Mondeo Mk1/2 Buyers Guide

[sierraman]

I wrote a post on this some time ago, it was a bit half arsed with no pictures, but since writing it I've had a few more clapped out Mondeos through my hands so I can impart some of the completely useless information. I've figured this because although they are currently worth fuck all, these old Mk1/2 Mondeos are prime Autoshite fodder and a I've seen a few posts over the last year or so where people have bought (or attempted to) them. All this stuff is of probably no earthly interest to anyone but here goes anyway... 

 

Bodywork

 

First place to check on any Mondeo, be it Mk1 or Mk2 is the end of the sills, from about half way down the rear doors towards the back. Most will have been welded here as it is particularly prone so far as to say if it hasn't been welded here it probably will need it. You can usually detect even the most professional welding job here as the arrow for the jacking point will probably be missing. Giving the area a good grasp will probably reveal some crusty sounds here. Next place to look is the end of the sill as it curves round the base of the arch. These were a join on the factory from the inner and outer sill, the inside part fills up with crap and the two part company, I'd go as far as to say if these are still ok, wire brush them down and a smear of Sikaflex to keep the damp out, theres an access point behind the rear liner to pump Waxoyl into the end of the sills, but i'd question the logic of this if theres the potential for welding in this area in the near future. Probably one for if you have had new sills fitted

 

 

 

Your focus after this will probably be the arches, for some reason the later Mondeo Mk2's seem to rot the arches out much worse than an early Mk1. Its not unusual to find a rust free arch on a Mk1 and a completely rotten Mk2 arch, for some reason the V6's and ST200's seem much worse for this. These can go anywhere from the join of the top of the bumper all the way round. In this area the filler surround usually rots out, again less a problem if at all on a Mk1, but very prevalent on late Mk2's. The surround is easy to remove but if theres anymore than a small scab, expect the 3 retaining tabs behind to be rotted out completely, repairs anymore than a bit of glassfibring aren't really economical in this area given you'll be dropping the tank and any welding here is likely to cause some distortion. Basically if you pop the filler surround out the picture below is the best case scenario. While its out, pump the area behind with rustproofer, all the road salt and crap gets chucked up here, hence often ones that have had the rear mudflaps fitted fare a bit better. But don't count on it...

 

If you open the doors, theres a piece of plastic that keeps all the rainwater out, ease this back, the small poppet clips will probably break but they are pence to replace, behind water gets trapped and again in a bad circumstance will rot the corner of the sill out. Prising this back then sorting any surface rust out followed by some Dinitrol or whatever should stop any grief there...

 

 

Under the boot floor they can get scabby but the worst spot apart from any boot floor rot itself which should be obvious, are the areas where the boot floor meets the inner arches, the seam is thick with seam sealer, these rot from the seam outwards, theres plenty of people caught out here, as its not immediately obvious unless you pull the carpet round the struts back, patching this area can be tricky, no repair panels are available so its a matter or making a few plates up to repair the convex shape. A lot of the other stuff I've mentioned is immediately obvious but you wouldn't find this stuff until the boot floor was pretty much coming away otherwise. The rot itself can be anywhere along this seam, it works its way all the way round to the rear seatbelt mounts, which are covered by the plastic cover between the seat and the C post. Pull this out and check those mounts, don't be surprised to see rot there, If its not too bad, I wouldn't discount a car because of it but its a bit of leverage to get the price down. If its good then give it a blast with the rustproofer. Having said that they don't go anything like as bad as the Focus due to not having the carpet type arch liner.

Final port of call is the area just in front of the Fuel Filter, the thick mastic here takes a pounding, splits, then eventually rots the rearmost part of the floorpan. The floors themselves very rarely rust, apart from where they join the base of the inner sill, though it is worth checking the actual floors in the footwells given the propensity of these to leak water in. 

 

While were on the subject of the bodywork, I couldn't go without mentioning the Faberge Egg fragile bumpers, Needless to say Ford supplies have dried up, but we live in hope, Ebay is your choice but for what its worth I prefer used actual genuine Ford bumpers, they fit much better, silly things like the front towing eye rarely fits properly on the £45 skin bumpers you get on Ebay. If you can find a used but genuine Ford bumper then so much the better for spraying, Mk1 bumpers while available are dearer plus they ones that crop up now tend to be the full body colour ones fitted to the facelift Mk1 and higher spec ones, so used black top ones are at a premium. Ditto for any ST24/RSAP and ST200 stuff. 

