Mondeo Mk3 Top Strut Mounts. 2 litre Petrol. 2002.

[tommytwo]

This coming Friday, I plan to change the Front Top Strut Mounts on my Mondeo Mk3. It is possible to fit the mountings in the wrong position and then the struts will knock. It is knocking badly now and it would be nice to only have to do this job once.I see that there is a molded lug on the new mounts, I presume for orientation purposes. My question:

 

Which direction does the molded lug need to face. Is it towards the front of the car, towards the wing, towards the rear, or somewhere in between? Thanks.

[twosmoke300]

Iirc it's tit ( lug ) out !

Hope you have good spring compressors - they can be a right cunt . Spring has to be compressed a long way , it's a curved spring and the damper sucks itself back in and is almost impossible to pull out by hand .

 

Ffs be careful

[Bren]

I have been told that unless you use genuine parts the knocking will be back in no time.

 

I got rid of mine because they were knocking.

[twosmoke300]

Oh and you won't be able to leave the bottom ball joint attached and pop the strut out of the knuckle without damaging the lower arm bushes . Bottom ball joint , track rod end and caliper off .

[tommytwo]

I have a friend who is a former garage workshop manager and a good mechanic who will be helping me with this job. He has two sets of spring compressors, short and long. I am not looking forward to doing this job at all, despite assistance. But its either do the job or junk the car, the noise irritates me so much!.

 

From what has been said, the lug needs to face towards the indicator on the wing, and not towards the engine, is that correct?

[saucedoctor]

Does this help?

 

 

[sierraman]

Compared to the Mk2, the Mk3 can be a right pain when it comes to working on the suspension. On the other hand the bottom arms don't go half as often. I'd take the strut out and get it compressed in a proper garage type hydraulic spring compressor. Takes no time and you aren't fucking about on the floor with some diy job clamps.

 

I had a Focus ages ago that had this trouble. Drove me fucking mad.

[Captain Furious]

Having changed a spring on a Mk3 Mondeo I can only say that twosmoke is being kind in his description, even with a fairly decent set of spring compressors I was winding on so much force that I was convinced serious injury or death were imminent.

[egg]

Is that full etis access you have there saucedoctor?

[twosmoke300]

I've just splashed out on a 1700 quid Sykes pneumatic spring station on the back of doing two mk3 springs last month !

[cobblers]

Jesus man just buy these people new mondeos instead and save your money

[saucedoctor]

Is that full etis access you have there saucedoctor?

 

It's a VM image I got from a friend of a friend who works for Ford I.T. Up to 2011 IIRC. Works with your silly English registration numbers, and VINs. IF you need anything, give me a shout.

[tommytwo]

Many thanks, especially to saucedoctor for posting the diagram, which has cleared away confusion, it was just what I was looking for. The spring compressors available to me are professional quality so should handle the spring pressure. But I take on board that this could be a dangerous job so I will be taking extreme care.

 

And to Sierraman: I sympathize with you over the Focus,I know where you are coming from, the noise has started to drive me nuts as well.

 

Thanks again gentlemen, I will post my results when its "job done"!

[tommytwo]

I am glad to report complete success with my Mondeo. I found out today that to change the top strut bearings, it is not necessary to take the strut right off the car. With the spring compressors on and some military grade zip ties around the spring for safety reasons, there is just enough  room to remove the strut bearings. ( Don;t try this at home, you can loose your fingers) What came out was not too bad at all, no rubber breakdown, although there was some wear and sloppiness present in the bearing. We decided that the true reason for the creaking was the mating joint between the spring mount and the bearing retainer, which is a plastic. So this was greased and the new bearings fitted.

On the other side, we decided not to change the bearings, since we had evidence from the bearing removed. Instead, we collapsed the spring again and sprayed grease between the spring mount and bearing retainer. With this done, we looked for the reason for the clonking noise which pointed us toward the the ARB links. It turned out that it was possible to get an extra half turn on the ARB/drop link nut on each side. This was the reason for the clonking noise.

The car now drives with no suspension noise and the steering does not creak. I found a very bumpy piece of road to try things out  and there was no suspension noise knocking or creaking. I call this a good result and I am a happy bunny again.

[sierraman]

Jesus man just buy these people new mondeos instead and save your money

You could corner the market in Mondeos for that.

[twosmoke300]

Zip ties as a safety measure !!

[sierraman]

It's making me fee queasy thinking about your fingers turning to fucking mash in the top of a rusty Mondeo strut top. Eek!

 

 

Seriously I'd be careful there you only get 10 of them...

[tommytwo]

The zip ties were genuine military grade, as used by HM forces, and they are super strong, not available to buy on the High Street or DIY stores. It was not me doing the job, it was the guy helping me so my fingers were safe. He seemed to know what he was doing and why so I let him get on with it. But I do admit that I had my concerns. Had it been me, I would have used 2 sets of spring compressors and attempted to get the strut right off the car.

 

This afternoon, I decided to examine the old bearing and found that it came apart quite easily. Inside was a circular row of ball bearings and the spacer had room for 26 balls. There was plenty of grease. I counted the balls and I only had 20 so 6 have made a break for freedom. Unless the bearing only had 20 originally.