'93 Mondy thread - MOT pass

[warren t claim]

Several of my Mondeo fleet sticks in my memory. Here's just one example.

I was working a day shift for a change as I needed some cash as I'd promised to take some MILF that I'd picked up the previous night out for a drink/curry/shag. I'd just dropped off a pensioner along with her shopping and Zimmer frame at her sheltered housing (#days) and was then given a message on my datahead to phone another driver that I didn't know. 

I phone the driver and he asks me if I'd be interested in buying his P reg Mk2 Mondeo as he'd heard that I buy plated taxis. I'm a little reluctant as I'm short of money and had earmarked what petty cash I had to getting into the pants of the aforementioned MILF but when he said that it had four months plate left and he only wanted a grand for it (super cheap for any Mk2 Mondeo then) I agreed to have a look. 

When I turn up at his palatial local authority abode I'm greeted to the sight of what must have been the scruffiest Mk2 Mondy working the streets of Wirral. Both bumpers were cracked with bits missing and the white paintwork looked like it'd been resprayed in Tippex. The interior of this 1.8LX diesel hatch was even worse. The seats weren't just dirty, but dirty and sticky. The steering wheel was worn smooth which at least tallied up with the quarter of a million miles displayed on the odo. 

Even at a grand it looked overpriced but he said it drove well and insisted that I took a test drive. Mindful that I'd not had a tetanus injection since I was eight I got behind the wheel to take it for a spind around the block. This is when I was shocked to discover that it pulled like a fucking train! Upon my return I pop the bonnet and I'm greeted to the sight of not just a new injection pump, but also a new turbo! Along with the smell of piss and kebabs I can also smell profit in this car. At the time I had another LX that had been written off in a non fault accident that had already been viewed by the insurance assessor which I was awaiting a payout for and as luck might have it, sported a perfect interior. I offer him £800 expecting him to barter upwards but to my surprise he agrees to my lowball offer immediately! Bonus! Not does this mean that I can have the Mondeo, but that'll leave me with enough cash to wine, dine and shag the lady later!

The following day after entertaining MILF (Strange lady. Great tits with huge sensitive nipples and the evening spoilt only by her 19 year old son being home as he was on a tag but hey ho, this is Merseyside) I set about trying to tart up the £800 Mondy. The bumpers were a lost cause so I remover the bumpers from the written off LX and send them off to the sprayers to be transformed from Pepper Red to Diamond White. The interior scrubs up a little better than I thought it would with only the rear seat base needing changing. I bodge the driver's seat with a cover. The exterior was another story. T Cut failed to deliver the goods so I consulted a bodywork specialist who tells me to use G3 Rubbing Compound (I think) and an electric mop. Although the end result certainly wouldn't win any awards it certainly brought it up to a high enough merchantable quality for my rental fleet. 

In the end I managed to get ten months reliable service out of it before it reached mandatory retirement age with the usual maintenance plus a replacement battery. In the end I threw it through the local auction with close to 300K on the clock and got pretty much what I paid for it back.

[egg]

You've lived a life Warren! Did you ever cab Sierras?

[warren t claim]

On 30/03/2024 at 09:57, egg said:

You've lived a life Warren! Did you ever cab Sierras?

I wish! 

Back when I started the Sierra was on its last six month plate as a taxi although we did have a couple of LATE PLATE MADNESS L reg Sierra's plated. When I began my "career" we had maybe three Sierra's and maybe five BX's working this area.

As strange as it sounds, despite the 1.8 diesel Mondeo finding many friends in the taxi world, the 1.8td Sierra was pretty much disliked and considered a pale imitation of its 2.3 diesel predecessor. 

[Peter C]

On 30/03/2024 at 09:57, egg said:

Did you ever cab Sierras?

After a selection of modified Minis and Mk1 Fiestas, my first proper car, acquired in the mid 90s, was a Mk2 Astra estate. I had a year out between college and university and spent a bit of spare time working for a local minicab company. Their most professional* driver dissed my 1.3 spec Astra and presented his 250k mile Sierra 2.0i Ghia, which he claimed was the best minicab car on the grounds of cost, comfort and reliability. I packed in my short minicab driver career within a few months and soon after I acquired my first Sierra, a 1.6L hatchback. I loved it and now I dream of using that Sierra to further my minicab driver career.

