AS Communal MK4&5 Mondeo Thread

[rob88h]

G’d evening chaps. I’m joining the Mondog fraternity! I can’t believe what value for money these cars can represent. 

It was a bit of a rushed purchase, brought on by the death of our mk2.5 Focus, so I hope it’s a good one!

[warren t claim]

FFS!

[grogee]

On 07/12/2025 at 21:22, rob88h said:

G’d evening chaps. I’m joining the Mondog fraternity! I can’t believe what value for money these cars can represent. 

It was a bit of a rushed purchase, brought on by the death of our mk2.5 Focus, so I hope it’s a good one!

Ooh is that a Mk5? Or 4.5? I'm never sure what to call them. Looks sweet, are you happy with it? 

[rob88h]

13 hours ago, grogee said:

Ooh is that a Mk5? Or 4.5? I'm never sure what to call them. Looks sweet, are you happy with it?

I believe this is the mk5. 
It’s a 16 plate. £2500, 140,000 miles, with full service mystery.  Some chat about a cambelt at 80k, but I dare say that’s nonsense as I think they should be at 125k and who changes them early! It’s most likely overdue…

It’s too nice for me to be honest. I’m impressed with how modern it feels! 

Currently there are three “bongs” on start-up:
- The TPMS is profoundly confused. 
- The left headlight self leveller is jammed, or profoundly confused. 
- Oil change warning. It’s due some preventative maintenance!.

I’m 1 week and 500 miles in with it on its new life in the A12 Gulag and so far nothing mission critical is failing. 

It’s going in for a couple of recalls the PO didn’t attend to and Ford are going to give it a Health Inspection... I wonder what they’ll think of this low budget Mk5 😆. 

[grogee]

2 hours ago, rob88h said:

The TPMS is profoundly confused. 

TADTS. My stepdad has a 16 plate Focus that is exactly the same. Fuggetabbouwdit and move on with your life

[rob88h]

I guess it’s a hard life for the poor buggers whipping around inside the wheel. 
I’ve also read that mix-and-match sensors wreak havoc, so the plan is to most definitely ignore it for now and then put four new OE sensors in all in one go whenever it’s new tyres time. And probably then continue to ignore it. 

[Bren]

Did the oil and filter on ours today. Initially used the pela but gave up when it took 12 hours to vacuum out 2 L of oil. So got the jack out which I should have done in the first place.

[grogee]

I'm due to do mine at the weekend. I'm borrowing a mate's two poster though. I'm doing autobox fluid as well and the up-and-down would finish me on the driveway. 

[rob88h]

I’d intended to do my oil and filters right away after purchase, to show some good intentions at least!
Yet here we are, 2500 miles later, with the car in near continuous use it hasn’t sat still enough for me to do it. So for now I just keep clicking “ok” to the degraded oil warning that pops up every start up and continue flogging it down the A12.

In fact, it’s muscle memory now. Clutch in, Start button, TPMS fault “Ok”, adaptive headlight fault “Ok”, degraded oil “Ok”, key battery low “Ok” and Go! 😬

[sierraman]

6 hours ago, rob88h said:

I’d intended to do my oil and filters right away after purchase, to show some good intentions at least!
Yet here we are, 2500 miles later, with the car in near continuous use it hasn’t sat still enough for me to do it. So for now I just keep clicking “ok” to the degraded oil warning that pops up every start up and continue flogging it down the A12.

In fact, it’s muscle memory now. Clutch in, Start button, TPMS fault “Ok”, adaptive headlight fault “Ok”, degraded oil “Ok”, key battery low “Ok” and Go! 😬

With the plastic plug type sump. I like the old fashioned 17mm steel plug. 

[hairnet]

roflcoptersausagewaffle

 

fair enuff but wont it be the cost of a house by the time its finished

[hairnet]

@egg

[sierraman]

4 hours ago, hairnet said:

roflcoptersausagewaffle

 

fair enuff but wont it be the cost of a house by the time its finished

It will indeed. Perhaps in years to come they’ll rocket in value who knows. 

