project Early Mondeo Saloon Saved From The Scrapman.

[mitsisigma01]

On 4/28/2020 at 3:54 PM, sutty2006 said:

Can you copy me that onto a blank tape? ....... oh wait, it’s the wrong side of the 2000s. 
 

incidently, I still own a hifi tower that can do it 

Somewhere I have a boxful of BNVOS cassettes and hundreds of pre-recorded albums by varying artistes 

[egg]

The guy on Facebook has just updated the HML numbers analysis for the MK1 for 2019

Overall another 7% of remaining cars went in the last year.

total taxed = 1006 (down from 1337)
total SORN = 3368 (3377 last year)

total cars = 4374 (was 4743)

[sutty2006]

Banger racing will have seen a good chunk of mk1/2 Mondeos gone. But looks like there’s still a fair few left. I’d happily rock a petrol version. I love diesels but my mk2 diesel Mondeo was horribly agricultural in comparison to say a similarly aged passat. 

[sierraman]

46 minutes ago, egg said:

The guy on Facebook has just updated the HML numbers analysis for the MK1 for 2019

Overall another 7% of remaining cars went in the last year.

total taxed = 1006 (down from 1337)
total SORN = 3368 (3377 last year)

total cars = 4374 (was 4743)

I think it’ll continue to fall as corrosion sees them off or they get the engine pulled out, consequently why the 2.0 ones are thin on the ground. Very few of the ones left are in good nick, a lot will be nursing from one MOT to another. 

[sierraman]

1 minute ago, sutty2006 said:

Banger racing will have seen a good chunk of mk1/2 Mondeos gone. But looks like there’s still a fair few left. I’d happily rock a petrol version. I love diesels but my mk2 diesel Mondeo was horribly agricultural in comparison to say a similarly aged passat. 

Yeah the diesel was foul, by comparison the similar era Passat diesel was bloody fantastic. Made good taxis though. 

[sutty2006]

1 minute ago, sierraman said:

Yeah the diesel was foul, by comparison the similar era Passat diesel was bloody fantastic. Made good taxis though. 

When I bought an R reg passat diesel the first thing I noticed was the comparison to the S plate Mondeo. It was worlds apart. And my ears didn’t bleed while driving! Still love a good deo though. But I’d probably buy the passat over the mk2. And I hate VWs. 

[sierraman]

Fully expect this will end up getting bangered once I’ve finished stripping it. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 4/27/2020 at 11:14 AM, Slowsilver said:

True, but this is already done on a standard twin-filament stop/tail bulb by offsetting the pins vertically.
I think that the orange-coloured indicator bulbs used with clear lenses have the pins in line vertically but offset radially at 120 degrees to stop them being replaced with clear ones, which I can understand, but I can see no  reason for these fog/tail lights not to use a standard stop/tail bulb.

you can still get the std bulb in the wrong way which i believe is why the double offset was made

[Slowsilver]

To hell with all this MoTable brakes, steering and suspension stuff.
Cleaned contacts, two new batteries and:

Both the keyfob lights work.
Yay! Small victories Godber.
 

 

[greengartside]

UNBELIEVABLE, JEFF!

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

[egg]

2 hours ago, Slowsilver said:

Both the keyfob lights work.

I haven't managed that, but then I don't use the torch key (and I only have one of those) as it it is too worn to use!

[Slowsilver]

As I mentioned further back in this thread this car was left untouched in the open air for 7 years with the handbrake on, so I fully expected at least the rear brakes to be seized on. It took two hands to lift the handbrake lever and then two hands to push the button in but it eventually released and, surprise, surprise, the rear wheels would rotate. However, when I tried to reapply the handbrake it would lock the rear wheels but wouldn't stay applied. This is an obvious MoT fail so I decided to address the problem. This involved removing the entire centre console to gain access. As ever the information in the HBOL bore no relation to the actual car itself, so I had to make it up as I went along. After a frustrating 30 minutes or so I finally managed to wrench it out.

Centre console out, showing very rusty handbrake mechanism. As I suspected, the ratchet pawl pivot had rusted up and the return spring was no longer capable of returning the pawl back into mesh with ratchet. 10 minute application of penetrating oil and SABFAI (Scientifically Applied Brute Force And Ignorance) and the handbrake now stays applied.
One more job ticked off the list.

 

[timolloyd]

That’s a very satisfying fix! Good on you for saving this btw.

[Slowsilver]

Due to the amount of damp in the car one of the first things I did was to strip all the trim out of the boot. Removing the side trim from the offside revealed this piece of quality* wiring bodgery:

