A reader may wonder how I have acquired all this information about the Scorpio. Am I a clairvoyant? A Ford mole? A clever-dick? Well, no. Not more than anyone else, anyway.

The fact is, I’ve always been a petrolhead. I was reading Haynes manuals and helping my brothers’ with decokes from the age of 12, and I rebuilt an old 100E Anglia when I was sixteen and drove it as soon as I passed my driving test. My Ford Cortina took endless work to keep on the road, so by the time it expired I knew every nut and bolt on the old girl. I kept two Triumph 2000s on the road years after their really useful life had past, and in 1993 I built an old £100 Cortina into an open top tourer kit car, using a 2.8L straight six Nissan engine. I was able to wire the different engine into the old Cortina loom without any difficulty, a job that many kit car builders leave to specialists. (And yes, everything worked as soon as I connected the battery.)

So I know a thing or two.

But Ford introduced the EEC IV engine management system for the Granada, and the old days of colortune and listening to carburettors with pieces of tube were gone for ever (sigh). I know how to ‘flash’ a generator from positive to negative earth - but there are no generators any more, only alternators. I know how to change points and check for dwell angle as well as points gap, but the Scorpio 24V does not even have a distributor, at least, not a mechanical one. I also realised that with a production run of only three years or so (10/94 to 6/98) there would not be a Haynes manual for the Scorpio, leaving me – and every other owner – forever at the mercy of the main dealer system.

The more I looked at the Scorpio the more I was impressed. It is a fantastic car, and very modern in many respects.  But so much of it was a mystery to me. How did multiplex work? How was PATS connected? What could FDS 2000 do? Why was the ‘silver octopus’ different? What the hell is a PCM?

So I made it a point to talk with other Scorpio owners and I still correspond regularly with others: what faults did they know about? How did they get them repaired? I talked to my MOT man who knew of problems that he had repaired at his garage.  Out comes my notebook: do you know the part number? Do you still have the receipt?

I also have Jack. He’s a petrolhead like me and another Ford enthusiast, but in his case he works on Fords all day in a main dealer as a fully qualified mechanic. I won’t let anyone else touch my Scorpio; he does all my servicing. I also meet regularly with him in his local and he patiently answers my many questions while I buy his pints of beer, for which his capacity seems limitless. I make copious notes because the next morning my memory is often a little hazy…

There is an incredible amount of knowledge out there and I thought that this should be shared with other Scorpio owners, to help them in keeping this magnificent car on the road where it belongs. As the years pass, the lack of a Haynes manual will become more and more of a handicap to owners like us, so I spend as much time as possible researching the vehicle in order to expand the knowledge base.

I have received many compliments (and no flames, so far) and the many hours of work seems worthwhile.

So if you have had a fault repaired on your Scorpio and you think it may be common, contact us.