What problems have you had with your Mondeo?

[cobrin]

Well my folks 2015 MD steering wheel is okay, and they're in the Tropics with temps of 30's and high humidity the majority of the time. That being said it gets a clean a few times a year when the whole exterior/interior gets done.

[evanlau]

My MD 2018.25 Trend Petrol has recently developed a rattle that comes from somewhere near/behind the instrument panel/steering column, when driving over rough roads. The thought of going thru the motions of talking to a dealer - "can't replicate it", having to take them on a specific road to hear it, then "can't find the source". Anyone else had anything similar?

[manchu]

I've managed to stuff up the drivers door on my MC a little. I park facing downward on a slope at home and occasionally when getting in/out the door will swing fully open due to gravity and hit the travel stop.

The travel stop is a metal tab built into the hinge and has started to deform. The door now opens almost to 90 degrees.

I guess I can't complain too much about it because it's self inflicted, but if it had the metal strap type stops that many cars have I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have this problem.

[gsd112]

Originally Posted by cobrin

Well my folks 2015 MD steering wheel is okay, and they're in the Tropics with temps of 30's and high humidity the majority of the time. That being said it gets a clean a few times a year when the whole exterior/interior gets done.

Western Sydney we see multiple repeat days 40+. Our local dealer never questioned any of the changes and said it is a well known issue with the Mondeos world wide. And yes my car was treated like my own and Im trained in detailing and paint correction.

[cobrin]

I think my moondust silver has grey unless that's the primer so it hasn't gone deeper. Missus got to close to a shelving unit and scratched the wheel arch.

[asteele-xr6]

I get a wheel alignment at every 15k km service without fail - the tyres are too expensive to not get it done in my opinion, and if they wear badly on the edges due to the alignment shifting very slightly - then the tyre can be illegal long before the middle tread has got to halfway!

I only learned this after having to throw away tyres that should not have been even halfway through their life, due to an alignment shift, and had destroyed the inside edges of the front tyres. Very annoying!

[rondeo]

My experience has been different.

If you read the wheel alignment specifications in the Haynes manual for example, you will see that the toe specification has quite a wide range, from negative to positive even. There is no ideal specification, just a tolerance range. Ask what the target values are on your next visit for alignment. I'd be interested to know.

'Alignment shifts' could arise from potholes or suspension wear I suppose, but if there's a problem the tyres will show it well before being trashed.
Inspect at 1000km intervals if concerned. I Check/rotate mine at 10000km, no alignments in 200000km except once as I said before..


Looking at my records: new tyres at 53600km,113700km,164459k


I use a Michelin digital tread depth and tyre pressure gauge. Supercheap.

[rondeo]

This is how I record tyre wear.
Takes about 5 minutes with a cheap digital gauge and gives a clear picture of wear issues.

I check each of the four grooves from outside to inside on each tyre, same time as oil change.
Only done at one point across tyre so run hand round to check for feathering etc.
Another handy tool is a stone pick to get stones out of the grooves.
I use a sharpened #2 philips screwdriver bent at the end.
After new roadworks my tyres had hundreds of sharp stones embedded.




Michelin tyres after 10000km from new (mm):

Outside > Inside

Right front 5.5 6.0 6.0 5.6
Left front ..5.5 6.0 6.0 5.7


Right rear 5.7 6.5 6.5 6.3
Left rear...5.7 6.5 6.7 6.0


When new: 6.8 7.2 7.2 6.8



Of course get all suspension checked if in doubt. Then 4 point alignment.

[asteele-xr6]

Yep, same for me - if I didn't destroy the edges on my first set due to bad alignment! My 2nd set was about 26,000km

[cobrin]

My tired suspension saw to bad tyre life as in 12mths life, renewing that and having a wheel alignment done right after has seen a huge improvement as you'd expect. I should go over the numbers but two tyres have 12mths on them before two others went on.

