AS Communal MK4&5 Mondeo Thread

[sierraman]

Picked up a towbar this evening for the Mondeo, the bar is already bolted on, just got to wire all this clobber on...

[sierraman]

Ready to clog up the highways and byeways of the U.K. Just need to swap the 13 pin plug for a 7 pin one as on the in-laws trailer. Then I can really bollocks the DMF up! 

[Snipes]

Once again it's Saturday, so that means driving all over the south east being disappointed by the dross for sale. 

1) Drive over to Kingston and check out this 2.5T TitX;

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202007030808582

2) Have a look at the 2.0D TitX Auto they have there also;

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006029735786

This also takes me near-ish to another 2.5T;

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006120073960

-called about this and the aircon doesn't work, which isn't ideal but I'm getting use to hearing that now. 

3) If can be arsed after hours driving and messing around in South east/South London, swing by Maidstone for another 2.0D Tit Auto;

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202002237630516

Wildcard; Vectra 1.8 SRI in Upminster;

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006260555852

All assuming people answer their phones....

[Jamie]

I really don't get why you seemed to have spent the last 6 odd weeks looking at cars all over London, saying you won't travel 3 hours to look at a car which is within the AS circle (mondeo at 750), advertised by one of us(not some chancer trader) for less money than any of the ones you've been looking at ? I seem to recall in another post you said 'it's time rather than money' how much time have you wasted looking at dog turds up to now? 

[Out Run]

Finally contact cleaned the switches on my steering wheel. ACC went from intermittent to not working at all, and the volume/track switch was also acting up.

It was just shit getting inside. All stripped down, cleaned up and working again.

Removing the airbag is the worst thing on these.

[sierraman]

I just sprayed contact cleaner down the gaps on mine and it worked. 

[Out Run]

2 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I just sprayed contact cleaner down the gaps on mine and it worked. 

Yeah, that works. But I wanted to be as thorough as I could.

[Snipes]

Had a look at the 2.5T in Kingston (link above, but it's expired). Didn't buy it; brake fluid level below Min (probably needs discs and pads from what I could see through the wheels) and it was smoking like a bastard when I jumped out to check the parking sensors. Also the AC didn't seem to be working despite recent invoices (condenser, etc) and the vendor wouldn't let me take it off the trading estate so I couldn't get it above 2nd gear. Exhaust was kinda noisy too, like the back box was blowing. 

Shame, I'd bet it was a really nice car when it was new. 

[Out Run]

26 minutes ago, Sir Snipes said:

Had a look at the 2.5T in Kingston (link above, but it's expired). Didn't buy it; brake fluid level below Min (probably needs discs and pads from what I could see through the wheels) and it was smoking like a bastard when I jumped out to check the parking sensors. Also the AC didn't seem to be working despite recent invoices (condenser, etc) and the vendor wouldn't let me take it off the trading estate so I couldn't get it above 2nd gear. Exhaust was kinda noisy too, like the back box was blowing. 

Shame, I'd bet it was a really nice car when it was new. 

Just get a 2.2 TXS, IMO. Diesel, yeah. But no Powershift to worry about.

Mine doesn’t put a foot wrong, and is 235 BHP with 540Nm after a remap.

If diesel gear ratios don’t bother you that much, when it’s the main car and not the fun car, you can’t go far wrong.

[sierraman]

Mines in the garage today, belt pump and fuel filter fitting. £100 labour, can’t argue with that. 

[wuvvum]

On 7/2/2020 at 7:42 AM, sierraman said:

I think mine had new bushes for the test in 2019 so hopefully be alright for a while. Good that you had access to the puller for gratis, they’re £120-150 new, by the time you’ve bought one you might as well have paid less than that in labour! 

Indeed - just under £70 in labour for the local garage to do the bush on mine.  I couldn't find anyone to lend me the tool.  Might have been worth buying one if both bushes needed doing, but for just the one I couldn't be arsed with buying it and then trying to resell it on eBay.

On 7/3/2020 at 7:43 PM, sierraman said:

Ready to clog up the highways and byeways of the U.K. Just need to swap the 13 pin plug for a 7 pin one as on the in-laws trailer. Then I can really bollocks the DMF up! 

You can buy 13-pin to 7-pin adaptors on eBay for a couple of quid.  Just remember to take it out when you're not towing as they seem to knock out the car's rear fogs for some reason (or at least it did on my old Movano - which I finally discovered for myself after taking most of an afternoon trying to trace the fault ).

[sierraman]

It’s really not worth buying the tool unless you’re a garage or whatnot. If it’s cheaper to pay the garage to do what is a fairly shitty job or to crawl about on your hands a knees changing bushes for more or less the same cost or to save about £15... fuck that. 

[sierraman]

Was supposed to pick it up at 3pm, went ‘come at 5pm’ could hear some hammering and grinding. Slightly concerned now... wondering what on earth is needing grinding and banging on a timing belt change?

[sierraman]

I reckon I’m going to either get 

a) 5pm... ‘there’s been a problem...’

b) the engine shitting itself dramatically on the motorway at the weekend. 

c) Another problem...

[sierraman]

It’s arrived back no problems runs a dream. Garage said it had had some right trouble bleeding it after,  so them changing it for a tenner extra was well worth the agg. 

[Jamie]

I know it's a mk3 but fatherChod is selling his titanium x. Said he'd let it go for 900 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353131137791

[sierraman]

8 hours ago, jamiechod said:

I know it's a mk3 but fatherChod is selling his titanium x. Said he'd let it go for 900 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353131137791

Looks a tidy car that does. Probably a good buy for £900.

