Ok i've decided im gonna take the plunge and buy one i've had a few st24's so am reasonably clued up on them but i need to know how to get my requirements from people in the know,

It MUST have full leather but are they all heated or is it an optional extra?

do they have the metal water pumps as standard ?

Do these suffer with that bloody moosing noise that the 24s used to?

Oh and it must be a hatch lol

If anyone can think of anything else i should know please shout up cheers, Grant

 

Ok,

Full leather was standard on the later 200's as opposed to an option on the earlier ones.
Heated leather was ONLY available on the saloons with the blue/grey seats
Again later ones had the metal water pumps in line with the 24s
Yes they do suffer from the mooing issues but it is an easy fix.

They also suffer from the front wishbone bushes which are a 200/cougar specific part and only available from Fords. Cost around 140 a side.
Diffs are another weak point and are easily identified by a ticking when moving.

Apart frm the usual mondeo rust issues they are a very much under rated car and I have loved the four that I have had.

 

Ask Fiddy on here he is the mondeo man.

 

worst problem with these are head gaskets. listen for a ticking sound from either of the heads as its a total shite job to do on these and costs serious money as do clutches, fuel economy on these is not far off range rovers so hope you have deep pockets, saloons are the best by a mile and worth more and the market is flooded with cheap hatchbacks

 

Can usually drive around with a fucked H/G on these V6 engines for a long long time though, since it normally blows to atmosphere rather than in an area where the water/oil will mix.

Another pish job, apparently, is changing an exhaust manifold gasket.. since there really isn't much room to fuck around and carry out repairs on the V6 cars.

Behave, haha!! ...I'm pretty sure my average of 28mpg, urban stop start driving, is a little better than I could get in a Rangie.


Cheers,
Grant

 

Lower pully seals can be weepy like mine , rear subframes can rust out , my engine has done about 80 thou and is just fine only had the ac cluch fail and the and the alt belt guide pully bearing done and you can get a clutch for Ł160 , bit hard to work on , and its not a bad idear to clean out the upper and lower manafolds every few years as the EGR dumps a lot of crap in there.

 

Thanks for the info guys im sure someone on here has one with heated black leather though? its a hatch too.

Disagree on the salloon thing though there so ugly they had to make them a limited edition so people would buy them. Has to be a hatch for me im afraid

 

May have seen one with the Ghia X leather fitted as per PLOD spec but the only Recaro's that were heated were the limited edition ones. Hunted high and low for heated for the missus but gave up in the end.

Had a limited set adapted to fit my estate and they were great, then the went into the missus's hatch when I sold the estate and then sold the car.

 

Most points have been covered. As for saloon v hatch, imo saloons level the profile of the car out with them having a long bonnet, I wouldnt have a hatch personally, all three of my V6's have been saloons, but it's personal preference, and the hatch is a lot more practice.

The ticking a lot of times is the EMG, but people here ticking and running a mile, due to people having V6 duratec paranoia

 

Aha fiddy on cue, forgive me buddy but whats emg? I really really want one now but gotta wait 2 months or so insurance co wont cover me but ive been quoted peanuts elsewhere and i renew in july so plenty of time to look

I'll dig the pic of the one with heated seats up off here when i get 5 mins

 

oe of my mates had one from new, chopped it on at 4yrs old for an Ex Demo 220, 220 was faster but not half the car a 200 was.

did seem to drink fuel, but i think the tanks are small?!?!

200 got more charictor IMO
but id have to buy the estate!
first one i got my hands on was fire damaged, ended up breaking it........ never mind!

dont like 200 wheels though, odd eh!

 

Exhaust Manifold Gasket mate, they do like to blow them them, and tick when they do. Mate of mine's 200 LTD started ticking, an 'expert told him the HG was gone, I told him to get the EMG's changed before getting HG's changed, low and behold, a couple of few quid gaskets, and his tick was gone.