(took advantage of buy 4 get $100 back when two were needed)

[bundybear75]

Originally Posted by cobrin

My tired suspension saw to bad tyre life as in 12mths life, renewing that and having a wheel alignment done right after has seen a huge improvement as you'd expect. I should go over the numbers but two tyres have 12mths on them before two others went on.

(took advantage of buy 4 get $100 back when two were needed)

I'm on to my second set since February, but a buckled rim and rear wheel that was badly out of alignment (even after 2 alignments) put paid to the first set in about 24K.

I need to do something about my suspension, I'd imagine it's all original and pretty tired after 235K km

[Mondaveo]

Thanks folks for the input.

Wow rondeo, that's some fastidious record-keeping.

Bundy, the 57K km figure is my best guess based on the age of the tyres and dates in the service history, it might be less or it might even be 75K(!) if they were fitted at the 2012 service. I can only speak to the last 27K km personally, at any rate I thought they looked mildly worn when I took ownership so thought I'd be replacing before now. The Primacy is supposed to be a high-mileage tyre and it seems they wear very slowly.

I'll admit I was primed with the notion of getting an alignment by my mechanic, who offered to make it complimentary with a set of tyres. But Jax have a better price and a $100 cashback offer on four Michelins at the moment too. I guess the first thing I need to do is jack up the car and see for myself what these lumpy tyres are like, help inform whether I should be concerned...

[NZ XR6]

You've done well to keep a MA that long. I traded mine as soon as the factory warranty ran out after having a few problems during the warranty period.

I thought the MB had recently developed a knock in the rear suspension but it was a loose fire extinguisher!

[Jeremy J]

I bought my MA TDCI new in Dec 2008. When I gave it to my daughter in July 2017 it had 139,000kms on the clock.

It has been a very reliable & fuel efficient car. Apart from regular services and minor items such as wipers, pollen, air and fuel filters etc. the only replacements have been:
1. Rear pads and discs at 30k!!
2. Front pads & discs at 90k
3. Lower front wish bone/control arms and ball joint @ 115kms
4. Two sets of tyres @ 65k & 139k

At 10 years old, it now has 179k. Still going strong and reliable. New set of tyres, alignment and service just completed.

[gfbpsm]

I am new to the forum and am hopeful that with the collective experience here I might actually get an answer to my query. I have a Mondeo Titanium diesel 2010 model. For about the last twelve months I have been having intermittent problems with my auto cruise control. I can be driving along and may hit a bump and immediately get the message "ACC Unavailable" The message will pop up again and again and cannot turn it off until I turn the car off. I have had it to the Ford dealers in Cooee Tasmania about four times in all, cost me a fortune only to be told they cannot find the problem. They turn off the messages and say bring it in as soon as the error comes up again which I have done and once again zip. It is driving me crazy and no one seems to have any idea. Hope someone else has had the issue and have found a fix of some sort. Help please.

[Mondaveo]

G'day gfbpsm, welcome the forum.

I haven't experienced that issue, so I can only theorycraft how I'd go about about troubleshooting. ACC involves a radar system that measures the following distance to the vehicle in front, and some number of the car's other computer and control modules. Hitting a bump and losing the ACC function sounds like the car is encountering a communication fault with a required control system. It could be a loose connection, so in the absence of other information I would first try inspecting the modules and plugs. Unfortunately my Haynes manual doesn't include any mention of the radar, but I found this Talkford thread on retrofitting ACC that I think will help: https://talkford.com/community/topic...mondeo-pre-fl/

The radar module is situated behind the upper radiator grille on the passenger side, you should know it by the flat panel on the exterior of the grille. The control module is situated behind the glove box. The wiring plugs are (allegedly) easily reached once access is obtained. The ACC reportedly also involves the ABS controller and yaw sensor, though I'm not read up on where those are located.

