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Do the MoT before the cambelt service, surely? If it fails the MoT on too much then having done the cambelt six weeks before could force into spending much more than it's then worth.
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If you are thinking of binning it..why bother with the cam belt..get some cheap tyres,(do all 4 need doing? - unlikely)
get the MOT and run it into the ground....why stick it in for a 140k service.? change the oil and filter yourself for £20 max if it makes you feel better...
i was at the same point with a belmont sri...got 3 more years out of it and 36,000 miles !!!,swapping tyres around,didnt do cam belt,kept eye on front pads and topped up oil as reqd ..rust got to it in the end
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Wait until you need the tyres then put it through the MOT before you fit them, using friendly tyre/MOT place.
Alternitively see if you can get a 'pre MOT done before you fit the tyres by a qualified MOT inspector
The above approach could cost you a few more quid but may save throwing good money after bad
If it fails on much more than these then you know the score
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If you are thinking of binning it..why bother with the cam belt..get some cheap tyres (do all 4 need doing? - unlikely)
I can't understand this attitude. Like the tyres the cambelt is a safety item in my book. Imagine pulling out onto a busy A-road, a large truck bearing down on you. Or you're on a steep section of the M6 and drop it down a gear to pull into lane 3 and go round a struggling campervan. Perfectly safe if everything works, but you didn't change the cambelt when you should have ...
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Can't see 4 x tyres costing £220 but still. It's worth it - the alternative is to spend £4000 in my opinion.
I have to agree. Having just got rid of my old car, it might have cost a few hundred per year in maintenance, the new one (£7k used) is going to cost me £1k/year in depreciation, assuming I keep it for 6 years. Which is substantially more than keeping the old one on the road would have cost.
Of course it's nicer to drive, but if you don't care, then no need to spend the money.
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Buy your tyres from an online discounter, forget the cambelt changes- the car is worth little anyway so why not gamble and start getting the oil changed at a fast fit discount place every 5K miles or so.
Anyone can change their own air filter and probably plugs buy these from a discounter.
Use it until it breaks.
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I've gone through something similar recently, my 2000 mk2 TD having just clicked over 130k. The clutch is getting tired, and cosmetically it's definitely seen better days (no rust or dents, but lots of chips, small scrapes and marks - only looks good from 6ft away basically). It still drives well, has never let me down in the 40,000 miles I've put on it, and the few things that have gone wrong (CV joint, engine mount, water pump) have all been cheap to put right. It's (much) better on fuel than our common-rail Grand Scenic, and I can fix it myself if it does break. What's more it costs £40-£60 to service using genuine Ford parts and oil if I do the work myself, and all the routine service items are a doddle to get at and to change.
When all this was weighed up, I took the decision to hang on to it and run it until it dies, or becomes unreliable. I still intend to keep it serviced, and to keep up with other basic maintenance as it's needed, but also need to keep in mind when some things aren't worth fixing - like the cosmetic bits for example, the one time in 20 you park and the power steering assistance fades out around half lock, or the alarm that goes off if you unlock the car from the passenger door. Silly things I can live with.
When all's said and done, it's still a comfy, safe-ish, practical car. 95% of my mileage is on congested motorways in rush hour so the lack of go isn't a problem, and neither is the lack of refinement at high revs. If I average 50 mph on this commute I'm doing well.
I couldn't replace it for twice what I'd get for it if sold, so this is how I will justify the £400 or so to replace the clutch when it finally goes.
Cheers
DP
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PS - it has yet to fail an MOT.
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Thanks for all of your replies, chaps. My chief concern was that I should spend money on tyres, service etc only for it to fail on, e.g. an emissions test, in August. This recently happened to a friend's Omega estate of a similar vintage. Although it failed its emissions test, it was bought by someone to use on the local USAF base where there are no MoT regulations. [It's OK for them to pollute our bit of atmosphere ..... but that's something for another thread!]
Like DP's car, my Mondy is not cosmetically good (because it tends to get scratched frequently by encroaching vegetation) - and to this end, an older car fits this bill fine. As I've known the car from new - it was my old company car - I've always had it regularly serviced and I must admit, I hadn't previously considered not replacing the cambelt. The original was done at 68,000 miles. Maybe, as suggested, I should just leave it - I've got breakdown cover, after all!