Now they can pop a HG like any other car, it's not uncommon, but there is duratec v6 paranoia, due to them not going where other cars do, and the oil and water not mixing, therefor even with a blown HG, they can keep going for a while, but a lot of people here 'A' tick, put two and two together, and come up with a blown HG

 

Good choice! Bought my ST200 around October last year and still absolutely love it. Great cars, and for the money i dont think you can get much better, or faster. Mine is a W reg with full history, decent bodywork and on 86k miles and i paid under 900 quid for it.

 

Don't disagree, but to be fair, the EMGs are not exactly child's play to change!
I loved mine, but couldn't justify the fuel costs! It ended up like this...

 

Dan did you get your money back from breaking it?
Did no one want the imperial panels?

 

God yes! I made a load more than I would if I'd sold it whole.

I did provisionally 'sell' the panels to someone on here, but for some reason he decided to completely ignore all my correspondance after saying he wanted them!
In the end I just scrapped what you see in the pic.

 

Not to sad, I'm getting the hump with mine now. 19mpg on anything other than a yb on greys is a waste really.
200 estate your days are numbered!

 

Don't get me wrong, I loved the car - but even if I drove it like a fanny I'd get a little over 20mpg, and if I drive it like I wanted to it would be mid to low teens. Seemed way too much fuel for the performance. I made close to Ł3K for the car in bits, but didn't get so much as a sniff at half the price with it on one piece. It did have a rebuilt gearbox with a Quaife LSD which helped bump up the price, but I still did alright out of breaking it.

In contrast my curent diesel Mondeo is faster in the real world, plus gives me no lower than 37mpg no matter how I drive it!

 

Aye dan the EMG's ain't easy because there's no room to get the manifolds off, hence why a lot of people don't change them, so they tick, and people assume its the HG, its a viscous circle

 

fuckin hell these quoted mpg figures are worrying me now i dont remember my st24 being that bad???

 

always wanted one of these it wasnt anything special

not fast
awful on fuel
handle like 5hit
corrosion issues


buy a 20v golf gti turbo instead

 

I'd say that I must drive like a complete granny, but I really don't though... and I'm getting no lower than 24mpg average, which included a good length of ripping around some country roads too.


Cheers,
Grant

 

Yeah because with 150 bhp they are fast, and handle like a go cart

 

If you're going from an Escort TDDI you're going to be in for a shock!

Some people do quote mid 20s, but I never saw that in mine, not unless I was driving at 50mph with the lightest of throttle. If I accelerated hard the instant-mpg-ometer would go down to 5mpg!!!

 

There actually not that bad on petrol along as you don't have a heavy right foot, and like bouncing them off the rev limiter every time you drive it. But if you do a lot of miles, and like your foot down, mpg will I imagine, become a big issue

 

On average dan, according to my computer, I was averaging mid 20+ most of the time, but one, our lass drives it 99% of the time, and doesn't go over 2.5k revs, two, I don't think the computers are that accurate, and three, I've seen my mpg-ometer at 3mpg, at full throttle in second gear

 

just described a GTi Turbo, ive had 2 and best things were recaros and money back when breaking them!

 

Lol yes i will be going from the escort actually

 

Bought an st25 lol

 

Cool, where did they fit the extra valve on that model??

Get some pics up mate.


Cheers,
Grant

 

You'd have been better off LPG' ing the st200.
Reading fast ford you seem to spend about Ł500 a month on problems with that car,injectors,pump's etc etc!!!
It could be dramatised a bit of course for the mag but i would say from the mag it must owe you about Ł20000!!!

 

The price of converting the 200 would make it not cost effective. If it was a newer, more expensive car it would have been a good idea though!

I've definitely had my fair share of issues with the TDCi - Nothing's 'made up' for the mag, if anything I've missed bits out rather than bore people. The mag itself doesn't pay for anything, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't get some very good deals on the back of it being in the mag.

It's currently at the workshop as one of the injectors has packed up - four brand new ones were fitted just over a year ago!!!!

 

lol bloody iphone will do not got any of it yet though mate

would have got the 200 but this was the right car at the right price at the right time with good history and the right colour lol