[Bren]

Ours got it's first decent clean of year. 150k fast approaching- not a lot really - I suspect tin worm will kill it before anything mechanical.

[Unknownfnch]

Thought I’d join in on the Mondeo ownership. Picked up 2 weeks ago for £900. 13 plate 2.0 diesel with 117,000 miles on it. So far replaced a split boost pipe, cambelt and waterpump as it was still on its original, full service done and a set of front brakes.  Titanium spec so it’s got a few decent bits on it.  Bit of a step down from my cl500 but decided I need to save some money for a couple of years ….
 

[Bren]

Our car has developed a droning sound. I suspect the kormoran front tyres are to blame as they are approaching the limit. It wears kormoran all round.

I was going to swap the wheels front to back just to make sure unfortunately the rear nearside has a damaged inner side wall.

So three tyres are required.

[Bren]

New tyres didn't cure the rumble.

It needed a wheel bearing and ABS sensor.

The last car I had wheel bearing issues with was a mk2 cavalier over thirty years ago.

The engine and gearbox are brilliant. But they have french heritage.

The rest of the car? Getting a bit needy in old age.

[rob88h]

On 06/01/2026 at 08:08, rob88h said:

I’d intended to do my oil and filters right away after purchase, to show some good intentions at least!
Yet here we are, 2500 miles later, with the car in near continuous use it hasn’t sat still enough for me to do it. So for now I just keep clicking “ok” to the degraded oil warning that pops up every start up and continue flogging it down the A12.

I did the oil in the end, it came out like water upon removing that stupid plastic bayonet sump plug thing and went all up my arm and subsequently all over the drive. I can't remember what the mileage was, but looking back at old posts in my thread it was only in March - yet here we are again in August and it's been asking for more oil replacements with P253F Engine Oil Deteriorated. 
I think the service indicator, which I cancelled already, is on a mileage basis (?) but I do wonder if there is a sensor or a model that brings on "oil deteriorated". 
IF <user> ignores service indicator, SPAM <the bastard> with oil based error codes until they actually do it.
Thankfully this time it looked and flowed like engine oil at least.

The main problem I'm having with this Mondog is fuel metering and pressures. Probably related. There are specific set of circumstances in which it will cut out, long cruises on the second or more journey of the day with a sudden high torque demand, like an overtake attempt from 60mph. Knowing this we just drive it avoiding doing that. I think it's probably when it's doing a regen and we're asking for the beans, but it can't provide enough fuel pressure for all of that, so it just shits the bed. I took it for a drive on Forscan and it's requested vs. actual fuel pressures are off and drift further apart if you boot it. It's a self-inflicted economy mode, …but it drives like a rocket ship still (when compared to a 300,000 mile 30 year XUD auto that was my benchmark of acceleration*).

I changed the rear pads recently too; I'd really got my monies worth out of the old ones!

For unknown reasons, the cheat code with the accelerator and brake pedal simply would not work for putting the electric hand brake into service mode. My theory is I have too many error pop-ups on start up so the critical key cycle timing is blown out of the window if the brake module is waiting to boot up after the other modules have displayed out their errors first. Regardless, I could force it using Forscan. It was also missing an anti-rattle clip, so I spared no expense and got a new one from Ford.

 

It’s on for 20k miles with us this year, so doing well so far for £2500. Still pleased. 

[Homersimpson]

2 hours ago, rob88h said:

I did the oil in the end, it came out like water upon removing that stupid plastic bayonet sump plug thing and went all up my arm and subsequently all over the drive. I can't remember what the mileage was, but looking back at old posts in my thread it was only in March - yet here we are again in August and it's been asking for more oil replacements with P253F Engine Oil Deteriorated. 
I think the service indicator, which I cancelled already, is on a mileage basis (?) but I do wonder if there is a sensor or a model that brings on "oil deteriorated". 
IF <user> ignores service indicator, SPAM <the bastard> with oil based error codes until they actually do it.
Thankfully this time it looked and flowed like engine oil at least.

