'93 Mondy thread - MOT pass

[egg]

Like so many decisions, it's time vs money, and this one seemed cheap enough to spend money and focus on other things.

 

Still can't get the rubber t piece off

[egg]

The t piece has been liberated! And it's looks like it didn't need replacing! Unusual. But no harm in replacing.

 

New one on the left. It gets pulled upward on the right hand side as you can see from the used one, which causes a split.

 

[egg]

A few more bits arrived from Sweden today. Madness that this is cheaper than walking to my local dealer! Rain will stop play on any work today though.

 

[egg]

K44 FMC might be my favourite Mondeo. Built on 2nd February 1993, it was one of the press cars (FMC geddit?) which featured on the cover of Autocar and Motor in their March 1993 group test, as the mag was published on 17th March - car can't have been more than a month old.

 

It's a 1.8 GLX with Pumice trim, but what makes it particularly desirable to me was it had the best optional extras - i.e. the 2040 CD player, heated front screen and air conditioning - if I had those on my GLX I'd be a happy man.

 

It had 7 owners in its life, assuming the plate stuck with the car, and had it's last MOT in September 2008 at 15 years old (it needed welding the year before) at 156k miles. 

 

So there you go!

 

 

[Timewaster]

12 year old me who'd never, suprisingly, kissed a girl.

Suprisingly? You mean if you sneak up on them?

 

I think that's frowned upon.

[Pete-M]

My brother had a 2.5 Ghia X auto Mk1 on a P reg. It was one of the last ones, he'd ordered it in a mad reddy pink metallic 'which looked great in the brochure', with all the toys but on 15" steel wheels.

 

It had one touch on all four windows.

 

It also had the subwoofer in the boot, cd changer and the top spec stereo.

 

He and it did around 180k miles together in under three years. 70k/year mainly being blasted down motorways and to give it credit it never went wrong or required anything other than massive amounts of fuel and regular servicing. It still drove like new when it was replaced by an E class.

[Pillock]

K44FMC did indeed remain on a Mondeo with build date of 02/02/93 until the end, ETIS shows that reg on that car and if you use Blueprint to look up the VIN it comes back to that reg (a method I used to work out my old Focus had changed reg plate...)

 

They certainly rushed it through - 10 days from build to wearing numberplates. Wasn't the quickest of the launch press cars though, or the earliest registered...

 

K41FMC - 1.6LX - built 5/2/93, registered 9/2/93

K42FMC - 1.6GLX - built 3/2/93, registered 12/2/93

K43FMC - 1.6LX - built 8/2/93, registered 12/2/93

K45FMC - 1.6LX - built 8/2/93, registered 4/3/93

K46FMC - 2.0SI - built 3/2/93, registered 4/3/93

K47FMC - 2.0 Ghia - built 9/2/93, registered 4/3/93

K48FMC - 1.8GLX - built 1/3/93, registered 11/3/93

 

Weirdly, the VINs don't go in order, and by trial and error I've pulled out some registrations from cars in the same few days of build that weren't FMC registered.  K413GPU was also 2/2/93 for example as were a lot of other K3xxGPU and K4xxGPU cars. There's also a run of K8xxGJN cars. Both PU and JN are Essex registrations, so maybe other press or demo cars?

 

Sometimes taking a few dozen off the VIN is a later build date so I wonder if some were "parked" in the production line, waiting for different trim or paint treatments perhaps?

[egg]

Yes, sounds plausible, perhaps the options were added, or extra checks? Top sleuthing, by the way.

 

Would be great if a press car had survived...

[Pillock]

Depends if you've got any way of knowing what was a press car.

There's the whole K-FMC range (which also seems to dip into the 20s, but there's various Transits and Fiestas scattered through) which are definitely press cars. Then there's a whole load of non-personal registrations which are Essex-issued which could conceivably be press, or staff, or friends+family lease cars, but equally in the first months production there's cars that made it most of the way across the country.

 

I might bang out some sort of spreadsheet for a few dozen early cars and see how long they lasted. It's a shame there's no way of automating ETIS, or Regisearch etc.

[egg]

Assume no FMC's have survived?

 

In other news, with help from YouTube, I worked out how to remove the PCV valve from behind the manifold without removing it. Again, it still rattles suggesting it was operating.