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 28/03/2024 at 18:59, egg said:

I've never sat in the back of the 406, but imagine more space for punters too...

don't you believe it a 406 aint all that to be sat in

[warren t claim]

14 hours ago, Peter C said:

After a selection of modified Minis and Mk1 Fiestas, my first proper car, acquired in the mid 90s, was a Mk2 Astra estate. I had a year out between college and university and spent a bit of spare time working for a local minicab company. Their most professional* driver dissed my 1.3 spec Astra and presented his 250k mile Sierra 2.0i Ghia, which he claimed was the best minicab car on the grounds of cost, comfort and reliability. I packed in my short minicab driver career within a few months and soon after I acquired my first Sierra, a 1.6L hatchback. I loved it and now I dream of using that Sierra to further my minicab driver career.

When I first started we had a driver with a 2.0 twin cam Sierra Ghia that worked faultlessly with one exception. It would cut out for 15 minutes after a continuous 80 mile drive. Ford Master Technicians tried and failed to get to the bottom of the problem. This meant that the driver could only take on a Manchester Airport run from certain parts of our catchment area.

Another Sierra twin cam owner was a retired Merseyside Police traffic officer with an immaculate Ghia estate in metallic burgundy. One night a few of us were sat in the office grilling him about high speed chases. After a couple of tales about chasing Mk2 RS2000s he started talking about chasing bikers. He said that the 24v Senator would keep up with most bikes on the M53 to the great surprise of the rider. He told the tale of one lad on a GSXR750 who when discovering that he didn't have the straight line speed to outrun the 24v Vauxhall pulled over onto the hard shoulder and then fucked off using full bore acceleration. He said that even today "I'd strangle that cheeky bugger if I ever got my hands on him". I didn't have the heart to tell him "that cheeky bugger" was me.

[warren t claim]

After that little historical interlude let's get back to Mondeo taxi tales from the perspective of a fleet owner. 

Despite being hammered, sometimes day and night, the Mk1/2 Mondeo had levels of reliability you wouldn't believe.The only one I had die on me was a 2.0Si that I'd bought super cheap from a salvage auction. I hadn't even bothered plating it It suffered HGF and I cannibalised it for parts, especially the seats. 

Diesels would suffer from stretched, and occasionally snapped, throttle cables. Any snappage always happened pump end and once I managed to bodge it with Meccano. 

Resistors in the fan were a weak point. I think most of mine had at least one fan position that didn't work.

Heated front screens would usually start failing element by element. Always the driver's side first. 

Remote fuel flap releases would stick.

Bonnet alarm sensors would become hypersensitive. Bodged by putting a bottle top on the plunger.

Remote central locking keys never seemed to work after the first battery change.

Air con pumps shat their bearings/clutch mechanisms.

All in all they were reliable enough to enable me to have a life and dare to venture out of the area for a day off. I only had to replace one starter and alternator. Most breakdowns were due to battery issues caused by taxi radios and were easily fixed. They were pretty predictable in what they'd need in regard to maintenance up to the point where I could tell which area a driver worked in and whether he or she worked days or nights. I could tell a car that had worked days at the local hospital due to rapid wear of the suspension bushes caused by the speed bumps on the nearby council estate which was a pulling zone for hospital drivers. Lads who had their own airport transfer firm would almost never require brake pads but would wear out rear suspension. Night drivers would kill batteries and burn the outer edge of the front tyres doing u turns outside pubs. 

[warren t claim]

The entire reputation for anyone who rents out cars as taxis is based on the ability of keeping the driver on the road. Taxi insurance was, and indeed still is, pretty much stuck in the 1980s. This means that there's no fucking way I could keep one car on my fleet purely to use as an emergency breakdown courtesy car. Even if I could have kept a car insured for any driver local council rules would mean me sending the details to whatever firm the driver worked for and car details can only be changed during office hours. That's not to say that some strokes weren't pulled. I had a driver with a Panther Black Mk2 1.8LX that snapped its key in the ignition barrel one Friday night meaning that both the reg and taxi plates "may" have found their way onto a Panther Black 1.8LX diesel that had just been handed back to me as a way of keeping him on the road that weekend. 

