Mondeo Zetec Diesel engine 2000 reg.

No. It's considered by Ford to be "a characteristic of the engine" and you can only get con rods as a set of four with shrunk in little ends - the shells are not available on their own. Failure mode appears to be spun shells blocking off the oil feed hole on the top of the rod lubed by splash and the piston cooling jets.

Thanks Chris. I can now picture what has happened and it is no longer a puzzle to me why it happened. I don't think my mate will be very happy though as he is thinking up to £5K to fix it:-( pete

Bear in mind that the 1.8 TDCI in the Focus is (AFAIK) a very different=20 engine to the 2.0 TDCI in the Mondeo.

=A35k seems a little on the steep side for a repair too. I've seen diesel= =20 Mondeos cheaper than this, that you could buy, swap the engine, and sell=20 the shell and bits of the old one on Ebay.

Pete.

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Almost any engine with low oil pressure or blocked oilways can suffer this, once the pin starts sticking & heating up then the rod snaps below the small end or the pin comes out the piston & then snaps the end off the rod.

Yes I agree. I think he is just feeling a bit down atm and is exaggerating. I feel sorry for him although I barely know the chap but he saved like hell to buy the thing for £9K a year ago and he is feeling pretty sore about life right now. pete

Indeed.That appears to be what has happened:-( pete

I apologise for taking so long getting back to you but I have had a major computer failure and I lost all my settings. Anyhow I am back up now using a laptop. I will try to get pics but I am not very hopeful as the chap is convinced he has a claim under the sale of goods act against the dealer and so the car is under wraps and untouched. Hopefully with the very comprehensive posts I have received I can persuade him differently and he can just get it repaired and get on with his life. Obviously if there is a chance the engine has the 100K or 5 year gaurantee he will chase that avenue but I think it unlikely he has that guarantee or the dealer would have gone down that avenue himself. Thanks for your help. pete

If you go to

HTH

Simon

Thanks, I will check it out. pete

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Moray Cuthill" saying something like:

S*it. :(

Yay! Great, mine's only 37K/4yrs old. I've seen a few fwd Trannys advertised with 80K on the clock and 'new engine fitted'.

I suppose Ford felt the need to reassure customers about the longevity of a new design of engine. I came across one in the yard of bloke who was doing my hub - 197K on the clock and still on the original lump, running sweet as a nut.

Have you any notion as to what power level of engine has a habit of throwing rods? I'd suspect that the lower power ones might be at risk if the drivers are revving the s*it out of them to make progress. Otoh, it might be the higher output ones are too stressed.

Nothing new there, then.

The message from Grimly Curmudgeon contains these words:

I saw a Transit with the old "banana" 2.5dI engine with 330k on the clock and very happy.

Only on its fourth clutch, too.

The main engines the company I work for buy are the low power (74ps?) ones. The engines I've heard about, are all from other workshops, so I don't know exactly what's went wrong, but Ford weren't even questioning the warranty claims, so it must of been a known fault. The only reason I heard about it was from speaking to our warranty department about an engine we had with a pourous bit in the block, causing an oil leak.

The duratorq engines have been blighted by many faults, but as usual ford try their best to keep things quiet. If you knew of some of the faults, you'd probably be scared to drive the van for fear of the engine blowing up.

They are a very minimalist design of engine, with a very japanese feel to the component design.

Under the circumstances of the engine I am talking about that is only

The message from "Moray Cuthill" contains these words:

Can in interest you in this plastic cover to go over the diff-cover bolts on your Pinto?

It all depends on the warranty supplied with the vehicle. I'm sure all the cars came with a 3yr/60k warranty.

Personally, I'd be inclined to contact Ford direct, as you may find they'll be willing to offer some good will, and cover a percentage of the repair cost. Especially if you can get an independant inspection of the engine, which points the cause to some form of unexpected mechanical failure.

Yes that sounds like a good idea. Has anyone here got an address for Ford worth trying? pete

It should be in the service or dealer locations handbooks. Failing that, it is buried somewhere in the depths of the ford website.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Guy King saying something like:

Those were extremely long-lived engines; I've certainly seen a few hit the 1/4million mile mark. Just a pity they were a bit rough and noisy.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Moray Cuthill" saying something like:

Ah, same as mine then. So, the low power lumps are probably ok (relatively)?

S*it; now I'm determined to take it easy on it. I had the idea of bunging an intercooler on to add an extra 10bhp or so, do you think I'd be as well leaving it alone?

Pity. On paper, it's a nice wee engine; twin cam, 16valve, turbo, etc. I hope if anything major goes bang it does it before the 5 yr warranty expires.