BTW, as things have worked out, all 4 tyres are similarly worn and all within a gnat's whisker of needing replacement.
I'm checking the car in at an MoT/tyre place on Wednesday where thay can do the test before fitting tyres. At the moment I'm awaiting a quote for the tyres - I'll let you know how I get on. Cheers, Waino
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Barring a collision of some description, and assuming DIY (or mate rate) labour costs, nothing on a Mondeo should give you a big bill to put right. The engine management systems are reliable, the mechanicals go on forever (200k is nothing on a well maintained 2.0 Zetec), and when things do go wrong, there are enough cheap used parts on Ebay or in breakers yards to virtually build a spare car.
Cheers
DP
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I saw a one owner 98 Mondeo Estate on Ebay with 240k - went for well over £600, which was my top bid.
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The cost of doing the test early is £55/12 x no. months early - so doing it three months early is costing less than £15. Do the test, go from there.
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Well, the old girl only failed on one item - a cv joint gaiter was split. This will be IIRC £85 to fix - with no retest fee to pay. There were several advisories 1) Front suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated but not resulting in excessive movement 2) Corrosion on sill 3) Rear anti-roll bar link bushes have slight play 4) Number plate cracked 5) All tyres close to legal limit - which was the main reason for bringing the test forward.
I've booked the car in for the cv gaiter. The garage offered me Matador tyres at £52 each (all inc) - have any BRoomers any opinions of this make? It isn't one that I know.
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What's the likely cost of replacing the bushes flagged up in the advisories?
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What's the likely cost of replacing the bushes flagged up in the advisories?
I assume that the 'front suspension arm' bit is the same as a 'wishbone' which 2 years ago cost me £18.90 plus £25 labour - total with vat £51.58.
Both rear anti-roll bar bushes were replaced last year at a total cost with vat of £62.67. They didn't last long!
There seems to be a general concensus that Mondeo suspension bushes are a weak point, and I'm afraid that mine gets used on the sorts of roads/tracks that many suv drivers would choose to avoid ;-) . Though - having said that - it can't be much worse than some of the speed ramp areas!
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>> What's the likely cost of replacing the bushes flagged up in the advisories? >> I assume that the 'front suspension arm' bit is the same as a 'wishbone' which 2 years ago cost me £18.90 plus £25 labour - total with vat £51.58.
It depends which side needs doing. If it's the offside, it's a straightforward "split the bottom balljoint, remove two bolts, and take it off" job. Half an hour's work, tops. If it's the nearside, the proximity of the gearbox casing makes it impossible to get the front bolt out. The bolts go in and come out from above so the nut is underneath. Although hugely inconvenient for this particular bolt, it is good engineering practice, as if the nut should work loose and fall off, the bolt is far less likely to fall out if it has to beat gravity first.
The "official" procedure is to disconnect all the engine mounts, and any hoses or cables with insufficient slack, and jack the engine/gearbox clear to enable the bolt to be removed, and refitted. The "workaround" is to get the bolt out as far as it will go, cut the head off it with a hacksaw, drop it out the bottom, and then refit a replacement bolt "upside down", feeding it from underneath so the nut is on top.
The downside of this is the bolt will fall out if ever the nut comes undone (and this will almost certainly cause a serious accident if you're moving at the time). I've also heard stories of the exposed end of the bolt protroding further out of the top of the subrame than the bolt head does when the bolt is inserted the correct way up, and this can catch on the gearbox casing and damage it.
Cheers
DP
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Regaring the 'Matador' tyres there was a long thread here some time back where a group of ill advised people advocated skimping on tyres. Personally I wouldn't as the extra few meters braking distance in the wet that a quality tyre will give might be the difference between life and death. Matador are by no means the worst I can think of, at least they're (sort of) european in origin. They also do some pretty good specialist motorsport tyres but these are totally different to the type of budget boots you are talking about.
Don't listen to anyone who tells you cheap tyres are just as good and it doesn't matter in 'normal driving'. First of all nobody knows when ane mergency might arise and secondly those skimping on tyres can at least be thankful that if one of their loved ones steps out into a road in front of me I have a better chance ot stopping without hitting them. Good job I decided to spend a few extra quid eh?