[warren t claim]

Late paying drivers were something of a double edged sword. It was handy if they had a breakdown needing my help as then I could weasel out of getting out of bed to recover them. I'd tell them to phone me back in the morning unless they could clear their bill but once in a while things would get too far meaning that I'd have to do a repo on their car and here's a case in point.

I had a V plate 2.0LX auto in metallic green out on hire and despite many promises payment hadn't been forthcoming in quite a while which meant WTC had run out of patience and was forced to snatchback the Mondeo. As I'm not a complete fucking retard I always kept the spare keys to all my cars just in case such an event happens to arise so I rock up and hop in. Most local firms had a deal with me where they'd bounce a driver off the air if I rang the boss explaining that the driver owed me money. This deal was in exchange for me retuning the expensive data system fitted to the car in the event of me having to take the car back. The driver in this tale worked for a firm that weren't interested in having such an arrangement with me but hey ho, that's their decision. They still worked on a radio voice system using £50 two way radios anyway so were more interested in keeping their driver working.

I drive away in my Mondeo and within 50 yards it's pretty obvious that it has a couple of big issues. Firstly the NSF hub bearing isn't just worn, it is totally collapsed! The poor Mondeo barely steers and is making one hell of a fucking noise from the front end! Secondly, both front pads are shot to shit. This didn't surprise me at all as they'd last been changed a few months ago and there's no way an auto Mondeo can make a set of front pads last three months in taxi use.

I limp it back and assess the repair bill. To my surprise the front hub could be replaced quite cheaply using scrappy parts and the pads were the expected price. I replaced the pads and let the discs sort themselves out. It was pretty obvious that the driver had decided to let the green Mondy go to ruin because getting it repaired would have meant settling his bill. Come to think of it, the last time I saw the car was to replace the exhaust maybe six weeks earlier and IIRC the Mondeo auto had an automatic specific exhaust that cost me three times what I was expecting to replace.

 

[warren t claim]

20 hours ago, warren t claim said:

Late paying drivers were something of a double edged sword. It was handy if they had a breakdown needing my help as then I could weasel out of getting out of bed to recover them. I'd tell them to phone me back in the morning unless they could clear their bill but once in a while things would get too far meaning that I'd have to do a repo on their car and here's a case in point.

I had a V plate 2.0LX auto in metallic green out on hire and despite many promises payment hadn't been forthcoming in quite a while which meant WTC had run out of patience and was forced to snatchback the Mondeo. As I'm not a complete fucking retard I always kept the spare keys to all my cars just in case such an event happens to arise so I rock up and hop in. Most local firms had a deal with me where they'd bounce a driver off the air if I rang the boss explaining that the driver owed me money. This deal was in exchange for me retuning the expensive data system fitted to the car in the event of me having to take the car back. The driver in this tale worked for a firm that weren't interested in having such an arrangement with me but hey ho, that's their decision. They still worked on a radio voice system using £50 two way radios anyway so were more interested in keeping their driver working.

I drive away in my Mondeo and within 50 yards it's pretty obvious that it has a couple of big issues. Firstly the NSF hub bearing isn't just worn, it is totally collapsed! The poor Mondeo barely steers and is making one hell of a fucking noise from the front end! Secondly, both front pads are shot to shit. This didn't surprise me at all as they'd last been changed a few months ago and there's no way an auto Mondeo can make a set of front pads last three months in taxi use.

I limp it back and assess the repair bill. To my surprise the front hub could be replaced quite cheaply using scrappy parts and the pads were the expected price. I replaced the pads and let the discs sort themselves out. It was pretty obvious that the driver had decided to let the green Mondy go to ruin because getting it repaired would have meant settling his bill. Come to think of it, the last time I saw the car was to replace the exhaust maybe six weeks earlier and IIRC the Mondeo auto had an automatic specific exhaust that cost me three times what I was expecting to replace.

