Ford Mondeo III (2000 - 2007) - Risks of buying high mileage TDCI

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Mon 20 Jul 2009 18:15
Risks of buying high mileage TDCI - ajkgordon
I am considering buying a 2004/53 130bhp TDCI Mondeo estate with 140,000 miles on the clock for £2000.

However, looking through threads on here and elsewhere, it seems there are lot of complaints about the reliability of these engines even beyond a fairly modest mileage. All the horror stories about injectors, fuel pumps and DMFs are starting to put me off.

My question is whether the abundance of these stories is down to a genuine reliability problem with the car or simply because of the large numbers of them on the road.

In other words, at that sort of price, would it be better to look at an older Passat or even a youngish 406? Or would the risks of major faultiness be similar?

Thanks
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Mon 20 Jul 2009 23:03
Risks of buying high mileage TDCI - MikeTorque
Have a look into the cars service history and as many bills as you can get hold off. These will show you what work has been done to the Mondeo and how it's been looked after. As it's already done 140k it's proved itself, many a car of today won't get anywhere close to that mileage before it's recycled.

Check out its overall condition and see what looks good & bad and then make a judgement.
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Mon 20 Jul 2009 23:11
Risks of buying high mileage TDCI - Alby Back
I suppose some cars will give trouble. Mine hasn't. It's a 2002 TDCi with over 160k. The one before it didn't falter either. Or the one before that. A friend has one with 130k on it and it's going strong. He sold his last one with 228k on the odometer. It had needed a new back box on the exhaust to be fair.

Some say they are unreliable. I find otherwise.

Luck of the draw maybe.

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Mon 20 Jul 2009 23:20
Risks of buying high mileage TDCI - spikeyhead {p}
Mines now got 175k on it.

Did need four new injectors at 158k which cost £900
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Tue 21 Jul 2009 09:36
Risks of buying high mileage TDCI - Red Baron
My Mondeo 2003 TDCi has only covered 85k miles. Had the car since 22k miles. Problems so far:

New starter motor required - DMF was fine. This new starter motor had a fault and trashed the DMF after 10k miles so FORD paid for a new DMF.

Injectors needed recalibrating once so far.

Torn turbo hose at the front of the engine.

Boot mechanism inoperative. I didn't have the time to try fix it myself so got FORD to fix it.

All four doors went rusty at the bottom seal due to manufacturing fault. Ongoing.

Not too bad really, basically as all were straight forward fixes, and at the first attempt.

Would I have another. Yes.
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Tue 21 Jul 2009 13:33
Risks of buying high mileage TDCI - silent reader
I can only give you my experience of 1 car, an 04 Estate.

I bought it at around 1 year old with around 10k on the clock. I traded it 2 years later (at the end of the warranty) with 36k. In that time it was towed in 3 times, went through 3 Turbo pipes, 2 sets of Injectors, was remapped 3-4 times, and even had the short engine replaced due to bent conrods at the time of injector failure (the original set) Altogether in the 2 years I had it it was in the dealer about 8 weeks in total. All the work was carried out at no cost to me and I was given a courtesy car (I did argue that a Ka wasn't really suitable when I was paying for a Mondeo estate).

Altogether a nightmare, especially considering that it was only really 2 different fauls but they kept reappearing several months after being repaired.

Replace it with a Vectra which has done 40k in 2.5 years with no faults at all.
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