Zephyr V6 12,000 mile test

My kind of motoring requires a car which is good in traffic, nimble on remote by-roads and restful at 70 mph. on the motorway. Only the last-named requirement seemed likely to be met by the Mk IV Ford Zephyr V6 saloon when I took it over in mid-July last year on return from holiday; the 12,000 miles of running covered in this report was thus almost wholly conducted on business, but for a motoring journalist this involves every type of road, starting with farm tracks

I came to the car with reluctance. Predominantly, I was unhappy to be driving something of which the styling had not been influenced by the compactness of the V6 engine, so that, of the car's overall length of 15 ft. 5 in., some 8 ft. lay ahead of my eyes. My other objections could have been resolved by the payment of Ł24 11s 8d., on the price of Ł1,005 (subsequently increased to Ł1,023), to have the optional individual front seats and floor gearshift in place of a bench-seat and an unwieldy steering column gear lever.

It will be clear, therefore, that my approach to the car was not dispassionate. At the end of 12,000 miles I believe I have come to terms with it, and this is due partly to respect for the complete reliability of what is a newly engineered car and partly to surprising manoeuverability in close traffic conditions, when the road surface is completely dry; the slightest moisture on the highway makes the Zephyr V6 awkward to manage in braking, accelerating and cornering when it is easily "lost" in the most trivial circumstances.

This is not just a problem of poor weight distribution; in fact. the first time it rained after I had taken over the car was on Romney Marsh by-roads en route to Dover when it went straight on at one of the right-angle turns typical of that area. I was wondering about the tyres when I stopped in the cart track that served as an escape road and I have been wondering about them ever since. People have told me that Goodyear have thought again but the Ford main dealer where the car is serviced knew nothing about an offer to replace the tyres free of charge.

I confess that my first impressions from the driver's seat were good. The doors shut completely with a quality clunk, without any need to slam, and the draught sealing is so effective that you are almost completely protected from the noise of other traffic - to wind down the window in a London street is like adding sound to vision on TV. The sound proofing between the engine bay and the passenger compartment is not effective enough to stifle the pronounced tappet noise, which is absent for only the first 1,000 miles after servicing.
The layout of the instruments and switches is good with the exception that operation of the traffic indicator stalk tends also to work the lightly loaded headlamp flasher with which it is combined; this traffic indicator stalk is also apt to select opposite turn instead of cancelling when the steering wheel is straightened up rapidly, as in traffic driving.

The simple rake adjustment for the steering column provides a pleasantly low wheel position for those with reasonably propor-tioned thighs, and the bench seat can be pushed back as far as most people will need. It is also comfortable over a very long journey although this may be partly because of the side location offered by a seat belt. The great omission is lack of somewhere for odds and ends wanted on a long journey - the locker in front of the passenger is too far away from the driver. Cars with individual front seats have a box beneath the armrest between the seats.

The Aerofiow ventilation is excellent in theory and pretty good in practice. The temperature control lever gives an easily controlled range of temperatures (it takes three miles running to get working on a 40 deg. F morning) and the distribution control lever directs the air where it is wanted. The low boost fan is required at speeds under 30-40 mph. and high-boost (which is noisy) for demisting in cold rain. In traffic the booster fan seems to take in exhaust fumes from other vehicles and after the car has been parked for some time on a windy, dusty day, the first fan-boosted waft from the eyeball vents is apt to contain impurities, and if the vents are directed towards your face the dust gets in your eyes.

The ability to have fresh, cool air from the eyeball vents to keep one's head clear while the lower parts of the body are kept comfor-tably warm seems to me an important contribution to road safety; in practice I have found it best to direct the cool air to a point below my chin - I have also found that the right hand on the wheel is usually kept uncomfortably cool.

The V6 Zephyr is a wonderful starter. Even at the end of the 6,000-mile interval between servicing it will fire at the first touch - when cold the accelerator is depressed once to trigger the automa-tic choke. The unwieldy column gear change, coupled with rather long clutch pedal travel and no apparent cushioning in the trans-mission, make the car difficult to drive smoothly; after 12,000 miles I have not mastered it completely.

