project Early Mondeo Saloon Saved From The Scrapman.

[egg]

1 hour ago, Slowsilver said:

The problem is any water leak doesn't just sit on the boot floor, so can't just be mopped out. Don't know about your baSe but on the Ghia there is carpet on the boot floor and up both sides, so it soaks in and the carpet has to be removed to dry it out properly. which it why I am keen to seal it completely if possible.

I have the same issue, but I'm only talking about 'dampness/condensation' levels of water rather than enough water to soak in as such.

[egg]

Re bumper @Slowsilver, not sure if this helps

[matt79]

Dont know if the info here is any good -

https://www.fordwiki.co.uk/index.php/Front_bumper_removal

or -

https://talkford.com/community/topic/115402-front-bumper-removal-procedure/

Good to see one of these being saved, cant remember the last time I saw one on the road

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, Slowsilver said:

OK Mondeo gurus. Help required.
Where the hell are the nuts which hold the front bumper on?
The HBOL is, as always, useless. It says remove the screw holding the wheelarch liner on to the bumper ( there isn't one) and then remove the two nuts from the studs and slide the bumper forwards, disengaging it from the side guides. It shows a close-up picture of a stud with a nut on it sticking out of a painted box section but gives no clue as to whereabouts this is on the front of the car. So far I have removed the foglights and the plastic grille from the bumper, then removed the front undertray but, looking through the bumper, down into the engine compartment or up from underneath I can see no sign of these elusive studs and nuts. The only other thought I had was that they are behind the wheelarch liners but the HBOL makes no mention of removing these (not that that is any sort of clue) and it means removing the front wheels and fighting with some very rusty fixings, so I would rather not do this and then find they are not there after all. Any ideas? Or are they so obvious that I can't see them?
 

Front wheels off, undo arch liner at front, undo bolts and spire clips that sit inside front wing, undo the clips on the front under grill and undo at bottom where it attaches to the undertray then undo the two bolts holding the two arms that connect at front bottom of the bumper. Good luck with getting them off you’ll probably have to cut them off. 

Any old silicone will seal back lights, strong stuff like windscreen sealant or PU sealant means you’ll have to smash the cluster to remove it in future. 

[Peter C]

Any use to you?

https://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/213944/1994-mondeo-estate-failure-free

[sierraman]

Worth having to break that is. You’d get some decent coin for the back bumper and tailgate, hoy the 1.8 silver top out and you’ve £150 there if it’s a good un. Probably not worth putting back on road, use it to let the good ones live. 

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, The Mighty Quinn said:

^ ^  What he said. These cars have now GONE. There are none in breakers and Ford don't sell anything for them now.

 

£150 is a gift, both as spares and a profit opportunity.

This is what’s seeing them off now and partly why I’m getting rid of all the bits I have for them and moving on to the newer ones, some parts are literally unobtainable. You won’t find them in the breakers and Ford do not want to know for obvious reasons. Something like the lower PAS return pipe, £160 from Ford assuming you could find one, that effectively puts most Mk1/Mk2 Mondeos to bed, add the labour on to that and you’ve the thick end of a £300 bill. I’ve just been stripping one to the bare shell, you get no end of desperate folk trying to get something like a brake servo  or a rear anti roll bar finding it can’t be got easily anymore and chuck it away. It got like this with the Sierra, something simple breaking and it was off the road a month of Sunday’s while you trawled every scrapyard to find the part. 

[Eyersey1234]

Probably won't be long before the Mk1 Focus goes the same way, the newest are now 15 years old. 

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Probably won't be long before the Mk1 Focus goes the same way, the newest are now 15 years old. 

The years pass faster than that - the first ones are 22. 

[sierraman]

42 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

The years pass faster than that - the first ones are 22. 

Mustard mitt I do fancy an early Mk1 1.8 LX again with that lovely blue velour upholstery they came with. Galloping rot sees most Focus Mk1 off.

[Richard_FM]

It’s been interesting to see how some cars that were everywhere are now rare to see around.  
 

The first one I remember going this way was the Sierra which caused a lot of hoo haa when it was launched due to the jellymould styling & carried over Cortina bits.

The Mondeo also got a fair bit of attention as ford needed to get it right after the mk5 Escort struggled after launch.

My uncle had one within a few months of launch followed by 2 others.

[adw1977]

3 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Probably won't be long before the Mk1 Focus goes the same way, the newest are now 15 years old. 

 

1 hour ago, BorniteIdentity said:

The years pass faster than that - the first ones are 22. 

Both these statements are true!

