HMC- Mr Chowdhury’s Mercedes

[Supernaut]

Oh FFS!

 

Now mine feels utterly inadequate!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

My friend Joe who lives in Germany had one of those. Its engine blew up not long after purchase. He's no hardcore mechanic and prefers building and flying drones to fucking about with cars. But, I had to take my hat off to him as he just bought a SH engine and waded right in. Had it sorted in a fortnight of intermittent evening tinkering. RESTECP

[UltraWomble]

There's also less parts sharing... Gone are the days a wing mirror or indicator stalk or door handle was on a whole range of models. This all costs MILLIONS so they have to scrape money back by chipping away at quality where you can't see it.

 

This is not "all new cars are shit". This is people getting what they want.

LDV Pilot Dash

 

Series 1 Disco

 

Austin Maestro

 

Austin Metro

Rover Metro

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I'm at it again afraid! My aspergic need to have a series of a certain type of vehicle means this st220 has now joined the fleet. Minty fresh in contrast to the ropey lx estate...IMG_2582.JPG

Verdict- it's fun and makes a great noise whilst being so.

Fantastic car. Massive amount of everything for money

 

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk

[Ghosty]

My aspergic need to have a series of a certain type of vehicle 

 

 

I don't do it with cars, more so with records, but I can definitely relate.

[RoadworkUK]

Entirely wonderful car. I was horrified when the ST TDCi came out, looking all but identical but with a Transit sound track, and immediately becoming far more popular than the Duratec for thousands of ghastly reasons.

[HMC]

Regulars to the news 24 thread will know I've just got hold of a TDCI Ghia estate.....

 

To join the (taxi) ranks of other mk3s.......

 

I'm a little hazy on details such as why a man needs 3 mk3 mondeos. Maybe I'm the autoshite equivalent of Pierre Bardinon. This behaviour has not been lost on friends and relatives who soon ask 'why?' No doubt they expect some kind of reasoned explanation; so when I tell them there isn't a reason and I don't know why it's interesting (and fun) to see their reactions. Generally a blank nod hiding incomprehension and pity.

 

Back to the new arrival. From cold it had a really lumpy tickover. There seems to be a range of reasons why this might be, but a cheap and easy one was to go to the egr valve...

 

And chisel out the crap. After dunking it in carb cleaner it came up well and the car now ticks over much more happily from cold.

[sierraman]

Frequent and filthy job I’ve found on Mondeo diesels. You’ll find it’ll be a six monthly job to do this. Does yours read mid way on the temp gauge, a usual trait of them is one or both of the thermostats to fail leading to overcooling.

[HMC]

Two thermostats?! I've got a lot to learn. Actually it does seem to run a bit cool.

[sierraman]

Yes a coolant one fitted at the top right hand side of the engine and an oil cooler thermostat on the same side just behind the radiator, either can give overcooling symptoms. You need an OE Ford one for the coolant one and a decent aftermarket one for the oil cooler thermostat. There’s no guarantee it won’t happen again it’s a bit of a ‘they all do that sir’

[Bren]

Our vectra had a "dusting" of carbon on the innards of the egr - but it was enough to make it stick.

 

Anything steel can be treated with mr muscle - brings it up like new.

[sierraman]

True that. Shit on ovens but great on turbos and inlet manifolds.

[HMC]

A busy weekend using mondeos and repairing mondeos.....

The oil change on the tired 200k 1.8 to 5w50 has deffo helped the blue haze when you cane it, sorted an original ford 6000 cd for it, and investigated a speed related droning on the tdci. It seems worst at about 30mph, isn't affected by pressing the clutch, doesn't seem worse on loading up the car on corners, and none of the wheel bearings seem to have play or roughness. It seems to be coming from the front. Could it yet be a wheel bearing or even the quality* "power trac" chinese tyres it wears on the front, or a different sort of gremlin entirely!

What do you recon, any similar experiences?

[Captain Furious]

My experience of droning noises on mine has always been rear wheel bearings, but by the time they get noisy it’s almost always accompanied by an alarming amount of play. Rears are a doddle to change, 4 (torx) bolts and you replace the entire hub, fronts not so much - they’re pressed in and the bottom ball joints are usually an absolute bastard to separate. (I’ve just had one done to cure an ABS problem and just got a garage to do it in the end)

 

I have known tyres to cause a similar noise but only on one particular car which was known for feathering rear tyres on the inside edge and making a very wheel bearingish noise. Easiest way to eliminate that is to swap fronts and rears and see if the noise moves with them. Or swap wheels with one of your other Mondeos.

[Parky]

My Bini made an odd noise which I thought could be a bearing or even the fuel pump. Once I changed the tyres the noise disappeared. Whilst they looked ok tread wise, the sidewalls were badly perished and literally collapsed when the tyre fitter put them on his machine. I can only assume the perished rubber was setting up some sort of odd resonance or there were bubbles on the inside edge I hadn't noticed.

