1994 Mk3 Granada 24v Scorpio -Self-inflicted Exhaust Woes..

Very nice hope you get the wiring sorted and it does the trick finding 4th.

These are lovely cars,,another on my bucket list!

Right, the 4th gear issue, i'm not sure how much you already know about these gearboxes, so apologies if i'm preaching to the converted, but this is what I have gleaned from a week's intensive crash course! Also the locations of things I describe are where I have found them on the 24V, I can't speak to whether things might be in different places on other engines, but as the gearbox is essentially the same on all models (bar some extra clutch packs on the more powerful engines) I expect the wiring to be the same also. I hope you are sitting comfortably

Firstly, how it works, 1st, 2nd and 3rd shift like any old fashioned automatic box, using manifold vacuum pressure, 4th, however, is controlled by a solenoid which is in the gearbox oil sump. This solenoid doesn't actually shift the gear, it just 'allows' it to engage. In addition there is a 2nd solenoid which controlls the Torque converter lock up function, what this does is lock the torque converter in 3rd and 4th gears above a certain speed, you will notice if you let off or increase the throttle then the revs will rise or fall slightly without any change in speed - this is the torque converter taking up the 'slack' - with the lockup engaged this doesn't happen, the torque converter is effectively eliminated and drive is direct, this improves fuel economy and power delivery, because less is 'wasted' winding up the TC. Odds are if 4th isn't working then this isn't either.

So the most common cause of no 4th is the Vehicle Speed sensor (VSS) or associated wiring, this is located at the back of the gearbox on the passenger side (See Photo)



This sends a signal to the ECU about vehicle speed. It is worth noting here that this does NOT drive the speedo, the speedo drive is a separate unit on the other side of the gearbox in roughly the same place and depending on model, could be electronic or cable driven. TO my surprise the 24V is actually a mechanical cable driven speedo, but other models could be either. Point being, don't think that because your speedo is working OK the VSS must be OK, that is not its function.

Things that depend on an input from the VSS are the trip computer, the cruise control and 4th gear\Torque converter lockup. If it is duff, you won't have any of these. If you have cruise and trip computer but no 4th gear, the problem isn't the VSS, it is more likely wiring or an internal gearbox\solenoid problem.

If you have intermittent or odd behaviour from the trip or cruise control, then you will likely have intermittent or odd behavior from 4th gear also.

If you suspect that the sensor is good but the signal is intermittent, remove the heat shield above the cats and inspect the wiring, on mine this was the problem, heat had hardened the insulation so it had flaked off and when I stripped some of the loom tape back it was basically just 3 bare wires. You can try and effect a repair if you can strip it back and find good wire to join onto, or do what I did and cut off the plug from the original loom (leaving yourself enough wire to join new ones onto) and run new cables to the "C134" (more on that in a minute) plug in the engine bay. While I am sure repairing the original is possible, it would be incredibly fiddly to do in situ with the exhaust in place, so running new wires is probably easier - it took me about half an hour

So, C134, The wiring loom from the gearbox runs into the engine bay and joins the PCM (or ECU if you like) loom in a connector known as C134. It is located on the bulkhead underneath the trim panels, it is an ovalish connector with 12 pins, only 9 of which are used. Afraid I don't have a picture but I can get one if required - again the location may be different on other engines) The 3 wires from the sensor are

Brown\Yellow - Signal wire - this carries the pulse from the sensor to the ECU
Black\Blue - +12V common feed
Solid Brown - Earth

To connect the new loom I made I ran it up the side of the engine following the same path as the original, cut the brown and brown\yellow wires on the gearbox side of the loom and soldered my new wires to them. The Black\Blue wire is where I made the mistake, this is a common +12v feed which supplies the reversing lights, 4th\TCC solenoids and the VSS. I cut this and connected my new VSS wire to it - result being my VSS had power but nothing else did, what you need to do is splice onto this wire leaving it intact to supply the rest of the items.

It goes without saying, but I am going to say it anyway, to make sure the old wires are not just dangling underneath, because one of these is still going to be +12V from the common feed - so make sure they're taped and well out of the way.

