Who owns a Mondeo ST220 / ST TDCI?

Howard · 22 Aug 2013 at 13:58

Janesy B said:
Hosting on imgur doesn't help either as they compress images unless you have a pro account.

It isn't noticeable unless the image is over a certain size, so it's fine for most stuff. I put bigger images on my hosting as a rule anyway.

Most of the 'snapshots' I've taken with my phone, i.e. the wheels etc, I just resize to about 1000px wide in Photoshop and upload to Imgur. Others I take with my SLR process and export in Lightroom, resizing where necessary, and uploading to either imgur or my hosting.

L0rdMike · 22 Aug 2013 at 13:59

Rybo89 said:
3000x2400 (what ever it is) to 1200x800 it looks pants.

Are you keeping the ratio the same when resizing?

Howard · 22 Aug 2013 at 14:02

Full size from iPhone on imgur:

http://i.imgur.com/DlRO8Q3.jpg

Full size from iPhone on my own hosting:

www.hcanning.com/files/stbig1.jpg

Resized in Paint and hosted on Imgur:

Resized in Paint and hosted on my own hosting:

Imgur's compression on smaller images makes no discernible difference. Rybo, feel free to email me the original image

Howard · 22 Aug 2013 at 17:10

After all the MPG naysayery, I thought I'd do a bit of testing on the way home.

This is the result of sitting at exactly an indicated 70 (about 67 in reality as verified by GPS) for the 7-mile stretch of M3, staying at this speed constantly. This photo was taken just as I was approaching the M25 junction after about 7 miles. The counter was reset just as I got up to speed after joining the motorway. The MPG rose to about 37.5 after joining the M25 and sitting at 55-60mph for a mile and a bit, then promptly dropped to about 32 as I hoofed it all the way through 2nd and 3rd gear when coming off the M25 onto the local dual carriageway

. I then drove the ~2.5 miles through town with a bit of stop-start traffic before arriving at home with it showing 32.1MPG.

I didn't do anything special, I don't drive like a granny at 10mph below every speed limit, I don't slipstream lorries. I just keep my car well-maintained with the right tyre pressures and whatnot, drive gently, keeping up with traffic whilst looking ahead and anticipating what's happening.

I normally sit at 70-75 on the motorway but thought I'd rigorously stick to an indicated 70 for the purposes of this.

Rybo89 · 22 Aug 2013 at 18:00

I want to sit in your car and drive for about 5 minutes and then i will know how many thousands of faults my car has.

Howard · 22 Aug 2013 at 18:07

I'm sure it's not that bad!

Rybo89 · 22 Aug 2013 at 18:23

Well got that noise from the camshaft bearing caps that i keep meaning to do but something always pops up. Main reason is not having a precision torque wrench, as the caps only have to be done at 8nm. My wrench is from 30nm-220nm.

Got a slight rattle which i think maybe the tensioner on the drive belt. Will change both.

Think new exhaust is rattling on the heatshield between 2.5-3k revs aswell. Already took the 2 rear heat shields off due to the new exhaust rubbing them. (could be tensioner on drive belt)

Parcel shelf rattles like a ****nut.

Minor things that i should have sorted by now but just not got round to it yet.

L0rdMike · 22 Aug 2013 at 18:24

Dont talk to me about rattles

Howard · 22 Aug 2013 at 18:41

Hope my new exhaust doesn't foul anything :/ lol

Anyone want 4 slightly scabby but not-too-bad centre caps? Got my shiny new ones on

Rybo89 · 23 Aug 2013 at 09:53

Get them on eBay, bet they will fetch at least £30 on there. Well, hoping you don't get a 100% pure certified first class bell-end like i did that has never got intouch after winning the auction.

Sent you a email this morning.

Howard · 23 Aug 2013 at 10:06

They're on eBay, already got about 9 watchers!

I saw it, will have a look in a bit

DogsBody · 23 Aug 2013 at 10:22

Howard said:
After all the MPG naysayery, I thought I'd do a bit of testing on the way home.

This is the result of sitting at exactly an indicated 70 (about 67 in reality as verified by GPS) for the 7-mile stretch of M3, staying at this speed constantly. This photo was taken just as I was approaching the M25 junction after about 7 miles. The counter was reset just as I got up to speed after joining the motorway. The MPG rose to about 37.5 after joining the M25 and sitting at 55-60mph for a mile and a bit, then promptly dropped to about 32 as I hoofed it all the way through 2nd and 3rd gear when coming off the M25 onto the local dual carriageway . I then drove the ~2.5 miles through town with a bit of stop-start traffic before arriving at home with it showing 32.1MPG.

I didn't do anything special, I don't drive like a granny at 10mph below every speed limit, I don't slipstream lorries. I just keep my car well-maintained with the right tyre pressures and whatnot, drive gently, keeping up with traffic whilst looking ahead and anticipating what's happening.

I normally sit at 70-75 on the motorway but thought I'd rigorously stick to an indicated 70 for the purposes of this.