Synchromesh is exceptionally obstructive in downward changes and unless great strength is employed it is necessary to double de-clutch in dropping to second and first at speeds near the maximum for these ratios. Great strength is also required to apply the handbrake, which has a very strong spring.
The engine is less smooth than the "old" straight-six Zephyr unit and while it confers a reasonably lively performance on the car, its principal merit is the ability to drive the car effortlessly at 70 m.p.h. up hill and down dale; the calm is broken only by considerable wind noise from the roof drain channels. Second gear is a useful ratio in town, quickly squirting the car up to 30 mph. when it is convenient to change direct into top. "Squirting" is the opera-tive word because high revs are accompanied by the sound of hydraulic disturbance from the heating system.

The good manoeuvrability in traffic mentioned earlier is a pro-duct of a surprisingly compact turning circle (34-35 feet) for a 15 ft. 5 in. car, but with five turns of the wheel from lock to lock you have to work for it. When the roads are wet the situation is trickier; it is possible in the dry (thanks to the independent rear suspension) to accelerate hard round a corner from a near stand-still without the inside rear wheel lifting, but try it in the wet and the rear end slides with exceptionally little provocation. This aspect of the car has removed much of my pleasure in motoring; except in completely dry weather it is never possible to be certain that half-way round a sweeping open-road bend there may not be a patch of dew on the road and this is all the car needs to slide bodily sideways. On the straight, the tyres, which are undoubtedly the cause of this uncertain handling, are exceptionally prone to deflec-tion caused by often unseen longitudinal ridges on the road surface.

This is all a pity because on a dry, country road the handling of the car is both certain and pleasurable-probably above average for a big family car having no pretence of being a Grand Tourer. Some may find the suspension harsh when the car is lightly loaded but it is such that with a full load it continues to be completely controllable at speed.

As one who cleans his car himself, I find the Zephyr V6 gets its rear flanks very dirty very quickly and it is a tedious task washing it. To do the job properly needs 1+ hours but it continues to come up clean and reasonably new looking, except for some of the chromium at the rear which is rust spotted.

Delivery and running-in
I see from my diary that my first impression from driving the car was that I immediately felt at home in it. In short, the controls and Instruments are where they should be and in traffic it is easy to gauge the car's width. This was in spite of a bench seat that offers no lateral support, the central arm rest being some distance away from the driver.

On delivery the faults were almost wholly confined to the electrics, so that:-

(a) The fuel gauge didn't work.
(b) Ditto the temperature gauge.
(e) Ditto the instrument light.
(d) Ditto the near-side tail and side lamps.
(e) Sparks sometimes jumped from trafflcator stalk to steering column surround.
(f) Headlamp flasher tended to jam "on".

According to the Ford dealer where the 600 mile service was done the first four faults were due to "a fuse being left out".
The only other troubles were a section of loose facia panelling and a vibration caused by out-of-balance wheels.
All faults were rectified except for the headlamp flasher trouble but this gradually rectified itself with use. The servicing was done in one day and entailed 13 miles of road testing.
During this initial running-in period the petrol consumption was 21.7 mpg. Driving was gentle but the engine was stiff; however, a feature of the car throughout its 12,000-mile test has been how little the consumption has varied from this figure whatever the driving conditions.

With the completion of 2,000 miles in the first month, a poor August had shown that the automatic choke had been set too weak for starting in cool weather; the engine would not pull until it had warmed up for about five minutes on fast-idle.
It was also found windscreen washer motor was uncertain in action and even now, in spite of attention, it has to be tapped to bring it to life after a period of inactivity.
Night driving brought praise for the green lighting for the instruments and switches but showed that it is

Oil consumption was around 1,000 miles to the pint at this stage subsequently become even lower. For the 1,400 miles following the 600-mile service petrol consumption was 21.2 mpg. The car was not yet being fully extended but it was already evident that some premium petrols (97-98 octane) were only just good enough for it, slight pinking being heard after fill-ups from certain pumps

The Zephyr V6 is serviced at 6,000-mile intervals commencing at 3000 miles.
Points requiring attention were:-
(a) Lazy windscreen washer motor,
(b) Too weak automatic choke.
(c) Sticky throttle.
(d) Vibration (from prop shaft?) at around 50 mph in top and third

Again,this service was done promptly (it was necessary to book ahead) and efficiently except that the windscreen washer remained uncertain in action. The vibration was cured by tightening a gearbox support and, surprisingly, new contact points were fitted. The tappets had been very noisy before but were now quiet.

