Mondeo DMF causes even bigger problems!!

Hammyman

Lum wrote: »

Every time you lift off the accelerator then the car will begin pushing the engine along

Err, they all do that, DMF or no DMF.

and the pushy thing will bash into the end of the opposite spring. If you bash on metal often enough it will eventually become brittle and snap off, which is apparently what they are now doing.

Mine is on 143,000 miles and I've done over 50k of that. Its showing no signs of packing up.

Lum

I suspect short distance drivers will kill their DMFs first and it will be fine for motorway barges.

Just like with diesels generally.


And yes I know that every car will push the engine along when you lift. That was just a lead in to explaining how that impacts (literally) on the DMF springs.

harveybobbles

This is quite funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK9TX82c2VI&feature=related

Hammyman

Lum wrote: »

I suspect short distance drivers will kill their DMFs first and it will be fine for motorway barges.

Just like with diesels generally.


And yes I know that every car will push the engine along when you lift. That was just a lead in to explaining how that impacts (literally) on the DMF springs.

LOL, no problem. Many people are so bereft of basic mechanical knowledge nowadays.

Mine spent its first 90k as a rep car. Juding by the service history, it was doing around 40k a year so mostly motorway mileage in top. I don't do much town driving as I live in a small town and I like walking while I'm still able to.

Lum

So you have an ex repmobile and only use it for medium -> long journeys?

Pretty much the ideal life for a diesel car.

I feel sorry for whoever buys my company diesel repmobile. It does many long journeys, but it also does the 15 minute drive to Tesco twice a week which is down the side of a steep valley and up the other side. Sod walking that. My daily commute is also 25 minutes of single track lanes where I drive over the peaks of two valleys, and have to regularly dive into a driveway or layby and stop to avoid reckless murders in transit vans who think the 60 limit is a target.

Hammyman

LOL. Yeah I don't think I'd walk that too. My goal with my car is to get it to 250,000 miles with the original engine which should take about another 5 years assuming we're not all using flying cars by then.

benham3160

KDC wrote: »

Bring back the old cortinas and escorts etc as spares for these were relatively cheap and could be fitted by most owners who were good with their hands.

In these circumstances computerised systems make life a lot more difficult and costly for car owners. If this continues then we will become a society of buying new cars and after 3yrs throwing them away - a throw away society.

KDC

No, the "throw away" society was the days of having to change spark plugs every 10,000 miles, points, cap, condensor and arm. Then if the car made it eight years out with an engine rebuild or simply rusting away, then that was good.

Modern cars are infinately stronger, more reliable, a lot more durable and in some cases no more difficult to work on.

I laugh at anybody who bleats on about "oh my old xyz didn't do this....." ....."no, but it died at 75,000 of big end failure, needed servicing every fifteen minutes and didn't start in the cold, and cut out in the wet...."

I challenge anybody who says old type cars are easier to work on, and more reliable to live with a 1970s car as a daily driver for six months, and see if they still hold that viewpoint.

DMF's however, are the work of the devil.

Regards,
Andy

Lum

Like I said earlier, mid 90s (which was 15 years ago now!) was the peak for reliability and longevity. Getting rid of carburettors and distributors was a good thing.

It's just gone downhill from there IMO. Ok the rot had started earlier with things like EGR but at least those are easily removable on the older cars.


I used to have a 1994 Passat diesel which was previously used as a central London minicab, 250,000 miles on the clock and still going strong. Only reason it got scrapped was due to some extreme vandalism.

Hammyman

benham3160 wrote: »

I challenge anybody who says old type cars are easier to work on, and more reliable to live with a 1970s car as a daily driver for six months, and see if they still hold that viewpoint.

I ran a MK3 Capri 2L Laser as my sole car from 2003 to 2007. It never broke down and was perfectly reliable, at one point doing 540 miles a week commuting. It was a breeze to service compared to my Mondeo. When the alternator bearing failed on my Mondeo TDCi, I paid someone to change it because its such a ballache of a job requiring inner wheelarch liner removal, special tools and lots of knuckle scraping due to lack of room - you can barely even see the thing. Compare that to the Capri with a large engine bay and the alternator which can be changed in 10 minutes with a couple of spanners.