It's going to be hard to identify the problem on visual inspection alone, so to help track this down I suggest you get an OBDII port scanner that will enable you to read the diagnostic codes reported by the car. I use an OBDLink MX dongle bluetoothed to my Android phone with the FORScan app. With this kind of setup you can drive around as normal with the app recording all kinds of data you usually wouldn't see, and keep a lasting log of any errors that occur (the car often clears them itself when you switch it off and leaves no trace, which rather stymies forensics back at the service department). When the error appears on your dash, I would expect there to be some kind of DTC possibly of the form "Lost communication with X" or similar that will give you a strong hint of what the culprit is. You can then either take that information to Ford, or delve into rectifying it yourself.

Good luck and let us know what you find

[vk7bs@yahoo.com]

Experienced my first problem today when my 2016 md mondeo titanium steering failed, dashboard message said steering failed, driver assist failed and a whole lot of other messages relating to this and power steering stopped. Car has 70000 klms. I have noticed the same car in the USA prompted a recall because of corroded bolts in steering motor. Worried that this is going to be a costly event.

[NX74205]

My blind spot monitoring system stopped working properly. Took it to the dealer yesterday who diagnosed the problem as a faulty blind spot monitoring module, which would require a new one to be fitted, programmed and calibrated. Quoted $2,710.

It's not a major issue, I can drive without it, but fark that's expensive!

[vk7bs@yahoo.com]

Originally Posted by vk7bs@yahoo.com

Experienced my first problem today when my 2016 md mondeo titanium steering failed, dashboard message said steering failed, driver assist failed and a whole lot of other messages relating to this and power steering stopped. Car has 70000 klms. I have noticed the same car in the USA prompted a recall because of corroded bolts in steering motor. Worried that this is going to be a costly event.

Well the car was taken to the ford dealer in Hobart who kept it there for 10days before they even looked at it, they then called me to say the steering rack would need to be replaced and quoted $7,500 they also said the battery that I had replaced by RACT less than 12 months before and quoted $550 for that as well. The car was due for its 75,000 service so I gave permission to service and replace battery, but not the steering as according to them it was now working but it I took the car I had to sign a document absolving them of responsibility. I have been driving the car since then and have done around 10k without an issue. I suspect the cars computer detected a surge in current through the steering motor and when that came up the so called “ mechanic “ didn’t look any further.
The mechanic in my humble opinion is best described as a “change O magic”

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by vk7bs@yahoo.com

Well the car was taken to the ford dealer

They're called "Fraud Stealers" for a reason.

Only ever use a stealer for warranty work. Other than that:

1. DIY
2. Find a decent local mechanic you can trust, OR
3. Use a Specialist

[steve289]

I sold my 2010 MB Zetec TDCI about 18 moths ago, to a friends daughter.
She absolutely loves the car, and it's still in near perfect condition, ie the same as it was when I handed it over!

Caught up with her on the weekend to change a brake light globe, and had a good look over the car.
The only thing I could notice was one headlight starting to deteriorate, but not over the spread of the beam, at this stage.
May need to be polished out or replaced in a few years.
The timing belt & water pump were replaced 6 months ago.
Aside from routine maintenance, its been trouble free for 12 years.

[aussiblue]

For anyone with Mondeo mk5 inner cv joint, bearing issues this will be of interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W1X2KZ7aXo and https://www.amazon.com.au/FEBEST-Tri...492785&sr=8-16

[AlanM]

Originally Posted by aussiblue

For anyone with Mondeo mk5 inner cv joint, bearing issues this will be of interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W1X2KZ7aXo and https://www.amazon.com.au/FEBEST-Tri...492785&sr=8-16

Alan Howett is great. Heaps of experience and knowledge, and good at passing it on.

[AlanM]

On new years day, started the car (2011 TDCI Wagon) and it sounded awful, running on 3 cylinders, and after a few moments there was smoke coming out from under the bonnet!

A quick look found a broken injector clamp. Pretty amazing as these are very solid looking appear to be cast steel of some kind.

