Lifespan of a Mondeo Petrol Engine? (2.0 Zetec)

With 5k oil changes from new driven mainly longish runs you will get 200k out of the Zetec E.

Bottoms ends rarely give trouble, when it dies it will probably drop a valve.

Tim..

Mines done 98K, serviced every 10K, and mostly short-ish runs. Auto box packed up at 64K and I've been driving it since 26K and normally hit

5,000-6,000 rpm in a typical journey when overtaking (6 mile motorway stretch). I'm now doing about 17K a year. I'm now wondering if it's worth washing it this weekend..... Jon

I've been told they can go to about 160k, and then things like the head gasket go etc.

Hoping I can squeeze another couple of years out of my 105k one yet!

Pete.

LOL, No surprise there then. Slow townish driving kills the auto's in short order- the design flaw is that they constantly hunt in and out of OD at too low engine revs. Locking it out with the button at all times unless your doing 60-70mph greatly improves life, as does yearly fluid changes. The other weakness is the reverse / 1st gear brake band which isnt upto the job. When this dies you loose forward drive, again poor software doesnt help it.

and I've been driving it since 26K and normally hit

Think you'll be fine til 150k ish, or when the auto box dies again. Bank on

50-70k.

As long as its correctly serviced, and the thermostat is allowing full operating temp, so its not running rich (bore wash etc) and you dont thrash it from cold, the Zetec E is a tough unit. I would be considering 6monthly oil changes now- they're not expensive- look out for National Tyres periodic offers. Oil and filter using the correct 5w-30 oil for 15quid. Bargain.

Tim..

Thanks Tim, I'll stick with it for another year at least. Jon

[reluctant snip]

Mine is now scrap, but can I ask if you mean complete change of auto gearbox fluid by "yearly fluid changes"? That stuff is not cheap. And there were people saying in a forum far far away that it was hard/impossible to get all the old gunky fluid out - is this true?

Supplemental Q (since wifey has an auto too): is yearly fluid changes recommended for other models?

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I think you can only get 2/3 of it out, but even that would give enough of a change. Why was yours scrapped? Jon

The message from Pete Smith contains these words:

Grief, even my old Perkins Prima can do better than that.

Dexron fluid is cheap £1.50 per litre,- buy it in 20l drums.

Yes if you plan to keep it for awhile. On a car with a reputation for the autos to go up in smoke definately yes. What car has she got?

Tim..

It is a Ford.

But when you've done it in a Mondeo, it feels like 80k.

In a Montego/Maestro/Sherpa, it feels like an eternity ;-) (Plus, it _is_ a diesel, and a pretty good one at that).

Pete.

The message from "Doki" contains these words:

Ah, yes of course. That reminds me why I've never owned one.

The message from Pete Smith contains these words:

It's coming up to 150000 and is still (as far as I can tell) on the original cambelt. Since I'll be ditching it in a few months [1] I really CBA to replace it. It'll have zero value when I've finished with it anyway.

[1] Anyone know of a 7-seat Renault Savanna turbo diesel available?

The engine was redone in 2001 but turned out not to have been "redone" by the finest in the industry (shall we say that trading standards, Immigration and other govt organs waded in to the garage in question right after I got the car back, the gearbox went in ok but came out leaking that expensive fluid, the engine developed a pinking/knocking/lack of oomph which various garages could not be pushed to take seriously); the quote to replace the gearbox when it decided that 3rd came after 1st was nowhere less than 1200 and the car was showing its 85k miles in more ways than I could mention. I kept encountering the phrase "good money after bad". A Monday Mondeo in so many ways and held up by cynical friends as an example of "old Ford". Certain Ford garages (I did a tour of them) did not do themselves proud either -- simplistic wallet raiding but not sorting out the various engine problems, bullying was needed to get their precious but strangely underused diag kit plugged in, even so it never seemed to be used properly to fix.

I should probably elaborate that "scrapped" should read auctioned off. A lot of the car was good for parts. The total was not.

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Ah! A lot less then than the 7 quid a litre from Ford parts.

Golf K-reg. Good engine, solid body (the car's..) but the gearbox is a petrol-guzzler 3-gear job. Done 60,000 miles with no record of any gearbox fluid change. The garage she uses is an independent which has been straight forward apart from 1 cockup where a coolant blank was left off and water pumped out at a rate of knots (they made up for this not only with deep bowing and scraping). I think they'll get a chat on gearbox fluid flushing shortly thanks to the collective wisdom of this ng.

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I thought I'd take advantage of the offer, seen it before but used to have a diesel car. I went in and asked for the £15 oil and filter change and he said it'd be £20 because of the "special oil" for Zetecs.... Anyway, as I'm tight, I did it myself ;)

Tony (UncleFista)

Good to see they're now doing them! I went in last August, and they said=20 they didn't do the 2.0 Zetec, didn't even list the filter or oil!

It cost ~=A330 just for the bits from Mr Ford. If they now do it for =A320,= it's=20 cheaper, and no scrabbling round under the car!

Pete.

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Just checked the oil and it's well below the min level (changed 6K ago)..... Jon