Joys of Modern Motoring

[sean sherry]

2012 Ford Mondeo with Auto Trans. Cost to strip to replace an internal sensor, plus maybe some other parts, Seals and clutches.
$7000 from two Shops. Worth of the Car ? $7000 with a good Transmission.
Ditto most of the others. Any major repair soon exceeds the Valuation of all but the high end vehicles.
A second hand unit from the wreckers.... Not possible as it has to be programmed to integrate with the on board electronics. Ford refuse to do this. After market specialists are unable to help , Ford have it locked up it seems.
As the wreckers can't sell Transmissions ( maybe Engines as well ) their worth as a wreck can't be too much.

And the moral is .. learn to Drive a Manual Box

 

[SEL_69L]

Another moral ?
Don't go near those cars with those gearboxes.

I assume we are talking about the famous Ford Powershi# transmission.

 

[Styria]

Sean, that's an absolute horror story - well, totally depressing to say the least. The way to overcome this ? Buy new, with five or seven year warranties, but not everyone can afford this solution. It makes owning an old dinosaur such as the 6.9 almost mandatory and perhaps affordable.

Mind you though, what are the reasons why so many Ch. 116 and R107 models are difficult to sell ? Prices of spares, labour charges ? I have recently been working on my 450SE, with limited success only up to now, and were I to charge even $38.00 an hour, I would be getting awfully close to overcapitalisation. Regards. Styria

 

[sean sherry]

Last time I heard Michael, Mercedes were charging $197/hr
Getting close to Plumber's Rates !!

I don't know if the Mondeo has a Twin Clutch Box or not. They do not make it, it is bought in ( from Borg Warner ) ??

The cost of repairs to modern Automatics, which often exceeds the value of the Car is the reason my old Transmission Shop has just closed the doors.
Cars are just scraped. No one repairs them ,Good money after Bad.

 

[BenzBoy]

Well I had a new All Activity Module fitted to the ML last week at the cost of $1400. I can't complain too much as the ML is now 16 years old and this has been one of the few major items required in that time. However, the pricing is quite strange. The AAM is made in Mexico and available in the US for $600 + fitting and in the UK for 1900 GBP fitted. Why the huge price differences?
I could have had it installed a little bit cheaper by an auto-electrician but given its inter-relationship with the bits and pieces it runs, such as fog lamps, central locking etc. and that it comes with a 2 years warranty from Benz, I decided to stay with the dealer.
Regards,
Brian

 

[Styria]

I distinctly remember when I first bought Gleaming Beauty (my 6.9) and it was afflicted with a bad case of flaring from 2nd to top gear. To R/R and repair, back in 1995, the quoted cost came to "about $3000.00". I opted not to pursue the repairs at the time, and made do with manual changing from 2nd to top. I left it at that till about 2000 - five years !

At that time, there was another 6.9 that came in with a busted clutch pack that damaged one of the drums quite badly. Thus, the decision was taken to "repair" both cars at the same time. I managed to attend to Gleaming Beauty's box for about $1400.00, but the customer's cost extra on account of the hardware damage. Luckily, unbeknown to most, many 6.9 gearbox items are interchangeable with the box in the 450s, which helps to reduce the cost of rebuilding quite significantly. Even nowadays, the cost of attending to the 722.3 boxes should not exceed three grand with a bit of luck. Regards Styria

 

[motec 6.9]

Yes the Mondeo does have a twin clutch gearbox made by gertrag I believe. And news is most have not done 100000km before expiring. Tim in W.A has a Mondeo as his company work vehicle on his 3rd now I believe. Each has had box replaced by dealer. While under warranty.

 

[Styria]

Yes the Mondeo does have a twin clutch gearbox made by gertrag I believe. And news is most have not done 100000km before expiring. Tim in W.A has a Mondeo as his company work vehicle on his 3rd now I believe. Each has had box replaced by dealer. While under warranty.

Geoff, it's this sort of dare I say design problem that, for me anyway, has always placed a question mark alongside the Ford product. Round about three and a bit years ago, before Julie bought her Honda Jazz (now $45K. kms, not a single issue, no matter how small), we looked at an absolutely dead gorgeous Ford Mondeo, priced at $20K. I mean, it looked beautiful, it had all the goodies one would have wanted, but it was the 6 speed manual gearbox that proved its downfall. Julie changes gears with gay abandon, no matter what road conditions and speed she encounters, and six speeds were far worse than four on her old Datsun 200B she had many years ago.

Friend of mine, ex President of MB Club of NSW presently owns and drives a Ford Focus. He has quite proudly assured me that "this is genuine German built', but it hasn't stopped the car from requiring a replacement gearbox at 6K. kilometers. Obviously rectified under warranty, but he's had another annoying problem since - he did tell me, but I can't remember what it was. So, I would be greatly worried about buying a Ford product without some form of decent warranty. Regards Styria

 

[motec 6.9]

Ford has stopped using powershift in Focus update and returned to torque converter auto. I believe next Mondeo and Fiesta are doing the same. As ford 2006 Territory Ghia it gave sterling service as I believe 2013 Titanium is now doing but with me no longer involved in ownership.

 

[sean sherry]

Costs Oh Brian Oh Brain ... Tis a case of what the market will bear.

For the record there are a couple of mobile People in Sydney who can and will program replacement items into most manufacturers Systems. Though the Manufacturers are hell bent on closing this avenue off. Or more correctly Bosch are as requested. Who did the V.W. cheat system .. why Bosch for a modest fee.