Checking my diary again I see the entry at 4,000 miles, "tappets noisy again", and later experience has shown that they make themselves heard some 1,000 miles after servicing and become progressivel-y noisier until, before the next service is due, the tick-over sound like a diesel.

A hot spell in September caused the suspension joints to creak when starting away from rest and this continues to happen whenever the air is dry, but disappears with exercise. It was soon cold weather again; cold enough for the heater to be used for the first time and my first experience of the sound of hydraulic disturbance the water system mentioned earlier. It happened when accelerating in third gear to get past a motorway coach, which was building up to its 70 m.p.h. cruise after a temporary slackening due to road works, and it sounded like the initial stages of clutch disintegration. I'm quite used to it now, but it sometimes frightens a passenger.

Motorway cruising is the Ford's strong point. It needs only a small throttle opening to maintain 70 m.p.h, is not greatly affected by a gusting side wind, blows fresh air on the driver's face to relieve the soporific effect of unreasonable restraint and uses the same amount of petrol as for any other form of motoring. Nor does the oil consumption rise; over some 1,000 miles. most of it done during a motorway survey, less than a pint was used.

Between 5.000 and 6,000 miles, the one failure to start occurred - there was a fully charged battery but no response to the starter switch: no jammed pinion trouble either, so it was clearly a faulty connection and a shove on the connecter to the solenoid mounted on the nose of the starter cured the fault.

At 6000 miles, prior to the intermediate performance testing, the given a Crypton check. All was found in good order but the distributor dwell angle was 42 degrees and was altered to the specified 34 degrees and there was a 3 degree error in the ignition timing.

Before the performance testing, which involves a fair amount of running at top speed, I raised the tyre pressures by 3 lb. to give 28lb all round. This made the ride harsher than the normal firm-ness and resulted in the filaments of three of the four tail lamp bulbs failing; the replacements have kept going in spite of other periods of above standard tyre pressure.

Calibration of the speedometer showed the mileage recorder to be 5% fast (the necessary corrections have been made in the fuel consumption figures quoted) and the speedometer read about 8% fast meaning that I was within the law at an indicated 76 mph. The results of the testing are shown in the accompanying table but it is interesting to note that the steady speed fuel consumption figure at 70 mph is very close to the overall fuel consumption figure achieved and that every 10 mph. reduction in steady speed accounts for a 3 mpg. improvement in fuel consumption down to 40 mph.. below which the consumption worsens.

It takes many thousands of miles before some
qualities and applications of a car become
evident.
As the Zephyr ran up the miles it became
clear that here was a car that had no body rattles; the doors, the seats, the trim and the facia assembly in addition to the mechanical components, neither rattled nor squea-ked when the car was driven over rough moorland tracks. On the other hand I found myself avoiding these narrow roads simply because of the difficulty in passing other cars; the Mk IV Zephyr is, at 5 ft. I 1 in., the same width as the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and is thus somewhat anti-social in the lanes.
Just before the 9,000 miles service the engine began to misfire slightly at peak rpm. and the off-side headlamp tended to extinguish itself in high beam; the gear change also showed itself to be slightly out of adjustment. These three faults were corrected
extinguish itself in high beam; the gear change also showed itself to be slightly out of adjustment. These three faults were corrected satisfactorily, new points were fitted again but the original sparking plugs (Autolite) were considered good for another 6,000 miles.

A puncture had occurred just prior to the service and this was repaired too. This puncture had served to demonstrate how efficient the jacking arrangements are; the complete operation of changing the wheel took about 12 minutes and no effort was required to work the wind-up jack. It was fortunate that the puncture did not occur in some remote place after the servicing, because they had switched the wheels round and done the nuts up absurdly fight. This I found out when removing a wheel to inspect the brake pads; t required double leverage, by fitting a ring spanner over the brace, to undo each nut and it would have been quite impossible to remove the wheel if a puncture had occurred out in the blue.