 

After writing the above post a couple more points regarding that 2.0LX auto have shuffled their way back into my memory.

When I discovered how comprehensively fucked the front hub bearing was I phoned the firm the lad drove for and asked when he was last at work. To my surprise it was only the previous day. How the hell his passengers didn't report him is a mystery as the noise and vibrations were terrible. 

Anyone following the WTC private hire rental story and has been taking notes will be wondering why I added a 2.0 automatic petrol to my rental fleet as that sort of car will hardly be the easiest to rent out to a driver unless he's keen on collecting Nectar Points. The reason is that Mutha_Claim who was also working as a PH driver at the time and was in one of my cars really wanted an automatic and was prepared to put up with the MPG penalty. This 2.0 auto wasn't gaining much interest on the now defunct Blue Cycle internet auction site despite only suffering minor NS damage so I pulled the trigger on it for about £500. 

Once transported back to my body repair specialist the news was both good and bad. The good was that it could be fixed by replacing one door and filling the other. The bad was that this Mk2 came from a time when Ford offered the buyer a choice of either a sunroof or aircon and the first owner of this Mondeo had chosen to tick the sunroof box. My acquisition of the 2.0 auto coincided with it being one of the hottest summers on record and Mutha_Claim insisted on having a car with aircon. This was my fault because as because S998***, her older 2.0LX  manual had aircon I assumed the newer auto would be similarly equipped. As an aside, I couldn't believe that the aircon in S998*** still worked and held gas as it'd had a pretty hard front impact before I'd bought it as a Cat C. The aircon rad was bent as fuck and we were about to junk it until I was shifting it around the yard and hit the switch to discover that it still worked. 

Once patched up and plated I decided to work the auto until I could find someone to rent it off me to at least the autumn. As a rule, I generally preferred to work a 2.0 petrol Mondeo as I thought that they were pretty good on fuel all things considered so I was curious to see what fuel penalty the automatic transmission would have. Back then a Saturday night shift would cost me £25 in a 2.0 manual and in this auto it'd cost me £30 so not too bad really, especially taking into account the ease of use the auto had compared to the manual. 

Fast forward to me having to fix the repo'd auto. Once fixed I had a mate who I'd previously worked the doors with who was making the career change into driving a taxi. When he learnt that I had a Mondeo auto up for grabs he didn't just want to rent it from me, he was insisting on settle buying it from me on the weekly. The reason was that when it had to be retired or he fancied a change he could pass it to his missus who could only drive an automatic. 

Deal done! The strange thing is that this was the only Mondeo I ever had that lived well beyond its eight year retirement age. I used to see it knocking around the local area until about 2014.

[warren t claim]

Sorry for hijacking this thread BTW.

[egg]

I think one of the reasons that the Americans didn't like the 'Mondeo' was because the auto box became flaky. But it was clearly good enough to work for its living.

[egg]

1 minute ago, warren t claim said:

Sorry for hijacking this thread BTW.

It's open to all man, peace and love etc etc...

(Although their usefulness as taxis is another reason they've all gone!)

[warren t claim]

Just now, egg said:

I think one of the reasons that the Americans didn't like the 'Mondeo' was because the auto box became flaky. But it was clearly good enough to work for its living.

I think I was lucky because I've heard of them failing at a young age.

[egg]

So essentially the Mondeos are all dead because

• The reps ragged them up the M1
• The cabbies ran them until they died
• The banger boys finished as many as they could...

So the only ones left are the giffer cars that were bought by px-ing a 3 year old Sierra...

[warren t claim]

Just now, egg said:

So essentially the Mondeos are all dead because

• The reps ragged them up the M1
• The cabbies ran them until they died
• The banger boys finished as many as they could...

So the only ones left are the giffer cars that were bought by px-ing a 3 year old Sierra...

Other than the 2.0Si, the only Mondeo's that died in service on my fleet met their end due to accidents.

[warren t claim]

6 minutes ago, egg said:

So essentially the Mondeos are all dead because

• The reps ragged them up the M1
• The cabbies ran them until they died
• The banger boys finished as many as they could...

