added more pages - and established the first (of three at the last count) Mailing Lists. The Forum followed a few months later. There were many more questions than answers at this stage, however quite early on the site discovered that a vibration problem on the power steering was caused by an incorrect installation and that some of the early catalysts were faulty and failed early. We established that the old EECIV Star reader would not work with our petrol models and it seemed that we would always have to rely on garages to read Diagnostic Trouble Codes. Torque settings, service and repair information were all unknown.
December 2001 - server crash. All old Forum messages and mails were lost. Site rebuilt on new server.
April 2002 - Eric R applied to Ford (Europe) for permission to use some diagrams from the Ford Parts database. In response, a complete set of exploded diagrams with permission to use them on the site was sent to us by Ford 'for their Scorpio customers'.
During this time Pete C concluded 2 years research into what he regarded as a less than satisfactory Climate Control performance. During very hot days the aircon just struggled to get the interior temperatures down. Pete had the answer - the system had been set very conservatively to avoid freezing up in winter - and Steve Coll's modification greatly and safely lowered vent temperatures. Pete's AC pages are now a most comprehensive resource. Also in April 2002, the first Scorpio Owners Meet. Held on a Sunday in a pub outside Swindon, it was a very enjoyable day and there have been many others since.
May 2002 - Encouraged by the diagrams, Eric R applied to Ford (Europe) for a copy of the Scorpio Workshop manual and in response, Ford supplied a complete copy of the Technical Information System, the TIS. This meant that we now had access to everything written about the Scorpio and no longer had to 'guesstimate' answers to our owners: many pages could now be rewritten. Thanks, Ford (Europe). You are the Business!
August 2002 - During a discussion on the Confidential List the benefits of cleaning the MAF came to be recognised, both for smooth running but also to cure some gearbox faults (solenoid C errors). Eric R first proposed that the MAF should be changed, but Martin S instead suggested cleaning it with residue-free spray and this works very well. Such a simple procedure has saved a lot of members' cash.
September 2002 - A very few owners experienced problems with the engine bay wiring. Erratic auto gearbox behaviour and electrical gremlins were found to be caused by deteriorating wiring in the main looms. But how to check and repair these wires? EricR details the connectors for all models providing a method for checking the wiring between the modules and the Powertrain Control Module - this makes it possible for an owner to locate the area of a wiring fault. Why has this happened? Research begins.
December 2002 - Reading the EECV Powertrain Control Module had always seemed an impossible dream. Diagnostics by Main Dealers with their WDS is always expensive. However, Steve C found Alex Peper's OBD lead and Vehicle Explorer in the US, and sent away for it. It worked! Bulk purchases have followed since and many owners have used it successfully to diagnose problems with their cars.
March 2003 - Following a discussion by members on the List, James A successfully produced a modification that locks the doors of the Scorpio whenever it reaches a preset speed - the Lock on Go mod. This greatly enhances occupant safety, while the central locking system unlocks automatically in the event of a collision.
April 2003 - The first of the OBD in Detail pages are up. For owners equipped with their own OBD leads, Eric R details how each of the OBD monitors work and how the Diagnostic Trouble Codes are generated. This section will enable every owner to diagnose and repair his own faults and has been continually updated over the past year as experience and knowledge improves. These pages have been used as a reference by BMW and Mercedes as well as Scorpio owners across Europe!
May 2003 - Over several years a few owners have reported wiring problems in the engine bay of their Scorpios and at first these seemed to be any model and any year. After months of research and contacting Ford personnel all over Europe, Eric R has the answer - all Scorpios before June 1996 had Arnitel wired engine bays and a very small number suffered wiring problems. After that Raychem44 was used and this has not been a problem. However, all DOHC models can experience Fuel Cut Off Loom problems on the cylinder heads of their engines, which is a separate matter and is not an Arnitel issue.
