My MC Mondeo, plus a few thoughts

[Greane01]

Hey guys - new to the boards, couldn't find a members intro threat, so decided to start my own, but with a few points of interest for any considering (or who own) an MC (Mk4.5) Mondeo Zetec Ecoboost...

Firstly, I love the car. And I'm a Holden man having owned almost every model of Holden since the VK. My last was a V8 Calais (which I traded on this car) and I haven't regretted it; the Mondeo is so well-built, everything feels premium (compare the headlight switch to the switch on a VE Calais for instance) and it has a really sporty feel to it, while maintaining a quiet, comfortable ride. The boot is monstrous, and easily fits in a family size load for the holidays. It will even fit five 18" HSV wheels (with the seats down).

Attached is a photo of my particular Zetec finished in Ink Blue. It's an ex Ford exec vehicle bought in March with 8000 km on it (just had its 15K service - $320). Around town I'm getting 8.3 - 8.5 l/100km which is just amazing considering how much grunt it has.

Mods so far limited to Black Pearl window tint from Solartint; however, I have been doing a bit of research on the headlights considering I drive fairly regularly at night over roo-infested roads!...:

I have on order (from the UK - Power Bulbs) a set of H1 (high beam) Philips X-Treme Vision 55w bulbs, H7 (low beam) 55w Osram Nightbreaker Plus bulbs, and W5W Osram 6000k LEDs for the parking lights (used in lieu of DRLs!). I'm still undecided as to an upgrade for the fog lights (I think they're H11 despite the manual saying the fog lights are H8 - the manual also identifies the cornering lamps at H1s, but I don't know where the cornering lamps are supposed to be). I looked into the HID conversion, but apparently you need the projector style headlights that the Titanium has. Anyway, the globe upgrades will (apparently) make a huge difference, so I'll report back when they're all installed.

I've also looked into the LED DRLs (like a high number of Zetec owners by the sounds of it!). From another Mondeo forum I discovered that the DRL wiring is not conveniently sitting behind the black plastic inserts, and that the black plastic inserts are glued in, meaning they have to be prised off, and any replacement DRLs have to be glued back in, and wired in from scratch. I'm keeping my eye on a few sets on ebay, as the price seems to fluctuate from $150 to well over $200, but I still have a concern that they're not as effective as the OEM Titanium DRLs... hopefully Riksta can report on how he went with his?!

I've also looked into a tune: so far Superchips (http://www.superchips.co.uk) is the only supplier I have found. They have released a Bluefin (455 pounds) for the Ecoboost 2.0l which increases power by 40 HP (29.8 kw = 178.8 kw total) and torque by 67 nm. But, to be safe, I'm probably going to wait until the factory warranty expires, and until a few other people have had it done and provided positive feedback...

Wheels? My ideal set would be the 19x8s from the Titanium X Sport sold in the UK; but I would have to get the suspension done at the same time; about as low as the Titanium would probably be fine (considering I want to maintain comfort levels as much as possible as I've got two kids to cart around on a regular basis!).

Tyres: Obviously the OEM ones still have plenty of tread left, but I would be going for something like the Michelin Pilot Sport 3s I just fitted to my wife's Focus, or possibly a set of Sumitomos which I had on my Calais.

Safe motoring people!