The switching of wheels during servicing had taken no account of the previous balancing so vibration was evident again, this time at around 60-70 mph.
The Zephyr ended its first 12,000 miles with our normal performance tests preceded by a Crypton check. The latter showed that the timing was 3 deg. out again (this was corrected) and the plugs were not as good as new. The performance tests (see the accompanying table) showed a slight fall-off in performance possibly due to the plugs, but a useful improvement in fuel consumption at speeds over 60 m.p.h.

Second Opinion by the Editor

As luck would have it. it rained for the period of this second opinion test which simply confirmed the owners remarks about wet road lack of adhesion. Nor was confidence improved by the low-geared, rather heavy steering, a bench seat which did nothing to secure the driver against roll on sharp comers, and a tendency for the car to swerve sideways across white lines and ridges.
Since I last drove this Zephyr it had been serviced and the previous tappet clatter had disappeared entirely leaving a smooth. quiet and unobtrusive engine and gearbox. Mechanically, in fact, the whole car felt in first-class condition apart from a steering shimmy around 50 mph. caused by an unbalanced front wheel. and criticism was aroused more by original design and styling features than by any deterioration due to age. One such source of irritation to the stranger is the layout of a facia in which the switches are identified by labels too small to be seen without close inspection and the instrument dials are almost completely obscured by reflection from the rear window.

Other owner's Comments

Electrical and automatic choke troubles figured largely in the lists of faults on delivery experienced by Motor readers who drive Ford Zephyr V6s After these had been sorted out (not always completely in the case of the choke). there was very little consistency in the troubles encountered but they were generally comparatively non-crippling annoyances such as anti-roll bar out of socket'. severe leak under scuttle and faulty windscreen washer motor.
The most common faults mentioned were in connections with the automatic choke and rattles from the rear extractor vents. One owner was fated, with three new gearboxes and the same number of replacement speedometers.
The owner with the greatest mileage (21,000) was the one with anti-roll bar trouble, he had also had a sheared generator flange ( at 20.000 miles) and a blown cylinder head gasket at 21,000 miles.
His tyres tasted 20,000 miles and were then replaced with Michelin X which "appear to have improved things."

Only one person was dissatisfied with the Ford dealers' service, but several complained of lack of spares.
Comfort, spaciousness and effortless performance were the features of the car that appealed to owners. Dislikes which figured. largely in replies to our questionnaire in-cluded the automatic choke, heavy steering in town and poor rear-ward visibility for reversing: there were a few complaints about harsh and/or noisy suspension, but only one complained bitterly of the handling. Some had new tyres (two-star Goodyear G8s) fitted. Of those who had one-star G8s as original equipment, 40% had them replaced free by their Ford dealer. 30% remained on the original tyres. 20% had replace-ment two-stars on a part-exchange deal with Goodyear and 10% were refused a change by the dealer.
Petrol consumption was usually quoted at between 20 and 22 mpg. although some owners were getting over 25 m.p.g, when touring.
Some 50% of the replies indi-cated that the owner would buy the same model again: others would do so if certain faults were rectified, and there were several who would buy another Ford, but not this one.

Manufacturer's comments

The specification of the Goodyear tyres was changed in July 1966. with the introduction of the 2-Star model. These tyres were immediately adopted by the Company and, in addition, 185x14 radial ply tyres on 14" wheels were introduced on the Zephyr V6 and Zodiac models as regular production options.
In October. 1966.
Ford initiated a programme with its main dealers to change the tyres on early production models on receipt of customer's complaints. We can only assume the approach for the test car was made to the servicing dealer prior to the announcement of this programme.

The problem of tappet noise has been resolved by the introduction of a new adjusting nut with a flange.
As regards the heater intake drawing in exhaust fumes from other cars, we have not had this reported as a complaint and it is difficult to see where the intake could be placed to avoid this. In front of the windscreen is usually considered to be the best place.

Recent minor design changes and revision of tolerances have much improved the precision and feel of the gearshift.

The hydraulic disturbances from the heater are undoubtedly due to bubbles in the system. The control valve has since been modified to reduce the chances of air getting in. but if the problem does occur the noise can be stopped by bleeding the system.
To counter comments on harsh suspension the road springs have been softened since model introduction.

The tool kit consists of a wheel-brace and jack not just a wheel-brace as mentioned in the text,