1998 Ford Mondeo ST24 from UK and Ireland - Comments

Loose speaker cable connections. I cure this with a thump to the central console with my knee while driving.

Boot open, button stopped working - now need to turn off the engine and get out and use the key.

Engine developed a power drop at the most inconvenient of times (ie while overtaking!)

Heater fan now only operates in off mode, or full blast - nothing in-between.

Rear view mirror snapped off while adjusting it. A friend with a Ghia 2.5 had the same problem! Then the replacement wouldn't stay stuck in place. we both have our rear view mirrors in the glove compartment. Really useful!

The engine power drop is quite disturbing. On my way home from work, I do 15 minutes motorway driving then 5-10 minutes in a slow traffic jam, then onto a fast country road. At this point, flooring it to overtake, the engine suddenly loses 20-30% of its power! Most noticable during warm and humid weather. Anyone else had this problem?

Apart from the niggly faults, the car drives like a dream - handling is superb, especially at speed. I think the aerodynamics of the RSA body kit help wonderfully there.

Acceleration and brakes are equally effective. I couldn't live without traction control and ABS from now on.

Ford service is almost as bad as NTL these days! (NTL are the cable TV people, for those fortunate enough not to know who they are!). I think it was £180 for an oil and filter change, which they call a full service. Dimwits as they are, I came out on top, as they changed my disks and pads and forgot to charge me! However, I won't be going back to them with any of my faults. How much is that Ford dealer stamp in the logbook really worth compared to how much it costs?!

The price to pay for all this is hefty. Certainly I got a bargain, paying £10K for a 15000 mile 18 month old wolf in sheep's clothing, but it goes through tyres and petrol (and, alarmingly, oil and coolant) like there's no tomorrow.

The ST24 was not designed from the bottom up as a sports saloon, it is a runaround car all sported up. Hence the improbable front heavy weight distribution, the understeer and the tyre wear. Although the recommended pressure for casual driving is 30/30 (psi, front/rear), who drives an ST24 casually? Pump them up to load/speed pressure - 36/42, and see the handling and wear of your tyres improve dramatically.

What in the world is a Ford Mondeo?? Evidently, these are only available in other countries than the US, because I have never heard of any of the cars on this particular survey page. I'd like to see a picture of some of these!

Removing the key to open the boot or hatch is a in built ford saftey feature the fan not working on all speeds means some of the contacts on the switch have burnt out common fault I know of six month old mondeos on their third switchs.

I think you should try getting your car serviced at the correct intervals, then maybe you would not experience some of the silly little faults you seem to be having. I own a mondeo ST24 and it is a dream for pennies, I also think you may need to change you local dealer as my local dealer charges £104 for a 20,000 mile interval service.

I also have the problem with the loss of power after about 20 miles. I have taken it to a few garages, and they all seem stumped. Does anyone have a clue what could cause this? So far, the garages have changed the plugs, leads, fuel filter and coil pack. Changing the coil pack seemed to fix it for about a week, but then it reappeared.

I don't own a mondeo myself, but after owning a few high performance cars it sounds like the engine is sucking in warm air from the engine which is obviously less dense than cold air, less dense air means fewex oxygen molecules which results in a smaller bang and less power. if you look at the front of the mondeo it hasn't got much space for cold air to get in, I'd try running a cold air feed from the grille up to your air intake, mite not work, but worth a go for 16 quid from your local halford's.

The oil and coolant use sound like the head gasket (s) are on their way out and if you carry on pushing it you will screw the engine totally (as no - one skims warped heads these days).

You'd be better sorting this out than bolting on chav type pretend cold air induction systems.

I was commenting on the loss of power though not the coolant loss, the same problem as the majority of st24 owners seem to have, and as it seems to happen after the engine gets hot, I'd have a guess at it being the engine sucking in warm air, chav cold air feed LOL

Hi all

The loss of power you mention is a fairly common problem, if it has the following symptoms, when accelerating in say 1st or 2nd you usually feel a surge at about 3000rpm this is the 18/24 inlet manifold control module opening. When this no longer switches in when the car warms up or all the time when it’s completely broken, you don’t get the extra power because you are only running on 18valves not 24.

What happens when it goes faulty is there is a medium power Darlington transistor which is poorly coupled to the case and overheats, so stops working properly. To replace the box is about £130 (box only) the transistor is difficult to get hold of we had to send to America for it, but no doubt there is an equivalent which will work. This transistor will set you back from 20p to £6 which is what we paid for 6 from America. When you refit it just make sure you do not use the stupid nylon screw that was originally fitted, use a proper insulating kit for a T0220 package which you can get from a decent electronic store for 50p or so.

The case is a aluminium box situated under the plastic cover at the front of the engine where the oil filler cap is with "Duratec" written on it.

I guess the reason why mechanics dont find this is because there are few good mechanics who actually understand modern day cars and they are totally reliant on what the fault code readers tell them. Very few people who go in for mechanics as a profession have the intelligence to understand the whole. This is a real shame and probably due to an historic situation where cars were relatively simple beasts, but no more.

Hope this helps

Later

Dave.

Wow cheers dave, sounds just like the problem with my car, if you or some one could send a link to a page where I could order these medium power darlington transistors from or box, then that would be great, P. S I know the previous comment is old so I'm hoping someone is still out there looking at these links.

Follow this link... you'll find all you need to know regarding the said problem... best of luck.

http://www.fordmondeo.org/wiki/index.php/Fix_IMRC

Thx Dave; your info is great.

I have a ford mondeo 2.5 ghia x the catch on the glove compartment has broke and I can't open it, can anyone help and tell me how to open it thanks.

The catches for the glove box are at the top on both sides; just jimmy them with a screwdriver.

Hi I hope you can help me. I own a mondeo st24 2.5 v6, the car accelerates fine but when I remove my foot from the accelerator, instead of slowing down smoothly it shudders and jerks but does not do it all of the time normally once warm. I have had it looked at and the garage said first it was the condenser and then the imrc I think. Both of which were replaced but have not solved the problem. They have now said its possibly the EGR valve but I don't want to keep spending on the wrong things. Can you help.

Thanks a lot.

Mark.

Hi I own a mondeo st24, the car has the dreaded moosing noise, please can anyone tell me where I can get one as fords pipe does not work. The only place I have seen one is daves st forum site but have been unable to register. Thanks.