 

The new one was destined for a Contour, but even with postage from the US of A it was a third cheaper than from a UK dealer where it was 'special order'.

 

I'm dealing with these common issues and learning at the same time.

 

[trigger]

K3 FMC used to live in Colchester on a Cayman Blue GLX 4 door (IIRC). I used to see it about a lot about 10-12 years ago.

[Timewaster]

I've still got the VHS launch video with Jackie Stewart getting over excited at the pen holder.

[Pillock]

As sad as it sounds, I'm halfway through a spreadsheet. Stay tuned, FMC-botherers.

[Jim Bell]

Coolie number 2.

[sierraman]

You can see if it works without stripping it by applying a vacuum to the pipes. In practice they rarely actually stick, the pipes perish and cause running issues.

[egg]

I think perished pipes are going to be the bane of the Zetec as these get older, there's loads of 'em!

[greengartside]

Depends if you've got any way of knowing what was a press car.

There's the whole K-FMC range (which also seems to dip into the 20s, but there's various Transits and Fiestas scattered through) which are definitely press cars. Then there's a whole load of non-personal registrations which are Essex-issued which could conceivably be press, or staff, or friends+family lease cars, but equally in the first months production there's cars that made it most of the way across the country.

 

I might bang out some sort of spreadsheet for a few dozen early cars and see how long they lasted. It's a shame there's no way of automating ETIS, or Regisearch etc.

 

Just to add to all of this, FATHA used to have a '93 2.0i Ghia, K477 SVE. Build date was 08/02/1993 and was registered 02/03/1993.

 

A batch of 1000 Mondeos with K*** SVE were registered in the first week or so of March 1993. They were registered in ascending trim level order, for example there were 150 or so basic models, 150 LX's, 150 GLX's etc.

 

I have read in the past a lot of these Mondeos were loaned to House of Commons' MP's for trialling and a few, including my dad's, ended up being used as demonstrator vehicles for various Ford dealers across the UK.

 

Myself and another guy managed to trace a lot of these SVE Mondeos and added them to a website called DriveArchive.

[egg]

Do you know if any SVE's are still going?

[Pillock]

I'll do a few spot checks as I'm quite enjoying this! Not doing 1000 of them though.

 

One of the first off the line - K717SLB, built 5/1/93, only lasted three years. Meanwhile a car built only three weeks later sat around for nearly 18 months and got M158ALH when finally registered.

 

Haven't found anything still on the road yet though

 

/geek

[sierraman]

I'd doubt it. I'd guess there's precious few 1993 Mondeos on the road.

 

How did you get on with the thermostat housing?

[chaseracer]

As sad as it sounds, I'm halfway through a spreadsheet. Stay tuned, FMC-botherers.

 

This surprises me not at all! 

[adw1977]

Do you know if any SVE's are still going?

 

K329SVE, registered 2nd March 1993, is still going.

 

K439SVE used to live near me, but the last MOT ran out in 2015 and it has since been scrapped.

 

There is some discussion about the K***SVE cars, and a link to a pic of K329SVE, in the comments below my pic of K439SVE on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/61090099@N04/12020986855/

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Excellent Mondeo dweebery here. More please!!!

[riek]

as a child i remember being exceptionally excited by the first mondeo i saw, from memory it was a salmon pink metallic ghia.

 

Yeah, i was a cool kid. Can't find any pictures that match my memory though

[Pillock]

The VINs on the SVE cars are often sequential, but in reverse order (as in K339SVE has the VIN immediately after K340SVE but before K338SVE), and are only a few hundred short of the first of the K**FMC cars.

Not found a single auto model, but it looks like they were making saloons for a good few weeks before popping a hatchback out

[greengartside]

The first Autos were made in June 1993, along with the Estates IIRC....

[dollywobbler]

12,000 miles in a week is going some! How did they manage that?

[Lacquer Peel]

Millbrook loop 24/7?

 

Autocar really brought themselves to a mutual climax over new Ford products back in the day. I remember the same hysteria over the Focus and Jaguar products in when Ford owned them.

[adw1977]

12,000 miles in a week is going some! How did they manage that?

Constant 71mph, 24 hours a day for 7 days!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I remember when CAR mag did 5000 in a week in a Mk4 Escort, and even as a 12 yr old I recognised that that was some feat. 12,000 in a week? I call bullshit, unless it was the total from several cars being driven at once!!!