February 2005 - With approaching 2000 members on the Forums help was needed with moderating the many posts on the Scorpio boards. Snoopy, a senior and much respected member, was appointed and joined the Scorpio Team as Administrator. Welcome aboard, Snoops! April 2005 - Work continues on investigating the cause of timing chain failures on the 24V engine with prototype replacement tensioners being built and tested in Sweden and replacement tensioner blades being tested here in the UK. Hopefully higher quality parts will be available soon to alleviate this major headache for 24V owners. August 2005 - In order to help owners navigate through the 400-odd pages quickly to find the answer to a particular problem, a new Fault Finder page was added. LIST and FORUM Throughout the history of the List and the Forum only ten members have ever been banned for List abuses, and this says reams for the friendliness of the members of both. Some members prefer the immediacy of the Mailing List, while others favour the Forum for it's casual approach. Members are free to join either, both or neither - there's no pressure - but owners who don't enrol lose out on a lot of humour and information they will not find anywhere else. None of the founders are paid for their work, and every member gets all this information and advice for nothing. All we ask is that if the Site is useful to you and has saved you money (and we'll bet it has) then you make a contribution through the Pay Pal button on the Home page to help pay for the servers and bandwidth.. PRIVACY The Fordscorpio.co.uk founders will never and have never disclosed members' details to any third party, so your email address is completely safe. However, abuses of the List or the Forum will result in a formal complaint to the member's ISP. ETIQUETTE Visitors to the Forum and members of the List often comment on how friendly the Scorpio site is. Every member logs in to learn about their own Scorpio or to help other owners. There is no segregation - every Scorpio owner is a full Scorpio member, whether he has an 8V Executive or a 24V Ultima - we have never separated owners into 'Registers' or the like. Not everyone agrees all the time. Indeed, on the List and the Forum there have been fierce debates lasting weeks - some have been written up onto pages on the site - but these debates are carried out with politeness and humour. Rudeness, abruptness or abuse is not tolerated under any circumstances because there is no excuse for it. Postings to the Forum and the List are not Moderated, so members must proscribe their own postings to remain within the guidelines. Any member guilty of breaching the etiquette rule is instantly removed from the Forum and/or List. In the almost 5 years of its existence only ten members have ever been permanently banned. If a person is banned from the List the same applies to the Forum, and vice-versa - applicants to both are screened before they join - and a formal complaint is always made to the member's ISP. Yes, we are tough on these rules. Many members use their work computers to log in at lunch times - and most company servers detect abusive words to show warnings to their systems administrators. This can be embarrassing and has resulted in owners leaving the List. Abuse is needless and pointless and always unnecessary. The rules are: 1. In any communication with another member, owners must be polite and courteous at all times. 2. No rudeness, insults, abuse or threats of any kind will be accepted. 3. Disagreements and debate are accepted and encouraged, but they must not deteriorate into any impoliteness or abuse. Every member is entitled to his own opinion. 4. Members should clarify when they state an opinion or a fact - and should not confuse the two. 5. As a matter of courtesy, members who have received helpful advice should announce the result - successful or otherwise. In this way experience and expertise improves. 6. Do not link to external web sites (advertising) without the express permission of the Administrators - if in doubt ask first. New Pages If you have carried out some repair or remedial work then do take some notes and some photos and let us know. Your write-up can then help and guide another member who needs to do the same work. It doesn't matter about grammar or spelling because we can polish your text and we normally show you the page for your approval before it is published. Please zip the text and any photos separately into a file and send it to . LEFT MENU BUTTONS
Above is the Home Page. You can see a series of buttons on the left - this is the Side Menu. If you cannot see those buttons on your own browser window then it is probably being locked out by your security software. It is worth persevering to find these buttons because they greatly enhance your site experience.
On the Forum, Nick H offered this advice for a fix on Norton Personal Firewall
(2003)
Pam and John, also on the Forum, send this advice for Running Norton 2005, not
exactly as above, but got there in the end ... If you want to search for a specific subject there is a Search field at the bottom left of the Home page. Type in your keyword and press <return>. Be warned, there are hundreds of pages here so be prepared for a long read. We recommend using the FAQ page for answers to the most common questions. In addition, there is now a Trouble-tree approach for problems on Fault Finder. Welcome to the Ford Scorpio and we hope you enjoy your time with us. Final Note - Permissions and Copyright A lot of the information contained with this site, the forum and the mailing list has been obtained from Ford Europe and used with their express permission. You are not permitted to sell, distribute or publish any information from this site without the express, written permission of the Administrators and where applicable Ford (Europe). Please respect the copyright of the owners. Pete C Steve C Eric R
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