[Slowsilver]

10 hours ago, Peter C said:

Any use to you?

https://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/213944/1994-mondeo-estate-failure-free

Thanks but no thanks. One broken Mondeo is more than enough. I don't have the space to store another one and getting it here from Bristol would be tricky, especially at the moment.
Interesting to read the comment about the early ones being galvanised though. Does anyone know if this is true?  On ours there are some places like on the floor inside the boot and behind the rear lights where the paint has flaked off and the finish underneath does look like galvanising, although it might just be primer. It might also explain the lack of the expected obvious rust on it considering it is now 27 years old and has sat outside untouched for 7 years.
 

[Angrydicky]

I think I'd feel guilty claiming a free car just to strip it for £££. That estate looks easily savable, I've seen far worse.

[sierraman]

By sounds of it it’s the usual pair of wishbones, the brake pipes as they hoop over the chassis legs, some hoses. Not sure about the oil leak, I’ve never had a head gasket go on one, I reckon the leak is from the pressure switch on the back of the engine, it fails then pisses oil out everywhere. So could be put back on the road but in practice it’s worth tagging the spares off it as some parts are a severe PITA to get hold of for a reasonable price these days. The banger racers would have the shell off you once you’ve stripped it. 

[Steve79]

13 hours ago, Slowsilver said:

Thanks but no thanks. One broken Mondeo is more than enough. I don't have the space to store another one and getting it here from Bristol would be tricky, especially at the moment.
Interesting to read the comment about the early ones being galvanised though. Does anyone know if this is true?  On ours there are some places like on the floor inside the boot and behind the rear lights where the paint has flaked off and the finish underneath does look like galvanising, although it might just be primer. It might also explain the lack of the expected obvious rust on it considering it is now 27 years old and has sat outside untouched for 7 years.
 

I may or may not have been in contact with Badger on Retrorides about the estate. Apparently I've got 2nd dibs on this. Hopefully being local to him will sway in my favour ?

[rwd]

Free Mondeo MK1 estate  That will be heading for the banger tracker as we speak 

[sierraman]

Rotten rear subframe mounts. Bean tins then. Unless it’s the floor just aft of the fuel filter that would fall in under prescribed area. 

[Slowsilver]

On 5/6/2020 at 12:41 PM, greengartside said:

UNBELIEVABLE, JEFF!

Slowsilver, PM me your address and I’ll get it dispatched out as soon as I can.

Torch has arrived. New batteries fitted and:

Torch works.

Amber warning lamp works. It even flashes.

And here it is happlily recharging itself in the glovebox.
 

[beko1987]

Enjoy your flat battery tomorrow... (not that it'll matter much...) 

[Slowsilver]

On 5/10/2020 at 12:42 PM, sierraman said:

Round tail lamp seals. Silicone round them, the foam seal on the cluster rots away. 

OK guys, let's try these seals. Rear lights removed to find this:

Lots of manky dried-out sealant stuck to the back panel.

Sealing groove in rear light cluster (as removed) completely devoid of sealant. The sealant had obviously stuck successfully to the metal but not to the plastic. I was expecting a proper sealing gasket and thought this was an aftermarket bodge but the HBOL mentions replacing the sealant when refitting the rear lights, so maybe this was the original factory job on the early cars. It certainly looks as though it could be old enough.
I thought of replacing it with silicone sealant but that is messy, smelly and means that if they need removing again (which knowing my luck they will) they would need to be prised off, the old sealant scraped off and new sealant applied, and I didn't fancy that. So, looking at the nice clean 5mm wide by 5mm deep groove in the plastic moulding, I decided to try a proper rubber seal. I ordered two metres of 6mm diameter O-ring cord (about £3 from ebay) hoping it would squash down to 5mm wide and then stick up enough to seal against the back panel.

The finished job. Much easier and neater than sealant but will it stop the water leaks? Pouring water over the boot doesn't appear to replicate the leak so I need to wait until it rains again which, according to the weather forecast for this area, won't be for at least a week. Let's just pretend it has worked until proved otherwise.
 

[egg]

Nice solution, I will watch the results with interest. I do believe that is how they came out the factory in Belgium.

[Isaac Hunt]

2 hours ago, egg said:

Nice solution, I will watch the results with interest. I do believe that is how they came out the factory in Belgium.

Agree, very neat solution.

[Slowsilver]

MOULDEO UPDATE:

Yesterday it finally rained again so as soon as it stopped I leapt into the boot (figuratively speaking) to check if my rear light sealing trick had worked. It hadn't. In fact I think the leak was worse than before, although there had been a pretty heavy hailstorm this time.
Quickly removed the lights again while they were still wet and could see where the water had run. There is a big unsealed gap at the top of the light unit where it curves round onto the rear wing. Water runs in here then sits in some of the recesses in the lamp moulding, where it is actually on the seal. But the seal is obviously still not watertight. In hindsight I think the nitrile rubber I bought for this is too hard and doesn't squash enough to seal against the back panel. So I have now ordered some softer foam rubber sealing cord. If this doesn't work then it's silicone sealant time.