So the only ones left are the giffer cars that were bought by px-ing a 3 year old Sierra...

You've left off scrapped due to the clutch change cost.

[Eyersey1234]

20 minutes ago, egg said:

So essentially the Mondeos are all dead because

• The reps ragged them up the M1
• The cabbies ran them until they died
• The banger boys finished as many as they could...

So the only ones left are the giffer cars that were bought by px-ing a 3 year old Sierra...

Were many early Mondeos private sales? I'd have thought most of the early ones went to fleets

[warren t claim]

I can't believe that I've not talked about clutch changes yet.

From the factory the standard Mk1/2 Mondeo clutch was a pretty long lasting unit. Yes they were a twat to replace but due to their popularity in the Merseyside taxi trade we had a pretty competitive market in replacements meaning as long as the car could move under its own power all was not lost.

The internal clutch bellows/cylinder was another story though. I think I had three of those fucking things die on me.

[Unlucky Alf]

I enjoy reading this thread, so thanks to all.

Back in the 80’ and 90’ I worked for a company that had a policy of Ford company cars, any colour as long as they were black.

I had a right mix of fords, ranging several 1.4S Fiesta’s, (pretend XR2i’s 😄) a 1.6GL Escort Estate and both 1.6 and a 1.8 XR2i, (I loved both these cars) and then the worse escort I ever had, a 1.8 Si as they had stopped making the XR3i’s. 
They were all black

I had two Mondeo’s  

First one was a hand me down was a 2.0Si I swapped my current car for - quite a wizzer but it stank as previous owner had smoked.  It was great on the motorway, We went on our honeymoon to France in it, on the hovercraft.  oh the high life!  I liked the Si Mondeo, the interior had plenty of room and driving position was great, along with visibility.

All these were owned by the company and were sold back to the ford dealer when they got to 3 years.

I left this company and joined a large multinational IT giant and it was leaseplan vehicles there, so I ordered a Ford Puma with everything on it (not much!) after seeing one on static display in the reception area at Ford Dunton, where I had been working previously and while I was waiting for it to be delivered, I got given a Mondeo Automatic Mk2 from Hertz.

We named it ermintrude, because it sounded like a cow when pulling away and the auto box was horrendous.  I really didn’t like that automatic, it made a lot of noise but didn’t go anywhere fast, I think I had it for 6mth until the puma showed up.

Gota love mondeo’s and hope I haven’t bored you too much!

 

[warren t claim]

3 hours ago, Unlucky Alf said:

I enjoy reading this thread, so thanks to all.

Back in the 80’ and 90’ I worked for a company that had a policy of Ford company cars, any colour as long as they were black.

 

First one was a hand me down was a 2.0Si I swapped my current car for - quite a wizzer but it stank as previous owner had smoked.  It was great on the motorway, We went on our honeymoon to France in it, on the hovercraft.  oh the high life!  I liked the Si Mondeo, the interior had plenty of room and driving position was great, along with visibility.

All these were owned by the company and were sold back to the ford dealer when they got to 3 years.

I left this company and joined a large multinational IT giant and it was leaseplan vehicles there, so I ordered a Ford Puma with everything on it (not much!) after seeing one on static display in the reception area at Ford Dunton, where I had been working previously and while I was waiting for it to be delivered, I got given a Mondeo Automatic Mk2 from Hertz.

We named it ermintrude, because it sounded like a cow when pulling away and the auto box was horrendous.  I really didn’t like that automatic, it made a lot of noise but didn’t go anywhere fast, I think I had it for 6mth until the puma showed up.

Gota love mondeo’s and hope I haven’t bored you too much!

 

Although we have this thread along with this...

There's no thread on ASA dedicated to the Mk3 Mondeo.

Even if we had I fear that I'd have very little to contribute to it as this may come as a surprise for you to learn but I've never owned or worked a Mk3. In fact, the number of them I've driven can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

[warren t claim]

Things I've never done.

Been to a circus.

Seen The Wizard Of Oz.

Owned, or at least worked a Mk3 Mondeo.

