Do I have a leg to stand on? 2nd hand car. Next step advice

System

Gemm83 wrote: »

The belt etc was expected, it's a known fault but not the clutch!

DMF failure, aka clutch failure, on a car with a DMF doing low mileage short journeys is a well known fault and all cars with DMFs suffer from this. At an average of under 5,000 miles a year its been pottering around town which is the kiss of death for DMFs.

Budget a new starter motor as well because when the DMF fails it throws out lots of metal filings which can get in the starter motor and kill that too.

Gemm83

Joyous!!!! Can you sell kidneys on eBay these days?!!!

force_ten

the question here is has the dual mass fly wheel failed or is it just a little bit noisy?

I have had a DMF fail on a vehicle that i was driving and it was more than a knocking noise when the clutch was depressed, it made a horrendous noise and the car ground to halt

also was there any indication of this noise when you test drove the car?

Gemm83

It's a horrendous knocking noise! Clutch is also slipping and gears make a crunching noise when coming down (not all the time but intermittently)t. It was lumpy when it started but he assured us that it was because it had been sitting for a while and it drove home perfectly. It was the following day that I took it down to my parents when my dad said there was a noise (turned out to be the AUX belt etc). My concern is that the belt noise was masking the other noise!

patman99

Believe it or not, Ford used to list the DMF on the diesel transmissions as a service item that should be replaced every 32k miles as they designed a really bad system.

They fixed the design issue in 2010, so your car is due a change anyway.

I remember being interviewed for a role as a miller/turner for a company that made light weight flywheels for competition cars and the owner told me that their best selling range was actually a solid flywhell for Mondeo and Transit 2.0TDCi engines due to the high failure rate of the DMF.

I own a Berlingo which is approaching it's 10th birthday and I have budgetted to have the DMF, clutch and timing belt/tensioners/water pump replaced as the car is worth it to me.

macman

I'd reject it while you still have time.
It baffles me why so many people reporting problems with cheap cars seem happy to travel hundreds of miles to buy them, and then don't want to return them to the dealer at their expense when they go wrong.
Mondeo's aren't exactly rare, there must be plenty on offer nearer to Brighton than Enfield?

arcon5

2 letters an email and phone calls... a bit excessive. Give the bloke a chance!

Gemm83

So....cheapest quote we were given was £795. We advised him of this and he offered £350. We disagreed with this to which he offered a full refund or £200 towards the repairs. Not sure what happened in the interim there??

We have accepted refund but are angling for half the cost of the AUX belt etc. Ultimately it's something he won't have to pay £300 odd for. Only asking for £150. Not sure we will get it though.... .

Londoner_1

Mark 3 Mondeo??

I had this car for 4 years, bought as a ex lease car with 72k on it.

The pully rattle is a common fault on the car, mine was replaced under warranty when i bought the car but issue returned after 3 years the noise goes after replacing the pully but returns again after a couple of years, my mechanic quoted £90 plus part to replace, i never replaced it.

The dmf/clutch is more expensive, the cheapest quote is about £600 but i never had to replace it.

Another common problem is overcooling, the temp gauge never reaches the middle, over cooling the engine, the fix is to replace teh oil cooler thermostat and teh main thermostat (must use genuine parts £40 each).

The battery went after 3 years, the alternator twice went after 6 months and after 12 months.

I finally got a p132 error on it ( basically gummed up turbo), rather than fixing it i got rid as the cost of fixing it was expected to rise as parts wear out and it was not worth it, bought a petrol mazda6 2.0, never looked back.

caprikid1

"2 days later there was a whurring noise. Turns out AUX belt, tensioner, crank pulley and idler pulley needed doing. £350 later, all fine."


Take the refund and be happy, AUX belts could last for years or fail the day after he sold it. You did not give him the opportunity to fix it so you are being very unreasonable asking him to fix it. He's been a lot more unlucky than you.