OT Mondeo 2.5 V6 Ghia X

[nikpro]

Looking at purchasing the above vehicle; any opinions/experience wanted plus possible things to look out for.

Thanks in advance.

[dern]

I don't know what year you're after but we have a 98 mondeo 2.5 ghia x and have had it for 6 years. I could go on about at great length if you like (I've maintained it myself)... is that useful or are you after a much later car?

Regards,

Mark

[james grayley]

Head gasket failure......

[Hammy]

Depends on the year.

The old "Mk1"model is only slightly more powerful than the later 2.0. - which makes a Mk2 2.0 a much nicer car which handles better and is more economical (giving about 33 mpg on everyday use).

V6 does about 25mpg, autos bit worse..

I'm a big Mondeo fan as they are cheap to run, good dealer network, and are a very good all round motor. Mk2 handling is exceptional.   All models wear out lower suspension bushes on a regular basis if you corner hard all the time.

[dern]

Head gasket failure......

This is one of those "damn all these cars because they do this thing" imo and is exagerated. Yes they can suffer from head gasket failure *but* the problem isn't the head or the gasket it's the plastic impellor on the water pump. Then can potentially come free from the spindle causing the cooling system to stop circulating and because there's no space around the engine at all the temps soon rise and generally speaking the head gasket is the thing that fails first.

The thing to do is to replace your water pump either on a regular basis (I did mine at 50k miles and will do so again soon) or fit a water pump with a metal impellor and this will solve that problem.

The reason this is a fairly major issue because the general approach to fixing the head gasket is to drop the engine out but there is a procedure of how to do it (if your hands are small enough) on the mondeo enthusiasts group.

Clutches are expensive to do because there's a hydraulic activator inside the clutch housing which really needs changing while you're in there which adds to the cost and the engine has to be dropped out to change the clutch.

I'm on my 3rd alternator at 100k miles and changing them is an utter b******d of a job.

I'm on my 3rd set of wishbones but they're only a tenner a side. Check wear on the inside of the front tyres and vibrations starting at 70-80 and not going away no matter how fast you go.

Fuel consumption is not great. You can get 30mpg on a run if you stay below 4000rpm but generally you'll get nearer 25mpg.

Acceleration is pretty good for the size of car and overtaking is relatively easy. It'll do 120-30mph hour after hour across France with 4 adults and 2 weeks of luggage. Handling is very good in its class.

The interior is very hard wearing if you get leather and the boot on the estate is enourmous.

The bodywork is the typical thin old stuff you get these days.

Parts are freely available and very cheap.

We've had ours from 2 years old (40k miles) to now 6 years later (101k miles) and don't invisage changing it yet and it doesn't feel worn out although some new shock might be heading its way soon.

If you want to know anything else then let me know.

Regards,

Mark

[steve_m]

I'm about to sell mine, black Mk II 1999 estate with air con and usual extras, 187k miles, has been pretty much perfect.  Central locking seems to play up if its damp (drivers door switch I think) but apart from that it's lasted very well for a Ford, the engine is perfect.

[Toby Mack]

not sure about the V6 but I would agree that the 2L mk2 is a fine car.  Generally good to drive (engine, brakes, handling), tows better than my old Saab 9000 and very practical and cheap to run.

Problems I have with mine are:

- Not up to german build quality (trim rattles etc quite bad after a bit of abuse) but I think that makes it lighter and better handling. Depends how fussy you are.

- Front suspension knackered at 60k miles (shocks and lower arms I suspect) but it does get driven very hard.

- Gear change a bit woolly. I tend to crunch gears if I am at all lazy with the clutch.

- central locking only works at very close range in winter.

But considering the abuse it gets that is a pretty short list  

[corsechris]

Now ain't that spooky......I've recently been contemplating what to replace one of my old sheds with, and the V6 mondeo was on the list.

[dm1]

I had a mk1 which was a good car. At 70k one of the three catalytic cons failed but neither Ford nor a local garage could  say which one. Ford wanted £1k to fix. I changed them one at a time and got it right on the second one so it cost £400. Apart from that (and you have to take off the inlet manifold to change the plugs) it was great.

Dave

[nikpro]

Thanks for the views; it's a 2001 Model that I'm looking at with a full Ford Service history; Is there any 'major' service intervals as it's just done 69,000 miles and due a service pretty soon I think - I don't want to find there is a huge service required at 70,000 miles!

[steve_m]

There is a Mondeo owners club, try www.fordmondeo.org or something like that.

[Guest]

Major service should be due at 75k

[dern]

Major service should be due at 75k

Ours requires an oil and filter change every 10,000 miles and I do the air filter then too. I think that the only difference between this minor service and the major one is that either at 60 or 70k you change the spark plugs which are made from iridium or some such b*****k*. I'm pretty sure you could get a normal plug and simply change it more frequently.

The rest of the servcing is normal time/miles based stuff like coolant, brake fluid, brake consumables etc. The engine in our 2.5 v6 has a timing chain so you don't need to touch that.

Piece of p*** to service imo... it's when you have replace something in the engine bay that the lack of space is annoying.

Regards,

Mark