Anyway because it was new year, and finding a replacement would take too long, we mig welded it back together.

A few days later we drove from Sydney to Queensland, no problems.

A few days after that, it happened again. No surprise, half expected the cast steel to not weld well. So a quick look, and the welded clamp was fine, another one had broken!

A bit of forum and YouTube searching found this wasn't rare, and the specified torque is very low, so these clamps seem to be very fragile.

I didn't fancy having this happen regularly, so bought a lump of 12mm steel bar, spent a few hours with a drill press and a grinder and made 4 of my own. Had to bend them in a 20 tonne press to get the right shape. These won't break.

So far, a couple of thousand more kms and all good.

[NX74205]

Just wondering if anyone can tell me how many batteries they have gone through? The car is just shy of 7 years old and I've just replaced my battery for the second time (i.e., it's on its third battery), so I'm wondering whether something's draining the battery or whether that's considered normal.

[DougalXR6]

My 2015 Trend Ecoboost hatch is just over 7 years old and still on the original factory fitted Varta battery.
The car has done 56000 Km and there is no indication of the battery slowing down.
For the past three years I have been charging it with my Ctek charger once a month as the car only does about 3000 Km a year now.

[AlanM]

Originally Posted by NX74205

Just wondering if anyone can tell me how many batteries they have gone through? The car is just shy of 7 years old and I've just replaced my battery for the second time (i.e., it's on its third battery), so I'm wondering whether something's draining the battery or whether that's considered normal.

If you don't use the car regularly, lead acid batteries do self discharge. For maximum life, if not frequently used, some form of trickle charging as mentioned would definitely help.

[whitelion65]

2011 MC TDcI, 190,000km.
On its third battery.

[rondeo]

Battery issues are not unusual with Mondeos, if posts on European forums are any indication.
My suspicion is it's related to the Ford smart charge battery management system, not sure why...

Anyhow, these are my scientifically unvalidated practices:

I Use the Ford specified silver calcium type battery. Ford dealers in AUS do not supply this type in my experience. They are Century Yuasa batteries. Century Yuasa claim that their batteries can cope with the extra charging current silver calcium batteries can handle. Who knows. They are cheaper though...

Having learned from fellow poster Mondaveo how to reset the battery management system, I have since done that religiously once so far, whereas before I knew not how. Blessed are the button presses and the counting of the seconds.

One thing maybe worth knowing is the smart charge system aims to keep the battery at 80% state of charge, not 100%. The reason for that is beyond the scope of this post. The 80% policy means the battery will self discharge sooner, and the battery (according to this hypothesis) may suffer by being stored at a low state of charge, since it is quicker to go from 80% to 50% than from !00% to 50%.

[AlanM]

Originally Posted by rondeo

Battery issues are not unusual with Mondeos, if posts on European forums are any indication.
My suspicion is it's related to the Ford smart charge battery management system, not sure why...

Anyhow, these are my scientifically unvalidated practices:

I Use the Ford specified silver calcium type battery. Ford dealers in AUS do not supply this type in my experience. The are Century Yuasa batteries. Century Yuasa claim that their batteries can cope with the extra charging current silver calcium batteries can handle. Who knows. They are cheaper though...

Having learned from fellow poster Mondaveo how to reset the battery management system, I have done that religiously, whereas before I knew not how. Blessed are the button presses and the counting of the seconds.

One thing maybe worth knowing is the smart charge system aims to keep the battery at 80% state of charge, not 100%. The reason for that is beyond the scope of this post. The 80% policy means the battery will self discharge sooner, and the battery (according to this hypothesis) may suffer by being stored at a low state of charge, since it is quicker to go from 80% to 50% than from !00% to 50%.

Targeting 80% SOC sounds like a BMS set up for lithium batteries. (LiFePO4)
Lead acid batteries like to be charged to 100% as much of the time as possible. Sounds like Ford wants to sell plenty of replacement batteries.