[warren t claim]

Front suspension bushes are made of cheese.

 

Clutch replacement can render a car frag fodder.

 

Three different types of injection pump fitted to the diesels.

[warren t claim]

I've had about  20 of these and found the later ones were more prone to quality control issues.

 

One piece exhausts make first time replacement costly.

[warren t claim]

Unusual brake specs. You'll find two litre petrols with rear drums and diesels with rear discs for some reason.

[warren t claim]

On the subject of exhausts, the (shite) auto has a different system fitted with an extra flexi pipe and costs a lot more than the usual manual pipe.

 

Also the rear bumper from the 2.0 won't fit on a 1.6/1.8 as it exits the other side of the bumper.

[sierraman]

Engines

 

Most likely engine you will come across these days will be a 1.8 petrol, available as a 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0. These fall into 2 types, pre 1998 ones were the silvertop units, then after this the black cam cover units with the two piece crank case ladder. Personally I found the late units a bit better torque. MPG should be about 34-35 on a 1.8, a bit either way with the 1.6 and 2.0, depending on the gear ratio on the 2.0, earlier 2.0 could be fitted with the closer ratios. A bit of useless information, a different final drive ratio was made for France. 

 

Given regular oil changes these will run for 200K easily, though be mindful the later units were not suitable for LPG use, plenty suffered from burnt out valves. Oil filter is a real swine on these, requiring the wheel off to access it properly. Make sure its been fed the correct 5W30 either semi or fully synth. Same for coolant on them, needs to be the correct OAT red stuff. One area to check on later Mk2's are the Thermostat housing, these positively piss coolant out with age from two locations, either the large O ring where it joins the block or on the single sensor later units, through the O ring where the CTS sits in the housing. the large O ring is available separate, which providing the housing hasn't cracked should sort it. Pattern ones off Ebay can be dire, from not being either warped or not having the hole for the sensor made - some were screw fit others were held in with a clip. Earlier types as fitted to Mk1 and early Mk2 weren't anything like as bad. 

 

Coil packs can pack in but whats new there...

 

These can be quite fussy with plugs, I've fitted all sorts to these, the two that ran best were either NGK or Motorcraft plugs, both same price roughly a tenner or so. Originally they were Champion plugs. 

 

Sometimes running on a goosed coil can mess the cat up, again they can also just break up particularly on the Mk1. Something to be mindful of is that on the 1997 Mk1 to Mk2 cross over they fitted a type of manifold that was particularly prone to cracking, the Cat on these is located aft of the radiator, new these manifolds aren't cheap but you should be able to get one welded if you know someone thats handy with welding cast. 

 

Like said before the original system on them was a one piece system, on the mk1 it had a funny design where it doubled back on itself. Doubt you'd find a Mk1 on its original system but its not unknown as factory systems tend to be quite hardy.

 

Timing belts, the advised change on the silver top was 60K but the black tops was higher but i'd stick to the 60K interval, as belts go these have quite a thick belt, its usually failed tensioners or idlers that go on these usually when taken distance over the interval

 

The big killer of these especially in old age is the clutch, an easy £400 job, though with care a clutch on these can easily see 120K. These have a characteristic high bite on them but anything out of the ordinary might mean you are in for a £400 touch. Its do able on a driveway if you have masochistic tendancies. 

 

Expect a bit of oil on the base of the sump to bellhousing, I've never seen one that didn't, unless its flooding out which could be a sign of the crank end seal, which again can be a weakness in old age of these. 

 

Stuff like CV joints and driveline stuff like gearboxes and diffs are strong but again its an old car so anything could be wrong

 

Wishbones bushes delaminate for fun, expect cheap ones of these and drop links to last no more that 18 months. Unipart ones are on ebay for quite cheap now so could be worth a go, genuine wishbones are scarce. I've fitted Lemforder ones before and the didn't live that much longer so you've got to accept they'll just be service part. Nothing lasted as long as the Ford ones, the passenger side ones characteristic by the bolt facing down below the gearbox, unless you fancy dropping the subframe a few turns I used to just fit them with the Nyloc nut on the top. 