If everything with the VSS is OK, but you still have no 4th gear, it is entirely possible the wiring to the solenoids is dodgy, I didn't have to go this far but I would say that getting at it to inspect it would be extremely difficult without at least lowering the gearbox at the back and dropping the exhaust

A view of the wiring layout is below, but when in the car the box is quite tight to the tunnel from what I have seen



Sensors are still available new from Ford, Finis Part Number 1021991 at a cost of around £150 or there is a breakers in Derby called TopBoss Performance who quoted me £60+VAT for a 2nd hand one.

Any more questions let me know and i'll do my best to provide info

Yes, it is the A4LD and yes it has a pretty bad rep for longevity! Especially on the US forums where they use the same box in Explorers and Rangers

There are 3 variants from what I can see

A4LD - which I believe is entirely mechanically controlled as far as shifting is concerned - used on some early Granada Mk3s
A4LDe - which is used in the Cosworth and later model DOHC and 12V - partially electronically controlled for 4th gear selection
A4LDE - Used in the frog-eyed Scorpios and is entirely electronically controlled

I am expecting that at some point during my tenure it probably will fail, the car had a brand new gearbox at 80k miles but that still equates to 140k on the new one!

I also think if it does, I will have a crack at rebuilding it myself, in the UK there is a mystique around autoboxes that they're full of voodoo and black magic and must ONLY be touched by auto gearbox specialists, however in the States people rebuild their own fairly routinely and refurb kits are readily available from US ebay

I have read a few guides and as long as you are careful and document each step you take so you get it back together correctly, there is nothing that looks THAT difficult. Its basically replacing a curse word load of o-ring seals, the clutch packs and brake bands.

I mean, whats the worst that can happen..

You mean the pre-facelift with the orange side repeaters and non-smoked rear lights etc? I've got to be honest I prefer the clear\smoked, but its strange how tastes change. When I was 17 I wanted a Mk4 Escort as my first car, wouldn't have even looked twice at the Mk3 because it was so 'dated' - now though I think the Mk3 is so much cooler.

I wasn't particularly looking for a Granada initially, I've fancied a Mk2 for a while but a Mk3 wasn't on my radar, I just needed a car that can tow a reasonably large caravan that I use for festivals and car shows. My previous tow car got written off the back end of last year by a friend. I was considering a 735i E38 bimmer from this very parish, but insurance killed it. I couldn't get it on a classic policy with any of the companies I tried and a standard policy, because my no-claims are already in use, was coming out the wrong side of £700.

So I got to thinking what if I could get the best of both worlds, a 'retro' car, because many of the shows I use it for are classic car related, that can also tow, and I can get on classic insurance - next thing I know I'm searching for Granada Cosworth's for sale and the rest is history.

Yeah my dad had a K reg 2.0 DOHC, it was a beautiful car, so smooth, it glided over bumps in the road almost silently, no interior trim rattles whatsoever. I have to say these are qualities that mine no longer shares, I guess some of the comfort has been lost with the lower profile tyres and different (?) suspension, and age has induced quite a few interior rattles...nevertheless it still feels like a quality product

It was his first 4 cylinder car after 20-some-odd years of owning 6's and I don't think he was ever really convinced by it. I remember the first time we went on holiday to Dartmouth (as we did every year lol) and he pulled out to overtake something with the caravan, buried his foot and not a great deal happened, he had to abort the manoeuvre. After that all his talk of "modern 4 cylinders being almost as capable as 6's" went aside and the poor Granada fell out of favour somewhat. Then a couple of years later, after a routine coolant change, it blew its head gasket. Now I don't know if it was just coincidence, but its not the only time I've heard of that happening after changing coolant in a DOHC, anyway that was the final straw, he had it repaired then chopped it in for a V6 Mondeo

Thanks for all the detailed info, Ian. I've always had trip and cruise, so it's almost certainly a wiring issue. Time to find a ramp to get it onto!