[wuvvum]

There's something wrong with my Mondeo.  I mean there's definitely something wrong with it now since the engine ran away, but there was something wrong with it before that. 

I went to Milton Keynes this weekend, which with the journey there and back and a bit of running around when there made a total of 315 miles.  The trip computer told me I'd averaged 49mpg over the trip, which seemed about right for a trip which was mostly dual carriageway with the cruise set to 70, and a bit of Milton Keynes.  However, I put in a total of £50-'orth of diesel (9.6 gallons) and it used all of that on the trip - which equates to about 33mpg.

So in the absence of a massive fuel leak (there isn't one, I've checked), firstly how can a diesel engine which is running smoothly and has just aced the MOT emissions test possibly be using that much fuel, and secondly, how can there be such a huge discrepancy between what the trip computer is saying and what the car is actuallly doing?

[warren t claim]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

There's something wrong with my Mondeo.  I mean there's definitely something wrong with it now since the engine ran away, but there was something wrong with it before that. 

I went to Milton Keynes this weekend, which with the journey there and back and a bit of running around when there made a total of 315 miles.  The trip computer told me I'd averaged 49mpg over the trip, which seemed about right for a trip which was mostly dual carriageway with the cruise set to 70, and a bit of Milton Keynes.  However, I put in a total of £50-'orth of diesel (9.6 gallons) and it used all of that on the trip - which equates to about 33mpg.

So in the absence of a massive fuel leak (there isn't one, I've checked), firstly how can a diesel engine which is running smoothly and has just aced the MOT emissions test possibly be using that much fuel, and secondly, how can there be such a huge discrepancy between what the trip computer is saying and what the car is actuallly doing?

You suffered diesel runaway??

[sierraman]

Blocked DPF can affect the mpg, obviously as the engine is working it’s bollocks off due to the back pressure. I just drove mine Saturday 260 miles and it did just under 52mpg, that was loaded up with 4 people and a load of tackle.

A diesel should only runaway if there is excessive oil in the engine, usually some way over the dipstick, apparently the oil level on these can raise fractionally in service but not enough to cause that, the only thing I can think of is it leaking diesel through an incontinent injector. If you’d had a proper runaway you’d either have a broken conrod or a bollocksed DMF/clutch from trying to stall it in fifth or whatever. 

 

[wuvvum]

It's had too much oil in it since I bought it.  I assume it was overfilled when the last oil change was done.  I'd been meaning to drain some off but didn't get round to it / forgot.  Last night was the first time I'd properly caned it off the line and it obviously didn't take too kindly to it - it ran away and I had to stall it in 6th.  It was only running away for about 15 seconds as fortunately the road was quietish so I was able to stop straight away.

That leaves the fuel economy question.  It shouldn't be the DPF as that's relatively new, there's no warning lights up and like I say it aced the emissions test.  Also if it was guzzling fuel because it was fighting a blocked DPF I would expect the trip computer to reflect that, rather than showing a figure that's 50% better than what it's actually doing.

[sierraman]

Despite the emissions pass I’d do a leak off test. 

[wuvvum]

Stupid question, but how does one go about doing that on a common rail engine?

[sierraman]

Set of hair dye bottles, some appropriate tubes, then run the tubes from the injector return pipes. Go careful with the unions that they’re not broken. The bottles should all fill roughly similar amounts, a significant difference would suggest that cylinder is being overfuelled. 

[wuvvum]

I started it up at lunchtime to move it off the pavement.  It took slightly more cranking than usual but fired up OK, brief puff of blue smoke out of the exhaust but it settled down after that and sounds OK as far as I could tell.  I'm going to attempt an oil change on it this evening - I'll run it for a while to get it warmed up, but I've taken the intake pipe off so that if the turbo does start pulling oil through again it'll just spray it all over the engine bay rather than pushing it into the cylinders.

[sierraman]

Shouldn’t be giving blue smoke out at any time so it’s burning it as well. I’d just refill the oil and see how you go. If it’s taking ages to crank as well it would suggest compression issues. 

[wuvvum]

It wasn't ages, it was maybe about 3 seconds - just it normally starts instantly.  I am guessing the blue smoke is the residual oil that was still in the cylinders from yesterday's event being burnt off.

[sierraman]

Going to get the DMF done in a few weeks, done 700 miles in a week in it, it’s rattling it’s bollocks off, got another round trip same distance in another 2 weeks, better safe than sorry. Just under £700 bastard quid. Then again it’s paid for itself already in a roundabout way work wise so might as well get it done then it’s a known quantity. This isn’t like me, I normally run them until something big goes then scrap the cunt, but I simply haven’t got the time or the energy to be looking round at clapped out £1,000 Mondeos at the moment. 

[wuvvum]

Got the oil changed on mine last night - it now has the correct quantity in it (about 1/3 of the way up the dipstick - better on the low side than the high side at the moment I think) and a slightly thicker grade, which I always think is a good idea in a high mileage engine.

It sounds OK - it's quite hesitant on the throttle but then that's not unexpected, the intake pipe being off and having zero boost is probably confusing the shit out of the MAF.  It's not smoking though which is good.

I had a listen when I was under the car with the undertrays off and it sounds like the rattling noise at idle is coming from the aircon compressor pulley.  I still need to do the copper pipe test to be certain but that did seem to be where the noise was originating from.

I haven't driven it properly yet - I still need to take all the intake pipework off and give everything a good clean out.  I will invest in several cans of carb cleaner and have a go at the weekend.

[junkyarddog]

Ford recommend 5- 1/2 ltrs of oil in the engine.

I've always ran mine on 5.

It has 181k on it now.