I didn't realise your measuring stick was so different to mine

1 - 35mpg on display != 35mpg actual
2 - I never reset my speedo "just after I got up to speed"

It makes perfect sense to me now how you are "acheiving" 35mpg

EDIT
How much did abrand new set of centre caps set you back ?

Also does anyone else fine that the jack point covers are constantly loose or is it just me, I don't mean hanging off the car loose but mine seem to always be not quite clipped in and the other day teh rear drivers side one was actually hanging off when I got to work

Howard · 23 Aug 2013 at 10:28

No, you're right, 35mpg on my display equates to probably nearer 34.5MPG in real terms.

I have no idea what you're on about, otherwise. If you can't crack 30mpg on a run at 60-70mph then something isn't quite right with your car. I'm not sure how you can not see this. I've even proven above that 35mpg isn't particularly difficult, and it still only dropped down to 32 after a couple of miles of town driving!

To me, 'on a run' means driving to a motorway, doing a comparatively long distance on said motorway, leaving the motorway, driving a handful of miles through a more urban setting and then arriving at your destination. Obviously if you do half an half motorway / town, then it'll be less, but that's pretty much what my daily commute is, and I still average 26-27mpg doing that.

The centre caps were about £60, and I'll probably recoup some of that back by selling my old ones. Yes, my jacking points occasionally come loose. They seem to bend over time, so I heat them up with a heat gun and bend them back. Solves the problem for a while.

DogsBody · 23 Aug 2013 at 10:56

Howard said:
No, you're right, 35mpg on my display equates to probably nearer 34.5MPG in real terms.

I have no idea what you're on about, otherwise. If you can't crack 30mpg on a run at 60-70mph then something isn't quite right with your car. I'm not sure how you can not see this. I've even proven above that 35mpg isn't particularly difficult, and it still only dropped down to 32 after a couple of miles of town driving!

To me, 'on a run' means driving to a motorway, doing a comparatively long distance on said motorway, leaving the motorway, driving a handful of miles through a more urban setting and then arriving at your destination. Obviously if you do half an half motorway / town, then it'll be less, but that's pretty much what my daily commute is, and I still average 26-27mpg doing that.

The centre caps were about £60, and I'll probably recoup some of that back by selling my old ones. Yes, my jacking points occasionally come loose. They seem to bend over time, so I heat them up with a heat gun and bend them back. Solves the problem for a while.

What I am on about is, if I were to reset my mpg reading when I was up to speed then drive home on a dual carriageway I would acheieve something close to what you have there ~32mpg, and my speedo is always optimistic vs actual fuel used and to be fair it would be even more out if I added in the bit of petrol that my car uses to start up with (I run on gas).

My centre caps are in nowhere near as good condition as yours though, my alloys look terrible, having said that my whole car is starting to get a bit tatty after 10 years (53 plate) so not even sure it's worth spending money on centre caps and a refurb etc now.

- Alloys in attrocious condition, lots of kurbing as well as the dreaded corrosion on the laser cut face
- Bonnet very stone chipped
- front bumper has laquer peeling
- Smallish scrape on bottom of drivers side front bumper
- slightly bigger scrape on drivers side rear bumper
- rear plastic in rear bumper seems to have a broken clip on it and previous owner thought best way to resolve this was to stick it in with silicone instead of replacing.
- jack point covers don't seem to "sit right" this is probably the issue you are describing I'll look into heating them with a heat gun.

Rybo89 · 23 Aug 2013 at 11:38

Castrol Ford Magnetic Fully synthetic 5w30 still the best stuff for these ford engines?

£20 at ECP, so i am gunna go grab 2 later if we all agree.

Howard · 23 Aug 2013 at 11:39

Some people say that the Fuchs Ford-spec stuff is meant to be top notch, but I use the Castrol Ford-spec stuff with no issues so yeah.

Makhaira · 23 Aug 2013 at 12:07

Shell Helix here, I think it's the HX7 I use from memory.

FirebarUK · 23 Aug 2013 at 12:25

If I go and look at one of these, what should I look out for? Can anyone link me to a buyers guide please (I'll have a google too)? They seem like particularly good value given the build quality and fun factor. I'm in the market for a new car, not too fussed about economy if I can manage ~ 30-35MPG on the motorway.

FirebarUK · 23 Aug 2013 at 15:50

Actually, having read some of the posts in this thread I'm not so sure about the build quality bit now

Imy · 23 Aug 2013 at 15:52

Aside from the usual stuff you'd check on any 2nd hand car, I can think of:

Sagging rear bumper (some pics in this thread)
Limited movement of passenger electric mirror
Seat electrics - check movement in all 8 directions
Seat heating - can be too hot or too cold but fairly normal for there not to be much difference between the 5 settings

I'd rate the build quality as a bit better than average. The things that are likely to break prematurely are relatively cheap to fix.

The problem with the fuel economy is that while yes you can get 35mpg indicated while on cruise @ 70mph, if you measure the entire trip at the pump it's more like ~30mpg. Add to that if you get bored and decide to go a bit quicker you're talking ~28mpg for a motorway trip.

Relevant poll: http://www.stdrivers.co.uk/forum/topic/22750-st220-average-mpg-poll/