New choons installed yesterday. One of the charming things about this car was it came with the original ford head unit and separate in-dash CD player. However I am a bit of a music whore and, especially when in out at festivals, I like to play it at volumes far exceeding those which are deemed safe by people in hi-vis jackets. As well as a tow vehicle it also doubles up as my mobile discotheque. Additionally I couldn't seem to get the stock head unit to hand over the CD it was currently playing and although I have nothing against 'Little Mix' they are quite far removed from my usual pleasure.

So onto fitting the trusty old Alpine head unit that has now seen service in no less than 5 cars over the years. I have to say that I really, really rate Alpine units, although it doesn't look very 'period' it must be getting on for 20 years old itself, and it's still as good as the day it was new, CD never skips, still sounds brilliant and thanks to an adapter lead off eBay I can also plug in my generic MP3 device

So I removed the original head units, due to some prior reading on the internet I'd stumbled across the information that there was an additional amp behind the wood trim on the passenger side, so I gingerly prised this off too, mindful that at 22 years old it probably isn't at its most flexible



Now I am quite averse to cutting original wiring looms and luckily the power side plugged straight into my ISO harness, the speaker wires from the amp however did not. Since I wasn't the first person behind here with a set of wire cutters though (it has an old hands free telephone kit fitted which was also chopped in) I didn't feel too bad about hacking the factory plug off and using crimp on connectors (cringe) - I normally prefer to solder and heat shrink but there was the usual 5mm of slack protruding from the dash to work with so quite tricky



A quick test showed that the battery was now flat! The problem is there is so many damn lights! Every time a door is open there is a light in each footwell including the back, a light in the bottom of the door, a light in the back of the door, two main interior lights...no matter after a jump start all was working well (old CD player left in place to fill the hole but obviously no longer functional)



Next up was some RF 12 inch subs in the boot to give it that little extra 'something' like the head unit these have seen action in 4/5 cars now and I'm quite surprised they're still alive, but they just keep on keeping on

Nestled in the boot amongst other essential "old car stuff"



I know subs are a bit...err.."boy racer" but it's my guilty pleasure, I don't ever 'crank it up' when other human beings are within earshot, but when I'm out on my own I do like a bit of bass...

Next up is either to tackle the slightly saggy rear suspension, front brakes which although they seem to work fine were an advisory on the MOT, or some new boots, because the tyres look a bit shat

So I've been using it for work all week and I am starting to have more confidence that it's not going to break every time I take it out, the gearbox has worked faultlessly since repairing the wiring loom, I had planned to drop the box and repair the entire loom because other wires are still in a poor state, but now I'm thinking adopt the "if it ain't broke..." Method

So onto fault #2, rough idling. In fairness the seller was upfront about this and said he suspected it was the inlet manifold gasket, I ordered one but have since concluded that I don't think it is, why? Because it's intermittent, some days it idles fine, other days it doesn't, it's not a misfire as such, it's more of a cough, it definitely feels more fuel mixture related than ignition. I had exactly the same symptoms (tho less severe) on a V6 Mondeo and it was caused by a loose cat on the manifold, since this has its cats under the car and they're new and well sealed I don't think it's the same thing but I do think it's exhaust back pressure related. If it was manifold gaskets leaking it would happen all the time, whereas earlier I started it up at work to come home and the idle was all over the place, stopped it and immediately restarted and it idled perfectly

Which leads me onto the EGR valve, I ordered a code reader during the week and I'm getting code 326 with the engine running, which is apparently due to a sensor detecting low pressure on the EGR circuit. So my theory is that it's getting stuck open sometimes and causing the rough idle, and other times it closes properly and the idle is ok.

So I figure in just going to make a blanking plate and block it off, if anyone knows of a reason I should not do this please speak now or forever hold thy peace.

Another symptom, which I can't quite explain, is that when its idling poorly, and you shift from Park to Reverse or Park to Drive, it really thumps into gear, whereas when it's running fine it's much more gentle, I don't know why this would be, other than its affecting the manifold vacuum to the gearbox

Anyhow, we shall see what tomorrow brings, also a thermostat and oil change on the agenda if that goes well.