Why not get your tyres from here- mytyres.com and get a quality brand you have at least heard of. The savings should be worthwhile and getting them fitted is easy enough.
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Another tyre I've been offered locally are - I think - called Vredestein. Are they a decent brand? Cheers
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Some people rate them very highly and they do well in tyre tests. Never used them myself as they don't make tyres I'd regard as suitable for my cars.
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Vredestein. Are they a decent brand?
Yes they are, in that you'll get new compounds and thread designs (the budget brands tend to be rebadged - and therefore older - technology from the better known makers).
The German ADAC published their annual tyre test recently, in which Vredestein summer tyres rated well. Have a look at www.adac.de, click on tests, then Reifentest, then Sommerreifen. Pick the size tyre you need (it might be in the 2005/2006 tests and - if your German isn't up to scratch - translate the text using BabelFish, which you can get via www.altavista.com.
Vredestein Sportrac 3 205/55 R16 V, highly recommended - 2007
Vredestein Ultrac 225/45 R17, recommended - 2006
Vredestein Hi-Trac 195/65 R 15 H 2 stars (out of 3) - 2005
Finding myself in a similar position to you, putting tyres on a Scenic that regularly drives bad roads, I was happy to pay the small premium for Firestones over budget tyres, but not the much larger premium for Michelin - considering the odds of all four tyres retiring from worn thread rather than punctures are rather slim!
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its an old car, whack some camacs on it,take no notice off all this death and apocolypse rubbish on the third lane of hell on a wet wednesday afternoon
get the mot cv sorted tell him to change the oil and filter and run the car for 12 months then shoot it,in the preceding 12 months put some wonga to oneside to replace said mondy,if anything goes bang in the meantime then you have minimum spend in it and could even possibly swap tyres over to your next mota
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death and apocolypse rubbish on the third lane of hell on a wet wednesday afternoon
Probably seems like rubbish until the time you stop 4 car lengths too late to avoid a child or going straight into the back of an arctic. Do you value your life and health or not. Cheap tyres are for mugs.
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Again, thanks for all replies. My current front tyres are Firestone Firehawk SZ80s which have done 22,000 miles - with possibly another 1000 to go - legally. Maybe modern tyres are getting more puncture resistant as (touch wood) it seems ages since I last had one. We tend to talk about tyre noise, grip and general longevity, but I don't recall much conversation about puncture resistance - particularly ref regular driving on rough surfaces.
Gromit - did you consciously buy Firestone in preference to Vredestein, or was it simply that Firestone were more easily available?
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Just ebayed my TD estate 1997 with 226k on the clock, 2 months tax and mot expired last October for the grand total of £168. Fix it and run it, if mine hadn't have been so manky and had so many problems I would have kept it. Mind you the 02 MX5 I replaced it with is rather more fun, even if you can't get a cupboard in the back.
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Gromit - did you consciously buy Firestone in preference to Vredestein or was it simply that Firestone were more easily available?
Nope, it was down to price and availability: my choices from three different fitters were Firestone FuelSaver, Continental EcoContact or Michelin Energy. FiL has Vredestein Sportracs on his 3 series and seems happy with them.
Incidentally, I put cheaper tyres (Sava Perfecta) under the Punto and, while they're perfectly fine for a local runabout, I'm certainly happier with one of the above for the 30,000 cross-country miles a year the Scenic's been clocking up.
HTH,
- Gromit
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I've got Vredstein Sportracs fitted to the MG TF and I have to say they seem to provide excellent levels of grip, although it's a different story in the wet, but I think this is more likely down to the car than the tyres.
As far as the Mondeo is concerned I would fit Hankook tyres, they're still more or less budget prices but they are fitted at the factory on some of the Mondeos and provide excellent performance.
Blue
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My '93 Passat 1.9 TDI has done 170,000 miles and I had to spend a bit to get it through its MOT, but apart from an irritating tendency for the engine management to cut the fuel feed to default mode from time to time (MAFF meter chnaged - so not that problem), it just keeps going.
Sorry that contains 0% of the answer I should have given about your Montego. I'd say keep it going until it konks, - it's worth spending a few quid to get it through MOT but I'd leave the cambelt so that old Monty creaks its last while still at work!!!
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