What's wrong with 2.0 Diesel Mondeos?

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

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Joined
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Hi,

I'm looking around for candidates for a new car at the moment, less than £2k. I do about 12,000 miles a year, give or take, and I'm after something more economical than my 306 which is pretty shocking.

I was originally looking at Saab 9-3s and 9-5s because I like the way they look, but after reading around I'm starting to think they might be a bit too likely to drop a big bill on me which I won't be able to afford.

When I looked at Mondeos, the 2.0 diesels seem awfully cheap - is this just because there's tons of them around, or is there something I should be aware of?

If there is, any suggestions for a £1500/£2000 car (£2k really is the maximum), hatch or saloon, with economy as the main thing I'm after? I'm leaning towards a saloon at the moment but I'm not sure why so I could certainly be swayed. Diesel or petrol, I don't care. It's the MPGz I'm after.

Thanks :)
 
The TDCI Mondeos have a number of really common but sadly very expensive failure points - notably the Dual Mass Flywheels, Turbochargers and Injectors. Each of these can cost between £500 and £1000 to fix.
 
As Fox said.
Diesels are often false economy as the engines are more complex than the equivalent petrols.
The Mondeo is cheap as there as loads around, but get the 1.8/2.0 petrol version.

How bad is the mpg in your 306?
 
That's that then.

Are there many cars with decent economy in that price bracket that aren't plagued with some sort of horrendous problem?

I've been looking at Octavias, are the 1.9 diesels any good? Are they the same as the VW ones that come in 110, 130 and 150?


mglover070588 said:
As Fox said.
Diesels are often false economy as the engines are more complex than the equivalent petrols.
The Mondeo is cheap as there as loads around, but get the 1.8/2.0 petrol version.

How bad is the mpg in your 306?
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I'm not set on a diesel, I think it's just the MPG figures that are drawing me to them, but as you say it's looking like a lot of them have some issues that would be a show stopper for me as I don't want to be paying out a lot of money to fix a £2k car in six months.

My 306 is quite bad. It's a 2.0 XSi which is way thirstier than it should be for how much power it makes. Truth be told I really like my 306 but it just drinks way too much petrol for a 130bhp car. Last time I tried to work out how much it did, it worked out at about 28mpg over a tank and that was when I was doing a motorway commute, so it's quite bad.
 
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From what I know, Mondeos are particularly bad for throwing a failed injector or DMF at you, but that doesn't mean the VAG TDIs won't either.

If anything, the more modern the diesel the more wary you should be. Things like common rail systems, DPFs and EGR systems are there purely to make the manufacturer money - remember that.
 
Regarding Octavias:

110 is older and the engine itself is pretty reliable. I ran one for about 4 months but chickened out when faced with coked up turbo, wheel bearing and brakes all round in one go. It's basically a modified version of the one that powers all the VW campers. Having said that, the turbos are prone to faults that cost a fortune to fix. A cambelt change on one costs a fortune (£300-500 every 4 years or 60k). Most (if not all) have DMFs that will go at some point (most 200k+ Octavia taxis have probably had a couple of DMFs and turbos replaced at 3-4 figures each). You can run them on biodiesel but Veg oil will probably kill them in the long run (I know a mechanic that used to offer dual-tank veg-oil conversions but has stopped due to too many long-term failures). 2001 to 2004 have cheaper tax than pre-2000 due to change from engine size based tax to CO2 based tax.

130 and 150 are later PD engines. Same problems as the 110 but add injectors into the mix. Cambelt changes are cheaper (£150-200). Biodiesel in significant quantities isn't healthy for them.
 
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Are injector failures really that common? I've got a 53 plate TDCi Mondeo and it's been relatively trouble free and i've covered around 23k miles in the last 12 months. My girlfriends dad has a handfull of TDCi Mondeos too, all 115BHP models but with a 130 6 speed in there too, between them they cover over half a million miles a year and still no injector failures.
 
No problems with injectors on the 1.9 PD TDIs and they're not fitted with a DPF either. Assuming they are serviced properly about the only thing that does crop up is is a clogged up EGR valve, but it usually just needs a good clean.

It's the later 2.0 that can suffer from problems. The earlier PD140 tends to be fine, it's the later models with DPFs and trick injectors that are more trouble prone. A mate of mine swapped his Ibiza 1.9 PD130 for a Leon 2.0 PD170 and had issues with the DPF a number of times and failed injectors plus heater and AC issues. Maybe he should have thought past the "Shiny I want" stage and just bought some new tyres for the Ibiza...

I'm keeping hold of my tractor tech PD for a while longer. When I do buy a new car it'll be a petrol.
 
Iamzod said:
Are injector failures really that common? I've got a 53 plate TDCi Mondeo and it's been relatively trouble free and i've covered around 23k miles in the last 12 months. My girlfriends dad has a handfull of TDCi Mondeos too, all 115BHP models but with a 130 6 speed in there too, between them they cover over half a million miles a year and still no injector failures.
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Not in terms of cars sold.

