Hey everyone 👋

So our Mondeo has developed some strange noises! 

Bit of history on the car first, owned just over a year, we picked it up just before the first big covid lockdown. 203k on the clock, regularly serviced and never any problems other than usual MOT stuff.

The car usually only does the work/shopping run so maximum running time has been 20 mins if that since lockdowns started.

Now first time doing a longer journey to our caravan (around 2 hours for us) and this "whining" noise starts as we were stuck crawling in traffic on the A1, it was pretty loud and continued for the rest of the journey, it seems consistent with gear changes too (the sound seems to change with the gears and rpm) There's a steep hill so far along the route we take and the car struggled to get up this, stuck at 40mph and wouldn't go any more like it was in limp mode, but drove fine other than that hill? 

The noise returned on the way home yesterday once the engine was up to temp exactly like the journey there, but this time there was another weird noise that I can only describe as a phone set to vibrate ringing from the left side of the car, like in the glovebox area or something? This noise was consistent with accelerating and once you let off the gas it stopped? Apparently it was making a similar noise on the drive to the caravan too, but I never heard it..

Car seemed to be holding back too on the way home, like it was jumping in and out of limp mode? No warning lights or anything showing up at any point to suggest any faults.

The wife used it this morning and said it was driving fine, but again it was only a short trip so I'm totally stumped at what it could be and don't really want it packing in on us on the way to the caravan!

If anyone can offer any advice I would be very grateful, not had much luck with garages in the past so thought I'd ask here before admitting defat haha.

Rich

Video of the noises. Hope someone can help!

I'd say check all the boost pipes for possible splits for starters. They're made up of a thick rubber with a mesh lining. When the engine (and rubber) is cold then any splits are held together by the mesh lining and when the engine gets hot, the rubber gets less stiff and tends to open up especially under boost pressure, and so I think that noise is the boost air escaping from the split. Unfortunately splits of this kind can be hard to detect as the mesh lining holds it together and unless you remove the boost pipes to inspect them fully, any splits won't exactly jump out at you on a merely visual inspection. Most likely  boost pipe to split is one nearest turbo and egr as its the hottest one. I had split in the inner curve of a 90 degree bend, which was impossible to see until pipe was actually removed. 

Also, as an afterthought, check the pipe from airfilter to turbo where it attaches at the turbo end, for a split, especially underneath, tho ' that doesn't explain the loss of power, but for sake of thoroughness, worth checking. 

Thanks nicam.

Had a few people say the same thing now after watching the video so will get it booked in next week and hopefully not get ripped off in the process!

Update time!

Gave in and let a garage check the noises out.

Foolish of me not to take the car to them when it was already up to temp and the noise was actually occurring but long story short, they couldn't replicate the noise!   Said they drove it for a few miles but heard nothing, they did however find faults relating to the dpf but never told me what the codes were! They said they cleared them anyway and charged me £40 for their trouble (they also found i need rear trailing arm bushes on both sides)

 

When we got the car back that evening the fan was going like mad and it smelt awful, REGEN time! I honestly never noticed it doing this before and actually assumed the dpf was mapped out (having owned a Vauxhall with a dpf previously i was scarred for life with regen disasters!)

 

ANYWAY, took the car back out on a drive to let it perform a regen, was a bit lumpy but other than that ran okay.

After 26 miles, I pulled into the petrol station and the whine started again, really loud this time!

Drove to the local industrial estate and gave if a few blasts thinking it's still boost related at this point. Went to turn the car around at the end of the road and the noise was horrendous!

Pulled up and got the wife to rev the engine while i popped the bonnet, noise is now a LOT more obvious and when turning the steering, hey presto! A very poorly sounding power steering system   Funny how it never made a noise when turning the steering until today, and also strange that the noise only happens on longer journeys?

 

So back in the garage the next day, this time i waited until it was whining away. Guy said it probably wont be the power steering pump as it looks practically new ( i do have a receipt for a pump replacement in the stuff i received when i bought the car) He wants to change the steering rack, reservoir and do a fluid flush, he quoted nearly 2k and i was nearly on my *****  

After reading around i saw a lot about dodgy steering racks, but on cars with only 20/30k miles on them, this car is on 200+k miles so it must be an old age thing! I also saw a lot about the reservoir filter becoming clogged and the noise is related to fluid starvation..

So the question is, do i go down the full rack replacement that's probably going to cost more than the car is worth on this mileage, or just change the reservoir and fluid? 

 

On another note, the car is now constantly trying to do a regen even when nipping to the shops which is very annoying as i don't realize until I've pulled back on the driveway and hear the fan and get the awful smell. It looks like when they cleared the fault codes they set the regen process off but for some reason it's not completing? I don't have any warning lights on to say so though  

If the pump is making the noise, it's probably the pump. Is the fluid in the reservoir up at the correct level? He's guessing, isn't he? What would happen if £2k later its still noisy? You won't get a refund! If that new pump is not a genuine Ford one, I'd suspect a poor quality replacement and anyway, a new pump is a lot cheaper than a new rack. As no-one else has responded, You could ask for a 2nd /3rd  opinion on the Talkford.com forum

Thanks nicam, This is a perfect example of why I don't like going to mechanics!

Fluid is always at a constant level, no foaming/discoloration etc (I'm a bit ocd with levels anyway so it wouldn't go unnoticed)

I've not got much info on the replacement pump just a receipt for fitting so no idea where it came from.

So would you say pump & reservoir swap and see how it goes?

With the dpf becoming likely to be problematic too I'm taking the next steps very cautiously!

I've got a mk3, and the reservoir is a separate item to the pump, I don't know your model, so why not share your problem on the Talkford.com site as there are some experienced people on there.  Post your Qq? on the Mondeo mk4 specific section.     Good luck! and do update this thread when you get some more info 👍