The main problem I'm having with this Mondog is fuel metering and pressures. Probably related. There are specific set of circumstances in which it will cut out, long cruises on the second or more journey of the day with a sudden high torque demand, like an overtake attempt from 60mph. Knowing this we just drive it avoiding doing that. I think it's probably when it's doing a regen and we're asking for the beans, but it can't provide enough fuel pressure for all of that, so it just shits the bed. I took it for a drive on Forscan and it's requested vs. actual fuel pressures are off and drift further apart if you boot it. It's a self-inflicted economy mode, …but it drives like a rocket ship still (when compared to a 300,000 mile 30 year XUD auto that was my benchmark of acceleration*).

I changed the rear pads recently too; I'd really got my monies worth out of the old ones!

For unknown reasons, the cheat code with the accelerator and brake pedal simply would not work for putting the electric hand brake into service mode. My theory is I have too many error pop-ups on start up so the critical key cycle timing is blown out of the window if the brake module is waiting to boot up after the other modules have displayed out their errors first. Regardless, I could force it using Forscan. It was also missing an anti-rattle clip, so I spared no expense and got a new one from Ford.

 

It’s on for 20k miles with us this year, so doing well so far for £2500. Still pleased. 

If you still have the TPMS fault they are quite easy to fix using Forscan, a new sensor and the little progamming tool you buy of Amazon.

I did my wifes 2016 Focus a few months back, only issue was that either wheels had been swapped or sensors incorrectly programmed so initially I changed the wrong one.  If doing it again I would reprogramme the sensors first and then when you get to the one that wont programme you can just programme the new one in the box before fitting.

Cheap sensor are apparently poor quality and don't last but a new one was a surprisingly reasonable £36 from our local Ford dealer.

I bought a cheap manual tyre changer to break the beads but if you know which one it is then you can just take it to a tyre place to fit.

All in with the sensor, tyre changer and programming tool it was about £85 to DIY.

 

[Bren]

Some subframe rust action. It needs some protection as the MOT is due in November. I have applied rust killer but it takes 24 hours to go off. While it was on the ramps I got some tar remover on the side skirts.

Given the car's age and mileage I may well look at replacing it next year. It isn't worth much and I don't really want to be spending much more on it - we have had the car four years this December and it has been a bit needy the past couple of years - not unexpected as it's an old ford.

[HMC]

I suppose i should make my contribution. Bought via a search whilst on holiday driving through the cotswolds when by bmw’s gearbox died. Purely on proximity, and responsiveness of the vendor to my call and willingness to accept a dead, v5-less (to be forwarded on our return home) bmw in cheap px. There was also a cheap l322 range rover for slightly more but thats not something i wanted to grasp whilst risk averse and carless and with a car load of kids far from home. The  mondeo please.

I didn't know such a car existed - a mondeo with a 2.5 inline 5 cylinder tuebo engine. Basically a volvo engine. Its smooth and swift and effortless but not as fast as i was expecting. The gearing (long) and the weight probably have sonething to do with it. One of those cars thats fairly economical when you want it to be (i can fairly easily get 35mpg) but thirsty without an equivalent amount of reward when you cane it.

I dont think they sold many, the default in those days being a turbodiesel of some description. discontinued both as an engine choice, and a trim level (ghia) at the 2010 facelift. It was replaced effectively by a 4 cylinder turbo that was more powerful and i suspect, more economic.

The tax isnt horrific as the engine is a bit detuned - apparently in part to lower the co2 and a manual . 

It didn't need much at the recent mot but the price of the optional IVDC (active and selectable damping) shocker wasnt particularly cheap. 

I like it as its very competent, sounds nice when you go through the gears but is also invisible. The sort of car thats comforting and  essential if all your others are ancient.

 

[warren t claim]

A Ghia! Any hardcore fake wood dash pics?

[sierraman]

7 hours ago, warren t claim said:

A Ghia! Any hardcore fake wood dash pics?

I’ve got a spare wood fascia for a Mk4 somewhere if someone really must. 😂