 

Your issue certainly sounds like it could be tyre related

[Bren]

I put budget tyres on my mondeo. On the motorway the noise was akin to having your wife next to you.

[LessThanEqual]

My old car produced an impressive amount of road noise when it was riding on a set of mismatches set of Infinity, Zeta, and Landsail rubbish. Much improvement was had from fitting a set of Uniroyals. You can get Yokohamas in 205/55/R16 for 56 quid a corner fitted.

[Hertz]

Yes I had a similar problem with our Ford C Max TDI a few years back. Like you went through the is it the DMF, is it a driveshaft, is it wheel bearings. In the end it was a mis matched ling long love you long time ditch finder. Got a match pair on the rear and it was then bob on.

[HMC]

Well in the end I decided to sort a couple of things at the same time.

 

The regs for winter tyres in Germany mean I'd need to sort a set for one of the mondeos for our trip in january. The black TDCI is a good as any to take and in arranging to have a set of Michelin cross climates fitted I've got a tyre for year round use that also is approved for use as a winter tyre in Germany. Due to be fitted Wednesday and I'll have them lob it on their hunter machine and have a 4 wheel alignment done at the same time.

 

I'll report back on how they affect the rumble/droning on the move and the general feel of the car.

[Minimad5]

This reminds me - My old man has one of these doing nothing, even after splashing £££ for a new clutch / DMF.
May have to borrow it and use it as a Winter beater.

That ST is rather nice, certainly a mad man for owning three though, good luck.

[RobT]

Father-in-Law has Michelin CrossClimates on his Focus for the same reason i.e. trips to the continent.  Last time they were visiting family near Geneva in winter he was happy with them.

[cpjitservices]

This is the same hateful thing the wife has got, dont get me wrong, I like it, its a good car, plenty o' power but its a problem child! 

 

Injectors failure, Synchro on gear 4, keeps blowing fuses for headlights, oil leak, ac / blower unit will decide one day it no longer wants to work - then it does, Reverse lights keep stopping working albeit new reverse light switch fitted, fuse changed, bulbs changed, connectors checked etc, same with headlights, one day you will go to use them and nothing, new fuse gets them working again though the old fuse still works. In for new exhaust centre box and flexi this morning. Still waiting to get it back. MOT in may and no chance it will go through and I'm loathed to put money into it with injector problems and gearbox.

 

Shame cause its a nice car.

[HMC]

Well, as an update the TDCI is noise free. Well it's as noisy as a slightly tired 14 year old mondeo with no service history would be expected to be, but the droning has gone. The Michelin x climates at each corner helped. There was still something not quite right and a quick second opinion at a local garage confirmed a dying NSF wheelbearing, which they sorted for a decent price.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Noice. Did you know the wings are different to regular Mondeo ones? Fatter arches innit.

[HMC]

Spent a bit of time on the 200k 1.8lx today. At some stage the poor thing had been driven into an immovable object on the NSF corner. Must've made quite a noise as it mangled the bumper, wheel and front wing. In the follow through most of that side got a bit mangled up too. I've touched in where paint had been lost (bare metal simply hadn't rusted!) but no amount of touching in would sort the bent wheel rim and front wing.

E bay came up trumps with a very cheap replacement wing in ford Neptune green ( so the bland colourless shade actually has a name) and a second hand steel rim.

All the bolts came off easily. Nothing was seized. Despite the disintegrated wheelarch liner that had allowed mud to cake the inner wing area, everything underneath was mint.

Having similar age Mercedes in the past, id trade wall to wall soft touch plastics for this any day. I'm astonished.

I binned the convoluted and broken air intake pipe and resonator and remains of the wheel arch liner. I got a replacement liner (e bay again) and did an autoshite version of an induction kit; This povo spec estate has a blanking plate where a front fog light would be. I removed the blank to allow air in up through into the inner wing void where the abbreviated air intake starts.

With everything back together (excuse the mud I was drenched and covered in mud during doing all this) we have a slightly less ropey looking mondeo....

The shut lines haven't suffered...

As a bonus the local tyre shop owner Mark must have taken pity on this mud covered owner of a15 year old mondeo as they refused to accept money for the tyre rim swap! Thankyou tyremarks!

[RobT]

Looks like a productive day tinkering! That's good of the tyre place to do it FOC, means you're likely to go back for other stuff too.

[sierraman]

Good work there pal.

[Burnside]

Agreed well done! Great to see a previous unloved car getting transformed, the replacement wing and some correct wheel trims have improved it no end. Proper Autoshite. 

[Supernaut]

Being another recent owner of a Mk3 Mondeo, I've also been astounded at how easy it is to work on.

 

Everything comes apart so easily, and it's just held together with philips head screws! No specialised tools needed. It's brilliant!

 

I replaced my driver's window regulator using a philips head screwdriver and two sizes of torx.

[sierraman]

You’ve clearly never done a thermostat on the petrol then, or a strut top mount. PITA!!

 

Some stuffs easy, the rear bearings are a doddle, exhausts aren’t too bad and the diesel top thermostat is a doddle as well.