Ford Mondeo 2.0 Litre Auto.

[zcar12]

Maybe you were looking in the wrong place Dave.

http://www.carlube.co.uk/transmission-f ... sion-fluid

http://www.carlube.co.uk/transmission-f ... sion-fluid

Been on to the supplier and they have agreed to change it. ATF-U is a full synthetic and ATF-Q3 is only a semi synthetic.

[scoobyh123]

I was looking on EuroCarParts website Nick, not Tetrosyl/Carlubes website. Those links confirm what i thought that Q3 is the same as Dexron III and doesn't appear to be compatible with Mercon fluid so it's good news they're changing it - all at no extra cost i hope!!!

I know ATF-U is fully synth, been using it a good few years now with no problems. It also makes a great PAS fluid in most systems and also is suitable as hydraulic jack oil having a viscosity very similar to the original jack oil but with better anti-foam and similar characteristics.

[zcar12]

Dave, I changed the trans fluid this morning using Carlube-U and also the pump that you recommended. I noticed that the output hose from the pump was not filled but reminded me of bleeding hydraulic brakes with air in the system, in that the output hose was not filled but had a slug of oil, then 2 inches of air, them another slug of fluid. Is this a characteristic of this type of pump, I wonder? Otherwise, it would suggest to me that the old fluid was aerated.

[scoobyh123]

Either an air leak on the inlet side Nick, hose not fully immersed in the ATF in the box or as you suspect, the old fluid was aerated. I had a similar thing when i did the first part change on my Volvo, still haven't got round to the second part change but have seen the same sort of pump used for engine oil and that came out continuously.

[zcar12]

When changing my gearbox fluid, I sucked out 4 1/2 liters of old fluid and replaced it with 4 1/2 liters of new fluid. But as I asked Dave, why would the fluid come out as though I were bleeding air from a hydraulic system? This bothered me overnight so I have today sucked out a liter of fluid, and made sure that I now have the fluid at the correct mark on the dipstick. I suspect that what was happening was that because the last owner overfilled the gearbox, the fluid was actually foaming, hence air in the system. The car certainly seems to drive better for the change. I hope that the change will improve fuel economy, as even though I do many short runs, I expected the fuel consumption for this car to be better than it actually is, notwithstanding that it is an auto.

[scoobyh123]

It may take another change or two before the full effect of the new fluid is obvious Nick, especially on the economy.

Short runs obviously don't help but roughly speaking what is it doing to the gallon?

[zcar12]

Mid 20;s I reckon. The best so far has been 33.7 on mostly main roads. I wonder if this is why it has had 10 owners? In its favor it does have a very quiet and superbly smooth engine. Duplex chain driven camshaft.

My Rover 820 gets around 35 local and up to 50 on a long trip. I am definitely having to put petrol in the Mondeo more often than the Rover.

[scoobyh123]

OUCH!!! I had a Mk2 Mondeo for a while that did nearly 40mpg and i was hoofing it most of the time. That was a 2.0 manual and a lot of the runs were short although on a hot engine - drive from home to a particular place, do a service call, onto another not far away, same again, drive to another place, again 2 or 3 service calls and onto the third place. Sometimes it would be several calls all a distance apart but it didn't make much difference. Each service call was about 15 minutes, if i had a complicated one it would be about half hour so the engine never really got cold until i parked at the end of the day. There was often a lot of town driving though.

Besides the fact almost every single suspension bush was shot so it wallowed like a pregnant walrus, the clutch eventually gave way resulting in no drive - had to tow it to the scrapyard!

By then i'd earned enough to buy a turbodiesel Astra van (with a good clutch!) that flew through the MoT and i used that until the firm i was working for stopped paying me in mysterious circumstances.

Might be worth having a look for fuel leaks on yours though and/or a rolling road session to try and work out why it's drinking like Oliver Reed on acid!

[CHR15E]

I think you're expecting too much from it IMO.

These are the figures off Autotrader for a similar car.

