It has been mentioned on a few occasions in these pages that Ford have had a problem with corrosion around the inner edge of the doors on a few 2001/02 Focuses and Mondeos. This is caused by a faulty batch of sealer that hardens and comes away exposing the metal underneath to moisture.
The two rear doors on my 2002 Mondeo are effected, I would not call it rust, more like a white oxidation where the sealer has come away, this I guess because they are galvanised. The sealer on these doors is very hard to touch where as on the front doors, hatch etc it is soft to the extent that you can make an indentation in it with your finger nail.
The car is nearly four years old and has done 102000 miles, so it is a year and 42000 miles out of it's warranty, yes it has a 10 or 12 year perforation warranty though is certainly not perforated.
So Ford hold no liability to me at all in respect of this problem other than goodwill however, no quibble, it has gone in today to have two new rear doors fitted and I have a brand spanking new (40 miles on the clock) C-Max to drive while they do it.
Ok, it is better to not have the problem in the first place though I have got to give Ford 10/10 for taking it seriously and sorting it out, ok perhaps 9/10 until I see how good a job the body shop do.
I will keep you posted.
Regards.
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Count yourself lucky. You must look a lot more respectable than me!!!
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Well being twenty something years past my student days perhaps I look like I own it rather than have stolen it ;-)
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He probably wanted to get me (and the car) off the front of his dealership as quick as possible!
The baseball cap probably didn't help too much I'll grant you.
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See Adam? Baseball cap=rusty banger. Mid-40s=unfortunately corroded high-mileage repmobile. Mid-40s+baseball cap=call the police.
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See Adam? Baseball cap=rusty banger. Mid-40s=unfortunately corroded high-mileage repmobile.>>
I don't avoid stereotyping myself so cant complain though I really dont like the term repmobile any more now than I did when I got my first company car in the 80s.
Mid-40s+baseball cap=callthe police.
Ida wear eet da rite away arown so ida parly wi da law rite fine init.
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>> Ida wear eet da rite away arown so ida parly wi da law rite fine init.
Sorry to use an expression you dislike cheddar. No insult was intended, just needed the right word.
Despite broad hints by young Adam and you in Caribbeanoid mode, I cannot bring myself to believe that a mature and apparently rational adult would wear a, heave, heave, baseball cap, even the right way round, except in jest. You jest perhaps?
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The baseball cap probably didn't help too much I'll grant you.
Try a baseball bat next time...
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You obviously haven't met Cheddar yet then Lud ;-)
The baseball bat was actually next on my agenda but I got the car fixed before I had a chance to put it into action. If there's one thing that boot's good for, it's carrying quite a few bats.
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That must help when you get a fly in the car too?
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;-P
I keep hearing them squeak though!
Cheddar - a word of advice. When you get the car look very carefully - especially at the edges of the door that meet the front doors.
If possible, that night, try and park it under a sodium street light and look too.
Trust me!
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This is either going to be a salt pun or a serious tip...please elaborate!
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Lol. Serious I'm afraid.
When we got our car (now mine) we got a phone call saying we weren't meant to have it as the doors needed respraying.
Turns out they didn't but when I got the boot resprayed because it began to rust slightly, (only last year - we owned the car since 1999) I took it to an old school body shop and he said "When did you get your back doors resprayed"
"Pardon?" said I
"Your back doors. They've been repsrayed and not very well either."
We looked under his outdoor lighting (sodium lights) and you could see the edge they've sprayed the paint to (a technical paint term I'm told) was darker. In the 5 years we owned the car, not one of us noticed until that day so you could argue it was hardly worth knowing but I'm told that isn't the only Ford job he's seen as poor as that.
He also said it was a good way of checking paint matching under that type of lighting (the the lighter colours certainly) as it was easier to see the colour tones or some such. I'd tuned out by then.
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<< but I'm toldthat isn't the only Ford job he's seen as poor as that.
Adamski, I'm surprised at you for repeating it. You're implying that poor respraying workmanship can be connected to the make of car, and that is completely unjustified. Shame on you. Poor workmanship is always down to the individual doing the work.
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L\'escargot.
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I honestly didn't think Snaily.
I can see how that could be a problem. Although in my defence, I am only repeating what someone else said but I didn't even realise. However, is it really that different to saying "French cars are unreliable"? or "Korean cars have bad paint jobs"?
Please feel free to delete/edit the comments as technically they do break the rules.
Sorry.
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I honestly didn't think Snaily.
I forgive you Adamski ;-)
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L\'escargot.
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>>Ok, it is better to not have the problem in the first place though I have got to give Ford 10/10 for taking it seriously and sorting it out, ok perhaps 9/10 until I see how good a job the body shop do.
The pains you take in extolling the virtues of all things TDCi have clearly been rewarded!
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The pains you take in extolling the virtues of all things TDCi have clearly been rewarded!
No pains, I tell it as I see it, I have not "been rewarded" for what I have said, rather what I have done, i.e. given it a wash every few weeks and had it serviced on time at a Ford dealer.
The fact is that it looked as good as new when I dropped it off at the bodyshop today, but for this (minor on the basis that it is being sorted) issue it belies its age and mileage despite only having had a modicum of TLC from me.
Well I will be extolling the virtues, or otherwise, of a C-Max 1.6 TDCi over the next week, it seemed perfectly OK over the 10 miles or so I have done in it so far though perhaps has a bit more of a diesely thrum than my Mondeo, early days.
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Cheddar - Did the bodyshop have to get authorisation from Ford to carry out the work? How long did it take them to get back to you?
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Cheddar - Did the bodyshop have to get authorisation from Ford to carry out the work? How long did it take them to get back to you?
In short, yes and about a week.
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Well I have got it back and it looks like new, took a while though. I expected four or five days so having dropped it in on Monday two weeks ago I thought I would have it back on the Friday, instead it was not ready the following Tuesday, I was going away for a few days so I kept the dealers C-Max until the following Monday i.e. Monday this week, by then two weeks. I went to pick it up on Monday and noticed a blemish in the paint which they acknowledged, eventually picked it up today, all is well.
Two new doors, complete respray of each side of the car, front wing to rear wing, really not bad service from manufacturer or dealer considering it is nearly four years old and over 100k miles.
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Glad to hear you've finally had it sorted. Also nice to hear that they haven't tried to do it on-the-cheap and instead, done it properly.
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Excellant service all round i say.
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\"a little man in a big world/\"
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until I see how good a job the body shop do.
I think this is the crux of the matter. If the defect is just as you describe I'd rather have the original doors with fresh sealant covering the exposed galvanising than new doors.
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L\'escargot.
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I think this is the crux of the matter. If the defect is just as you describe I'd rather have the original doors with fresh sealant covering the exposed galvanising than new doors.
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I thought of suggesting that and the bottom edge of the doors could certianly have been treated in this way though the implication was that the sealer would come away in other places around the door edge that would not be able to be repaired to an as new condition.
Also the only ding on the whole car was a nasty ish one on one of the rear doors caused by a flying rock kicked up by a car travelling in the opposite direction, this is of course no longer there!
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Just had a call from a very pleasant chap at Ford customer services making sure all is well and that I am happy.
They seem to have their act together these days.
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I had this problem on the driver's door of my 01Y plate Mondeo at 2 1/2 years old. It's a well known problem that all Ford bodyshops are no doubt aware of. My car was kept for 4/5 days and the bottom of the door repaired and one side of the car resprayed. On return they hadn't refitted the under bumper trim grille correctly - rectified this myself.
Another problem, amongst many, I had on my Mondeo just before I sold it at three years old was the door weatherseals on the body perishing.
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