04 Mondeo TDC1 Engine problems
Hi all,
Hoping for some advice on this one. We bought an 04 Mondeo TDC1 130bhp about three years ago and have had a really bad run of things. It now has 100,000 on the clock and is still playing up.
Driving in France three Summers ago we got a split in the turbo pipe and had to limp the thing home with much stress.
About 18 months ago we ended up having the injectors changed (plus a clean out of the tank etc and new fuel filter) for about £1200 in total.
A year ago the clutch and DMF were changed for about a £800.
That is not to include the replacement engine bolt and gear box bolt that went with time, and the suspension arm that went when some numpty drove into us one evening when the car was parked.
Anyway from the last couple of months the car has been decidedly lumpy on idle, and getting worse. Was idling at around 1000 rpm and shaking around like a wet dog. Took it back to the diesel specialists that did the injectors and they said they were okay. They wanted to do more investigating, but suggested the DMF might be the issue, so took it to the garage who had done that (they are just down the road) and this was checked, and not the issue.
So have let the guy down the road have a poke around. He tried replacing the EGR and then resetting the ECU, and for about two or three weeks life was good, until the lump idle started coming back. Took it back to him last Thursday and he got a diesel guy to quote on it. He said a bunch of sensors on the engine needed 'rebuilding' and the cost would be in the region of £550. He also reset the ECU again and the car sounded good.
This weekend we had to load up the car to spend a weekend camping with friends. On the way there the car was great. Idled at around 750rpm, but very smooth. At one point though when the revs hit 3500 in fourth the power cut and the Glow Light started flashing. This cleared when I restarted the car, and the car handled just the same as before.
On the way home, just as we came into London, the power seemed to drop again, but no glow light. Then the following day, we had trouble starting and last night it just would start. All it did was turn over and shake.
This morning - started fine, but a little lumpy on idle. Cleaned the MAF and disconnected the battery to reset ECU. Just connected and all is purring again.
Still think there might be an underlying issue though, which will come back. Checked the pipe around the EGR, and doesn't appear to be split anywhere, but there seems to be a lot of oil on the big pipe leading from the EGR, way down at the bottom. Oil in the engine was very low too, but in truth I hadn't checked that for a while. No oil under the car though, even after topping up and running for a while, just the impression of a bunch of oil around the compartment in places.
We are driving the kids to France in August again this summer and really want to avoid another bloody drama, but loathe to hand it back to the mechanic for general diagnosis (especially when he didn't even have appeared to have checked the oil! The air filter pipe was not connected to the intake pipe either and a few of the general pipes under the hood were not snapped into the mounts, so I am not massively impressed on that side either. Not sure if the guy cleaned the inlet manifold when he had it.
The car really isn't worth a great deal, but have already sunk too much into the damn thing. Any suggestions would be massively helpful!
Cheers,
Steve