Mondeo Mk4 woes

[John Bennett]

We've had a Mondeo TDCI since new(ish), been nice enough to waft the family around in (yes, got one of them too now ), although not hugely economic round the doors (38mpg) and it chews up very expensive tyres.

Anyway, today was its first ever MOT - 2012 car, 22K miles on the clock, never thrashed, average driving....

=

FAIL....!!

Rear trailing arm bushes are shot. Thankfully it's still under warranty (by 2 days!!!) as it was something like £500 for the dealier to do it (or couple of hundred DIY if you buy an aftermarket tool).

So just wondering, anyone got any other stories of woe for these cars, or are they generally solid? I'm feeling like it's wronged me and it needs to go before the bills rack up (the particulate filter makes me nervous too).

Or maybe it's all new cars. The last new car we had (Fiat Bravo) suffered a gearbox failure while under warranty Just didn't expect this from a Ford, for some reason.

[-ghost-]

Its a ford what do you expect?


I cant wait for my old man to get the new mustang so it so it starts to ruin his life with faults

[John Bennett]

Maybe times have changed, but I thought it was fair to expect Ford to be better made than the Fiats and Alfas. They're hardly a budget manufacturer and they seem to win enough awards and 5/5 reviews..

[-ghost-]

Give me a fiat or alfa any day my old alfa 159 ti estate was a stunning car the guy that ownes it know how really bumped the miles up 130,000 no major faults and it was drove hard its whole life

The problem is cars today use each others parts like the 1.4 and 1.6 ford engines are really citroen psa engines.

[Chriscooke]

Asked a mate who knows about fords and here what he said...



"Generally, like a mk3, trailing arm bushes always fail. (Not on an estate tho as they are a different setup). A given. Occasional bluetooth issues on the pre 2010 models. And the wiper relays seems to be an issue (stay on after ignition, easy fix). Aside from that, thay can wear 200k VERY well compared to the 'common fault' mk3's. Obviously a DMF is now a service item on a modern car as is discs, pads etc.

Then genuinely are a better built car. 2 friends have ones on 150k+ and one is a taxi. They are pretty good. Rare to fail like the older ones. They feel dated inside compared to 2013+ cars available but are MUCH better than they used to be.

What engine is it? 140bhp 2.0 tdci?
Tit x is the winner spec but even then u have about £5k of options available from new to make it stand out from the rest."

[Mark]

Its a ford what do you expect?

Wow never heard this before from you

John, As Chris' mate has said they are pretty solid cars but no manufacturer has a 100% success rate and because Ford are the No1 brand in the UK, more cars on the road equals more faults being reported. They cant be all bad if people constantly buy them time and time again especially in the current market where there are many deals and competition about. I would have thought after the Mk3 issues the Mk4 would have been a bit more robust in the bushes department though. Engine wise I assume its a 2.0 or 2.2 in which case it will be a PSA engine but they do seem better than the 1.4 and 1.6 units they produce.

Personally I always preferred the Mk3 over the 4 but the current Mk5 is stunning

[John Bennett]

Thanks Chris/Mark. Was starting to worry I was in some inverted reality .
It's the 2.0 140bhp diesel in a Titanium, with the 'appearance pack' which gives it tints and silly-big alloys (which I wouldn't have had, were there a choice at the time )

I guess if the engines have a good enough rep and there's nothing else that's destined to die in the short-term, I might hang onto it a bit and invest in a bush-press in a few years Hopefully if enough fail under warranty they might eventually figure it's a bit of a shit design and do some uprated version.

[Con2K]

I made the comments to chris. I dont have a mk4 but am looking for one. Know many who do though. A fan of fords but not a brand whore thinking it's the cream of the crop. Considering a tit x sport estate. Last of the line mk4's with the 2.2 manual and extra toys ontop of the standard tit x spec. Yes, a lot of money for a mondeo but the comparisons that sit in mind are obviously audi a6, bmw 5er, passat/octavia. I've generally avoided french and vauxhall and have no intention of starting now. Dislike the way they look. Volvo are a lot of money for a bland looking car. Audi/bm are great looking but you pay more and get less spec, less mpg, less load space, greater service costs and the only advantages i see are rear/4 wheel drive. At the moment, front wheel drive isn't a failing point for me. Overall out of the 2nd hand competitors, i think they look and spec the best. Yes, it has faults, what doesn't. But i really do think they've upped their game in recent years. I shouldn't compare it to a premium brand but knock that down a peg and look at the VAG competitors and the mondeo for me wins hands down. Dislike that flat german interior (even the audi suffers from it alittle but the bmw doesn't appear to but again we are back at premium models we aren't supposed to be considering).

Anyway, off topic. They are always used as taxi's and happily rack up 2-300k miles trouble free apart from the usual issues.

Only other issue that comes to mind is some dpf recirc pipework or something. Seems to be the 140 & 160bhp 2.0 tdci's. Runs down the back of the block and down the floor/exhaust tunnel. When blocked up (140k miles +) it throws up the engine check light. £50 for two bits of hose (non genuine replacements). Easy on a ramp, just annoying cost for what is two lengths of hose.

Aside from that, really not heard of any major issues from friends that own them/work on them regularly. The toys really make it worth while. Same story with mk3's, they don't run the same bushes rear subframe and don't have this failing point.

If you have it, stick with it. Won't be worth much in a few yrs (are they ever) but i do think it'll give less greif by comparison to other rep-mobiles.

[Zornyan]

Wow never heard this before from you

John, As Chris' mate has said they are pretty solid cars but no manufacturer has a 100% success rate and because Ford are the No1 brand in the UK, more cars on the road equals more faults being reported. They cant be all bad if people constantly buy them time and time again especially in the current market where there are many deals and competition about. I would have thought after the Mk3 issues the Mk4 would have been a bit more robust in the bushes department though. Engine wise I assume its a 2.0 or 2.2 in which case it will be a PSA engine but they do seem better than the 1.4 and 1.6 units they produce.

Personally I always preferred the Mk3 over the 4 but the current Mk5 is stunning

Agreed I really really rated my mk3 as a run around, it handled pretty well for its size (enough to trash it down some country lanes at silly speeds) and just made long journeys effortless.

Sounds a bit shit about the rear bushes not being fixed though, did them on mine, massive pain in the arse, really bad bad design.

Oh and rear calipers getting siezed up, and the stupidly designed 'automatic adjusting' handbrake. That really meant in the Ford language 'shitty design that never works and the only fix is to rip out and replace with a newer design' that coincidently went back to the regular manual adjustable cables...