People who have problems come on the internet and ask for solutions, moan about problems.
Ford sell thousands of Mondeos a year, if a percentage of them go wrong, then it will be quite a large number, but not "common" against the amount they sell.

Acording to this lot, you buy a diesel, you spend more on fuel and its a certainty that at some point the engine will explode and a little reciept will print out of a gap in the dashboard that simply says "you are ******" before a robot hand reaches up, takes all your money and credit cards and sheds them in front of your face.
 
It's more about the risk and cost if it matures - a petrol car of the same age with no turbo can still cost £5/600 for a clutch change, but you pretty much get rid of the other expensive, old and worn items. You can have a new engine bought and fitted for a grand or less on most petrol cars

I personally don't really worry about turbos or injectors going (though I have a much newer diesel, without dpf and with a newish clutch), but then I'm happy to take the risk that I would catch it in time and could have the car off the road for a week or two whilst I either change the injector(s) or get the turbo out then sent off and repaired (assuming it can be, most can though).

For some people even a cheap car is an absolute neccesity so potentially having it off the road for a week is a no go. Alternative transport, labour charges and parts all rack up very quickly and can start to look uneconomical on a car that's worth £1-2k
 
I have a 2004 Mondeo Estate TDI 130 Ghia-X, and its a lovely car to drive and can return 50+mpg on 70mph runs on the motorway. Pottering around town etc it can drop to low 40's.

Turbo was replaced before I bought, and to date in two years of ownership I've had to have the injectors replaced (£500) and the DMF & clutch replaced (£500). But then mine has done 130k miles.
 
Hard to know what to do for me - I do enough miles that a more economical car will make a proper difference, and if I'm going to aim for economy I might as well aim for high 40s, but the horror stories certainly go some way to putting me off.

Is it pointless looking at the Saabs in this price bracket? Looking around I see varying reports of running costs.

I'm pretty sure I want a diesel, I just don't want it to be a false economy, but I suppose no one can tell me what will happen to it.
 
The likes of a Mondeo is a far nicer drive than the saabs if that makes any difference to you. A Saab 9-3 is the only car ever to make me feel sick whilst driving it - they're that soft
 
Yeah, for 12k a year I wouldn't go near a diesel.

Wife has a MK3 2.0 Ghia X Mondeo and around town it's still getting 28mpg.
 
I've got a 2004 TDCi 130, got it very cheap from my parents for £750 16 months ago.

If the car wasn't such a bargain at the time, I would have gone for a 2.0 Petrol Mondeo, it would have been a lot less fuss, even with the fuel economy differences. To date, I've averaged 45mpg from the Mondeo, I do 18,000 miles a year, mostly 70mph A roads.

Since I've had the car, I've had:
DMF replaced (plus a badly worn clutch at the same time) ~£900
Rear Subframe Bushes (though that's common on all non-estates I think).
Oil pressure switch replaced

At the moment, I think the injector issue is showing its face, but only on warm startup.

Turbo is OK at the moment thankfully.

It's a great car when it's working, however I would not get a Diesel Mondeo, false economy and a half.

Dave
 
Hi.

I swapped my 1.9TDI 110bhp Leon for a Mk3 2.0 Petrol Ghia X a couple of years ago.

The Leon averaged 40mpg and the Mondy averages 32mpg. Over 12,000 miles this equates to a difference in fuel costs of ~£360 (@135ppl petrol vs 139ppl diesel).

The question is- will the diesel cost you more than the difference in fuel each year?

Also for me, the petrol mondy added £100 to my insurance and £100 to the VED so it's worth thinking about these things.

Personally, having gone from diesel to petrol, I'm not in any hurry to switch back- mainly because of the power delivery etc. If I was just doing motorway miles a diesel might be worth the gamble of a dmf/injector/turbo going, but I do a lot of b road driving for work.
 
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DaveyD said:
I've got a 2004 TDCi 130, got it very cheap from my parents for £750 16 months ago.

If the car wasn't such a bargain at the time, I would have gone for a 2.0 Petrol Mondeo, it would have been a lot less fuss, even with the fuel economy differences. To date, I've averaged 45mpg from the Mondeo, I do 18,000 miles a year, mostly 70mph A roads.

Dave
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45MPG on mainly 70mph roads? Are you actually doing 70 or 95? Mine pulls 60+ mpg on long a-road/motorway runs, i pulled a caravan from worksop to telford last august and still got over 40 out of it.
 
Iamzod said:
45MPG on mainly 70mph roads? Are you actually doing 70 or 95? Mine pulls 60+ mpg on long a-road/motorway runs, i pulled a caravan from worksop to telford last august and still got over 40 out of it.
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If I *Just* measured my commute, it'd probably 50+, HOWEVER, this is 45mpg including everything, which will include trips to the shops etc.

It will do 50+ on longer journeys, however my commute does pop up and over a few decent sized hills. I would say I'm usually doing 75 GPS most of the time. I need the injectors looking at, so I imagine one (or more) could be out a little...
 
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