Stance, yo!

Rear end up on axle stands to investigate rear brakes. These are what it failed its last MoT on in 2013. Uneven rear braking and inefficient handbrake. Stripped both sides and found one piston seized. Everything else looks good. Ordered two new rear wheel cylinders.
While I am waiting for these to arrive I decided that the carpet was too disgusting to do anything with in the car, so set about removing it. It is all in one piece and involves taking out all the seats. This was a swine of a job, mainly because the HBOL is completely wrong in every respect so I had to make it up as I went along. When I removed the rear seat squab it is just a big lump of foam underneath and both ends of it were soaking wet. I suspect that this is a result of the water ingress from the rear lights running along past the rear wheel arches and through the corners of the rear bulkhead. With the seats out the true horror was revealed:

Carpet and underlay/sound deading were pretty damp and mouldy. They eventually succumbed to being prised out and are now drying out in the sunshine:

The underlay is quite rotten and tried to fall apart but I managed to keep it mostly together.

There is another sound-deadening panel on the front bulkhead but this is underneath various fittings, including the pedal box, so I drew the line at trying to remove it, although this is also soaking wet, so I have pulled it as far away as possible from the bulkhead and propped it up so that the air can circulate underneath it. The car is now sitting with all the doors and the boot open in an attempt to dry it out. The floor is remarkable rust free considering it has had damp underlay on it for what looks like years:

That's enough for today. Lots of scrubbing / cleaning / vacuuming ahead.
 

 

[phil_lihp]

It's carpet washing day obviously!  Mine weren't quite that vile admittedly but a close second place.  Great to see this car being brought back to life,

[HMC]

Satisfying work, at least to read about! What’s the plan re the carpet mould/ stain?

[Slowsilver]

13 minutes ago, HMC said:

Satisfying work, at least to read about! What’s the plan re the carpet mould/ stain?

The boot carpet was in a similar state and I was expecting to have to do something major with it but, surprisingly enough, I left it to dry thoroughly then gave it a good going over with a dry stiff nylon-bristled scrubbing brush. All the dried mould came off like talcum powder and a quick once over with a vacuum cleaner left it looking quite presentable. I am hoping the main carpet responds just as well to the same treatment.
 

[binhoker668]

Loving the progress!  Cannae beat a good clean-up...

 

[egg]

Seems like there could be a front end leak as well. I would remove the wiper blades. and the "grille'' pieces underneath to see what the pollen filter looks like - as that is a common source.

Lots here about leak problems

http://www.mirez.co.uk/WaterProbs.htm

[Slowsilver]

Bad news people.
I think I might have found the problem that put this off the road in 2013. New rear wheel cylinders arrived this morning so I fitted one to the nearside rear to replace the one with the seized piston. Tried to bleed it and no fluid came out of the bleed nipple. Hmmm, I did clamp off the flexible hose so maybe that is blocked. Removed the incoming brake pipe union from the top of the flexible hose, still no fluid coming out.
This thing has ABS brakes, which I understand in principle but have no actual experience of. According to the HBOL there is an electronically controlled ABS unit somewhere under the master cylinder. This appears to contain four valves, one for each wheel, which allow each brake to be shut off independently if that wheel locks up. It also has two pressure control valves, one for each of the rear wheels, which relieve the pressure if it gets too high to stop the rear wheels locking up under heavy braking.
The brakes on the other three wheels all appear to work so my guess is that either the PCV or the ABS valve for the nearside rear is faulty. I would have expected either of these to fail safe to allow normal braking in the event of a fault occuring, but if one of them has failed in the other position this could explain the lack of fluid to this one wheel.
The HBOL also says that if any component on the ABS unit fails the whole unit must be replaced as individual bits are not available. This makes the original repair quote of £1000 "if we can get the parts" more understandable. When it failed in 2013 it was already 20 years old and probably pretty much worthless, so I can see why the previous owner didn't have it fixed, despite being very attached to it.
So, what to do now? Removal of the ABS unit looks like a bit of a faff, but sounds like it should be possible, and I suppose I have nothing to lose by trying. Does anyone on here (are you there @sierraman?) have any advice to offer? Does anyone have a spare ABS unit and/or pressure control valves? The non-ABS versions also use the PCV valves, but bolted directly to the master cylinder. These look the same as the ABS-equipped ones so maybe one of these would fit if this turns out to be the problem.