 

Rear Drop links can be prone to premature failure, the design being completely different on the Mk1 and pre 1998 Mk2 to the the post 1998 ones. Easy swap either way.

 

The front brakes rarely give trouble, the rear discs can be trouble with leaking calipers but strangely enough less so than the Mk3. There was 2 types of rear drum, the 203 type fitted to earlier cars and the later type 228 drums, be aware that the cylinders are not compatible throughout, the later ones fitted with a type that TRW supply that your factor might not have in stock unless you are prepared to modify the back plate to accomodate a different cut out. Brake pipes needless to say rot like hell, trickiest being those that pass over the fuel tank. 

 

Trim can be a real swine to source, Sail panels go all funny and go quickly on a breaker, you can strip them down to repaint them if your a bit crafty. The weather seals on the back blow, leading to it pissing water inside the doors. Available new strangely enough, but a £25 a piece job from Ford. The steering wheels go all funny, leading to you incessantly having bits of black stuff on your hands. Finally they piss water in like you have never known through the seal on the pollen filter, there are 2 seals, one on the cover and the other where the housing meets the bulkhead. This was really common when they were new. However a problem as they have got old so to speak, is the seam sealer on the bulkhead drying, splitting and letting water in. Needless to say a dash out job. 

[sierraman]

I could have written about the diesels but there’s so few of them left, your chances of finding one that’s not completely fucked is fairly minimal.

 

I’ve read back through this wondering why I persevere with them... what heaps of shit! I guess that’s what it’s all about though!

[Mally]

If you have one with a 2.0 petrol Blacktop engine that runs well, Mally may buy the engine

[oldcars]

£400 for a clutch is a bargain compared to mt 75's one.

[HMC]

Great posts thanks, very relevant as I’m going to look at a mk2 at the weekend.

[sierraman]

If you need to know any more PM us.

[HMC]

How many Mondeos have you had do you recon?

[sierraman]

Six. But I had one of them for 7 years.

[cort1977]

Did I understand that correctly that the front wheel has to come off to change the oil filter?  Genius. 

 

Thanks for the information though, I can see a cheap Mondeo in my future sometime...

[sierraman]

Yes, you might get it off at another way but it’ll be a struggle if you aren’t doing it on a ramp.

[Honey Badger]

The Autoboxes on 2.0 Ghia's shit themselves at exactly 122k, ask me how I know.

 

In fairness to the Mondeo with the explodating auto box it was a really nice car, comfortable with loads of toys and I really liked it up to the point it left me standing for 3 hours in a t shirt at night, in November at the Earls Barton turning of the A45.

 

The gearbox specialist said they all do that Sir, got sold onto into a guy for £150 who drove down from up north to get it, he wanted the Ghia interior for one of his many Mondeos.

[fairkens]

Great post OP. I get 40-45empeegees from my mk2 1.8

[Mally]

The engines from autos are preferable to the Oval boys, less driver abuse means we can abuse them longer.

Different flywheel sensor on autos.

[HMC]

Why were the mk1/2 Mondeo so popular in bangers and someone told me they were banned from some meets?

[sierraman]

Really strong at the front due to the big fuck off subframe. Most of the 2.0 left are Autos, but they are a touch thirsty.

[warren t claim]

Why were the mk1/2 Mondeo so popular in bangers and someone told me they were banned from some meets?

The 1600 is banned from banger racing in the 1600 class.

[sierraman]

They do have Mondeo only meets though. For the hassle in finding a Mk1/2 I’d have thought a Mk3 would be better for banger racing. They’re everywhere for a couple of hundred quid.

[Austin of England]

Don't forget to check the spare wheel well, the tail light seals go hard and let in water which can sit unnoticed in the wheel well and before you know it your spare wheel will be bouncing out along the road

[sierraman]

Surprised me how many people just let out those bungs in the floor instead of siliconing the lights up proper. The seals get full of crap and rot letting the water piss in.