Off the top of my head I can only think of two Mk3s I've driven although there must be more. Both were plated PH cars  of 2.0 LX diesel spec. The first was one  Mutha_Claim had for a week and the other was an example Fat Bob wanted to sell me. Both had issues.

To put that into perspective, I've driven as many Ferraris and Honda NSXs as I have Mk3 Mondeos.

There is a logical reason for this. Back in 2007 I was forced to walk away from the taxi trade due to my ex missus and her paranoia that I might carry a female passenger and I didn't return until 2014 meaning that I missed out on the Mk3 era.

[warren t claim]

Although my stint as a fleet owner did stray into the Mk3 era I was put off getting any due to the the higher cost of not just the car in Cat D/C state, but also the parts cost of pulling them straight was double that of a Mk2. 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a statement that I can't back up anywhere else. This is just my opinion based on experience.

There was a definite dip in quality during the production run of the Mk2 Mondeo. It was easy to tell if the Mk2 you were buying came from the inferior era and that was by looking at the grille surround. If it was chrome it came from the time when they were screwed together properly but if it was body coloured then expect niggles. Mostly these issues were stuff like ABS and airbag sensors along with niggly trim rattles but I did have W and X plate cars that suffered with gearboxes that suffered the occasional crunch changing into third. Another would refuse to let the driver open the rear hatch maybe twice a week. External rear door handles would stick in the up position which is a pain in the arse in taxi use. One had a front passenger electric window that would only work if the door was open. That same car had an intermittent fault with the electric height adjustment on the driver's seat.

Although these faults never took a car out of service, even the crunchy gearbox cars never got any worse, IMHO Mk2 quality did dip during production.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, warren t claim said:

Been to a circus.

Maybe hook up with @puddlethumper for a different kind of ride?

[warren t claim]

2 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Maybe hook up with @puddlethumper for a different kind of ride?

Your point being?

What have I missed?

[High Jetter]

16 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

Your point being?

What have I missed?

He works for a circus, AS tours available, I believe

[warren t claim]

2 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

He works for a circus, AS tours available, I believe

I've often been described as a "fucking clown" so I'm sure we'd get on famously!

[High Jetter]

1 minute ago, warren t claim said:

I've often been described as a "fucking clown" so I'm sure we'd get on famously!

A new experience.

[RoverFolkUs]

Beware - unsolicited ford ramble ..

In my opinion the MK3 Mondeo got left behind, it seems very similar to the MK1 Focus (which doesn't come as much of a surprise...) and they didn't make much in the way of improvements or modernisation to the Mondeo as they brought out the MK2 Focus. They kept an elderly design that was intended to coincide the MK1 Focus for way too long (2007!?) and abandoned it and moved onto the MK4. Had they done a MK3.5 Mondeo to modernise it a bit (they did a great job with the MK2.5 Focus, revamping it for a couple of years before launching the MK3 Focus)

I think the MK2 Mondeo was probably too capable to justify throwing away so a lot of taxi firms kept them going until the MK4 came along. I know that a couple of my local ones did, I remember them running a few P11 Primeras and MK2 Mondeos into the early 2010s. Presumably they phased them out as they died and sequentially replaced them all with MK4's 

[warren t claim]

5 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Beware - unsolicited ford ramble ..

In my opinion the MK3 Mondeo got left behind, it seems very similar to the MK1 Focus (which doesn't come as much of a surprise...) and they didn't make much in the way of improvements or modernisation to the Mondeo as they brought out the MK2 Focus. They kept an elderly design that was intended to coincide the MK1 Focus for way too long (2007!?) and abandoned it and moved onto the MK4. Had they done a MK3.5 Mondeo to modernise it a bit (they did a great job with the MK2.5 Focus, revamping it for a couple of years before launching the MK3 Focus)

I think the MK2 Mondeo was probably too capable to justify throwing away so a lot of taxi firms kept them going until the MK4 came along. I know that a couple of my local ones did, I remember them running a few P11 Primeras and MK2 Mondeos into the early 2010s. Presumably they phased them out as they died and sequentially replaced them all with MK4's 

The Mk3 was more of a revolution than an evolution which scared us off at the time.