The two wires passing across the offside boot hinge to the number plate lights appeared to have been cut through, presumbably by getting trapped in the hinge. The earth wire had been joined with a butt crimp (stop sniggering at the back, that is genuinely what they are called) but the feed wire had been joined via a piece of unnecessarily thick and stiff red wire and two scotchloks to the wire feeding the offside rear light, leaving the wire to hang artistically in mid-air.
Normally the number plate lights would be wired in with the side/rear lights but not on this thing. The light switch has a 'park' position which turns on just the side and rear lights, but not the number plate lights, so they are wired separately.
Having ripped out the bodge and thrown it as far away as possible I checked the feed wire coming out from the rear parcel shelf but no volts with the sidelights turned on.
This is the first time the HBOL turned out to have some useful (and correct) information. It has 12 sections and section 12 is the electrical system, which takes up about a quarter of the entire book and contains very comprehensive wiring diagrams for different sections of the electrics. The fuse listing does not list all the circuits protected by each fuse with no mention of number plate lights. But on close examination of the diagrams I deduced that they were protected by fuse 31 in the main fuse box behind the glove box. This is only listed as panel lights but actually feeds the panel lights, the number plate lights and the glovebox light, all of which are disabled in the park position.
Armed with this information I checked the glovebox light and the panel lights and, guess what, they don't work either. Pulled fuse 31 and, sure enough, it had blown. Disconnected the battery, replaced the fuse, then reconnected the battery and looked for the blinding flash, which didn't happen. Check glovebox and panel lights again and they now work. Check the feed wire for the number plate lights again and now we have no volts in the off or park positions but volts in the side and head light positions, which is as it should be.
Another butt crimp (more sniggering) and we are back in business, all lights working as they should, but without the bodge.
I suspect that when the wires were cut through the fuse blew, but the gorilla that was tasked with fixing it decided it would be easier to just bodge it than to find and replace the fuse. So it must have had no glovebox light (which is not exactly a tragedy) and no panel lights (which I would have thought was an MoT failure, but what do I know?) for some considerable time. It also meant that the number plate lights were illuminated in the park positon, which would drain the battery more than necessary.
Retaped that section of the loom and here is the finished repair. Somewhat of an improvement, I hope you'll agree.

 

[Slowsilver]

Further investigations revealed that the wipers and washers did not work. It didn't fail its last MoT on these so I guessed that they had failed due to standing. In view of other things I have found on this car  I suspected the electrics, so back to the wiring diagrams. The protection for these circuits was shown as a 10 amp circuit breaker rather than a fuse. Hadn't seen one of these before but there it was in the fuse box, looking like a pregnant fuse. I expected it to be a sealed unit but no, it had a clip-on cover which could be removed by judicious use of a small screwdriver to reveal this:

Hmm, looks a bit crusty to say the least. But it is simply a normal bi-metallic strip, so I prised it apart, cleaned up the contacts and reassembled it.
Fitted it back in and, hey presto, we have wipers and washers. Another win.
 

[Slowsilver]

Courtesy of sundry generous members of this illustrious forum I now have three different Haynes manuals, all covering the 1993 Mondeo models, so now have a choice of lies to disbelieve.

[somewhatfoolish]

Is the violet one old enough to be printed on real paper as opposed to the toilet paper/newsprint they've moved onto these days?

[sierraman]

Does it do the classic Mondeo trait of pissing water into the passenger footwell or the boot? 

[Slowsilver]

9 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Is the violet one old enough to be printed on real paper as opposed to the toilet paper/newsprint they've moved onto these days?

Yes, it's one of the original type, printed on proper, albeit probably recycled, paper. Although it contains some lies it appears to contain less than the later ones and is written far more professionally, without the stupid and irrelevant comments. I wonder if the change for the worse occured when one of the authors changed. The early violet one was written by Jeremy Churchill and A.K. Legg, whereas the two later blue ones were written by A.K. Legg and R.M. Jex. I have always thought that one of the biggest improvements they could have made would have been to ban the use of the word "remove", which in their content can mean anything from "pull it off by hand in 10 seconds" to "spend 3 hours using a special tool and a sledgehammer".
 

[Slowsilver]

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

Does it do the classic Mondeo trait of pissing water into the passenger footwell or the boot? 

Funny you should mention that. When first acquired the boot was very damp and the trim was mouldy. The carpets in all the footwells were also mouldy but appeared to be dry and the mould just brushes off with a stiff nylon brush. I ripped out all the boot trim and left it to dry out in the sunshine for about a week. I also left all the doors, boot and sunroof open every day and it dried out nicely.

Then it rained overnight...

Opening the boot the next morning revealed two large puddles, one on each side behind where the trim would have been.

I left it to dry out again then yesterday I decided to investigate. Fortunately on this model, despite it being a saloon, the rear seat backs fold down allowing access to the boot from inside the car. So rather than having to be shut in the boot (#claustrophobic) I could lay across the folded rear seat backs with a torch while my glamorous* assistant slowsilver poured water over the bootlid and the rear lights. But predictably the inside of the boot remained bone dry, so no nearer to a solution. Next plan is to cover the vertical surfaces inside the boot with talcuum powder, wait for the next rain shower, then look to see if I can see the tracks where the water ingress has washed the talc away.
Does anyone on here have any first-hand experience of where the leak(s) might be? All suggestions gratefully received.
 

[sierraman]

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

[egg]

like this. Though re-seal with a thicker layer of seal than I did!

[mitsisigma01]

Pretty much like the seals on most cars I've ever had, the worst being the ZT. 

[somewhatfoolish]

8 hours ago, egg said:

like this. Though re-seal with a thicker layer of seal than I did!

What did you use, silly string?  

[Dave_Q]

My tip for the lights is to use Carafax non setting mastic, it's designed for caravan awnings and was recommended for the same issue on Subaru forums.

Sikaflex and similar that glue the cluster on can either crack again once set and/or be a bastard to remove if required, the Carafax stuff as it says doesn't fully set so allows some flex and can be separated a bit easier.

[somewhatfoolish]

I've never heard of carafax but it sounds just like Arbomast BR.

[egg]

I used 3M windscreen sealant, apparently you can adjust the nozzle size, lol!

Still, even my average job improved the leak situation. But I'd keep a cloth in the boot to wipe residual dampness after rainfall.

[Slowsilver]

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?
 

[Slowsilver]

7 minutes ago, egg said:

Still, even my average job improved the leak situation. But I'd keep a cloth in the boot to wipe residual dampness after rainfall.

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.
 

[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.