2001 mondeo petrol head gasket

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vladamir

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ok, bought a 2001 mondeo 1.8 zetec privatley last year - 70k miles and full, stamped and receipted ford service history - nice motor.

have looked after it since. 80k miles on it now. about two weeks ago i noticed the temp gauge was way up - stopped and there was NO coolant in the car. I had, honestly, checked the oil, coolant levels about a week before and they were fine.

Since then it has been drinking about a litre of water every four miles - brought it to my mechanic and he says the head gasket is gone - he will not fix it for me as he says its a pig of a job.

rang my local main Ford dealer - they tell me 'ball park' figure to fix it is a grand, but could be 1500 euro. they will give me a one year warranty on the job they do. that is assuming they take the head off and can skim the gasket and no other problems arise. the oil level is perfectly normal and there's no white scum around the oil cap when i checked.

i was hoping one of the ford experts on this site could tell me what are the prospects of, after paying to get this fixed, of it happening again????

also - for a car that has been very well looked after from new, what are the odds of this happening on a 80k miles car?? i would have thought a mondeo would do a lot more than this without such trouble?????

as i said - i have it booked in for a potential 1500 euro job but i'm wondering if i'd be better of getting rid of it ??? if the job Ford do is sound, i'd probably keep the car for several years - but dont want to spend a substantial amount of money on an old car if its something that is likely to cause a similar problem again.......

hoping one of the ford experts on this site might have a few words of advce.

ps - for anyone considering a 01 mondeo - the remote central locking is problematic on mine and the rear suspension has caused problems and has cost a few quid to fix and there's awful rattles coming from the interior - seems like loose panels - great car to drive and very comfortable but i deeply regret getting rid of the passat for it i must say.
 
I have a 00 1.6 Zetec and had the same issues with you. The engine started overheating and eventually ended up blowing the head gasket as well - my own fault, not necessarily because of the car itself.

I got quotes on getting this fixed with Dublin garages and was quoted €1300 to €2000. If you search the net on this issue for a mondeo, it actually is quite common.

My car was about 85k when it happened. It's now 13k since it was done (full head skimmed etc) and it's fine - though performance is down since - acceleration is disimproved significantly. But apart from that, no issues at all.

As for getting it done by Ford experts, I had a contact who specialises in Ford Mondeos and they did the full job for me for less than €500 - a full professional job. If you're in the west, i can put you in contact, otherwise, see if you can shop around on the price.
 
vladamir said:
ok, bought a 2001 mondeo 1.8 zetec privatley last year - 70k miles and full, stamped and receipted ford service history - nice motor.

have looked after it since. 80k miles on it now. about two weeks ago i noticed the temp gauge was way up - stopped and there was NO coolant in the car. I had, honestly, checked the oil, coolant levels about a week before and they were fine.

Since then it has been drinking about a litre of water every four miles - brought it to my mechanic and he says the head gasket is gone - he will not fix it for me as he says its a pig of a job.

rang my local main Ford dealer - they tell me 'ball park' figure to fix it is a grand, but could be 1500 euro. they will give me a one year warranty on the job they do. that is assuming they take the head off and can skim the gasket and no other problems arise. the oil level is perfectly normal and there's no white scum around the oil cap when i checked.

i was hoping one of the ford experts on this site could tell me what are the prospects of, after paying to get this fixed, of it happening again????

also - for a car that has been very well looked after from new, what are the odds of this happening on a 80k miles car?? i would have thought a mondeo would do a lot more than this without such trouble?????

as i said - i have it booked in for a potential 1500 euro job but i'm wondering if i'd be better of getting rid of it ??? if the job Ford do is sound, i'd probably keep the car for several years - but dont want to spend a substantial amount of money on an old car if its something that is likely to cause a similar problem again.......

hoping one of the ford experts on this site might have a few words of advce.

ps - for anyone considering a 01 mondeo - the remote central locking is problematic on mine and the rear suspension has caused problems and has cost a few quid to fix and there's awful rattles coming from the interior - seems like loose panels - great car to drive and very comfortable but i deeply regret getting rid of the passat for it i must say.
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Are you sure the head gasket is gone - sounds more like a leak in the cooling system. You may have been lucky and not done in the head gasket. Get a pressure test done to see why its not holding coolant.

About 2 years ago I was driving down the Nass dualler and engine managment light came one, pulled in. Figured out the temp was way up and car not holding coolant. Just put the heading on full blast and kept the car moving - was able too keep temp down. All that was wrong what that I had sprung a leak in a hose coming out of the water pump. 160e and I was back on the road again. Gasket is fine
 
if there was a leak in teh coolant system would the coolant not leak out all the time?? it only uses the coolant when driving - when parked for a day or two the levels dont move....

also - if i fill the thing up (i'm just using water at the moment) and drive 5 miles - its half gone - but if i drive twenty miles its still only half gone - it seems to use just as much on a short trip as it does for a slightly longer one.

my mechanic told me the head gasket is gone - he just wont fix it for me as he said its too messy of a job due to the engine having a timing chain as opposed to a belt - apparently the sump, exhaust and all havea to come out....

thanks.
 
it is i bit of a pig to do we do a few of them they arent that common,they do however suffer a lot of thermostat housing leaks if your car is using a couple of litres per mile thats not a headgasket ,but something major like a leak somewhere.and if it is a cylinder head problem there head must be toast
 
thanks ford jedi

so would you think it could end up costing me a lot more than 1500 euro then?? i suppose the garage wont know till they open it up. how much work will the garage have done before they understand whats wrong?? like can i tell them to ring me before they do anything major? or will they have done so much labour by the time they understand how bad it is that it'll cost me a fortune anyway??

would i be better off cutting my losses and getting rid of the car?

thanks again.
 
first things, first make sure its head gasket failure,easily done with nessary equipment .did your mechanic do a head gasket test? did he even pressure test the system without doin these tests i would not go pulling the head off,
 
no he didn't do any of those things - he just said it was a head gasket problem and told me to go to a ford dealer. ah i've it booked in for next monday and i wont be driving it till then so i'll find out soon enough.

thanks again.
 
have it booked into harmonstown motors - ford dealer. i'm based near enough to them and i've heard they're pretty good?
 
just needed a new radiator......

amazing what these backstreet mechanics will tell you.

thought i was saving a fortune by keeping away from main dealers...

will be going with harmonstown ford for all work on the car from now on.
 
vladamir said:
just needed a new radiator......

amazing what these backstreet mechanics will tell you.

thought i was saving a fortune by keeping away from main dealers...

will be going with harmonstown ford for all work on the car from now on.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear.

Some backstreet mechanics are legend others arent' - same with most trades just have to find a good one! :)
 
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