Urban mpg 22.2 mpg
Extra Urban mpg 38.7 mpg
Average mpg 30.7 mpg

[mercedade]

Inclined to agree with Chris on this - a heavy, modern-ish 2 litre auto is going to struggle above 30mpg.

Great cars (my parents have a diesel manual they've had for nearly 11 years from 250 miles) which are totally competent at everything they do, but always likely to be heavier on fuel than a lighter, manual 820.

[zcar12]

The one thing owning the Mondeo has done for me is to make me realize how much I like and appreciate my 820. I have owned it for 15 years. Its worth very little to anyone else. I put it up for sale but realized my mistake in time and pulled the ad after just 24 hours. This year I have been able to tidy up the interior, do some paint jobs, and have a good poke around underneath and do the work necessary to preserve it. The sills have never needed welding and are still solid. In its favor, it is cheap to insure, whereas I pay twice that for the Mondeo.

After the work I have done on the Mondeo, its now a very good car. I did not expect the headaches it has given me, nor to have to do quite as much work on it as I have done. So I now find myself with two very different but very good cars. At the moment, I use them on alternate weeks, turn and turn about. The Mondeo has the superior ride and is well specified.

As has been suggested, I may be expecting too much from the Mondeo with respect to fuel consumption. Since the engine has several refinements, eg swirl flaps, 10.8 to 1 compression ratio, I expected it to be better than it actually is on fuel. But no matter, it is not a long term buy and hold car for me, I shall possibly move it on later in the year. In a way, it has been a good learning experience for me and has given me an excuse to get off my backside and do things outside in the fresh air. I have always needed a push to get things done.

Thanks for all the advice so freely given, it has been appreciated.

[scoobyh123]

Inclined to agree with Chris on this - a heavy, modern-ish 2 litre auto is going to struggle above 30mpg.

They call this progress???

That said, there's someone in the same boat here :

http://www.talkford.com/community/topic ... nsumption/

Other owners have commented it's probably about right! I'm obviously expecting too much out of it as well, perhaps i've been spoiled by running "non-moderns"? Nick - sell it and keep your 820!

[traineefarmer]

I have to say, I'd be disappointed with mid 20s. My lumbering swedish bus (2.4 turbo diesel) will do mid 30s with ease and on a long run on motorways low 40s.

[zcar12]

Despite everything, I still think an auto Mondeo ought to manage a better fuel consumption than mid twenties to mid thirties. If so, where has the progress gone in engine design?

I think a part of my problem has been aerated fluid in the box, due to the former owner overfilling it. This led to a power loss. The Rover has a 68 litre fuel tank and the Mondeo:s is ony 57.5 so one can get the impression that the fuel is being consumed at a faster rate than it actually is. Decided tonight to look at the air filter and discovered that 3 different star head screwdrivers would not shift the screws. This points me to a lack of maintenance so the air filter may be restricted. Also, the Duratec engine seems to be sensitive to plug gaps so will check out these things tomorrow.

[scoobyh123]

That's only about 2 gallons difference in size Nick so shouldn't make that much difference to how often you fill up - if the tanks were smaller to start with it might, say 7 and 9 gallons to start with. As you said and i also said, this is progress?

I have a minor leak on the exhaust of my Sterling (so minor it was overlooked at MoT) but that's still managing 25-35mpg depending on use, harder to quantify the Coupé because of the LPG conversion but it's returning 25mpg on gas, conversion factor of ~1.3 changes that to about 32-33mpg and now (to use Toms phrase) the fuel leaks are fixed, my lumbering Swedish bus is in the region of 22-36mpg. All are auto and about 1470kg kerb weight, the Volvo is rear wheel drive and doesn't even have a Lambda sensor as the EFi system is a very early version yet a supposedly modern 2 litre (the Rovers are 2.7, the Volvo is 2. in what should have a very sophisticated engine management system (by comparison) is achieving less mpg - something doesn't seem right somehow.

Hopefully it's simply the air filter hasn't been changed in a month of sundays and not an inherent poor fuel economy with the car.