I.m Arjen, 46 years joung :) , drove a Mercedes W124 250D from 1986 for several years. Because of changing rules regarding oldtimers here in Holland i needed an other car.

I'm also an admin of the dutch Mercedes Wclub forums.

The choice fell on a Ford Fusion, 1.4 TDCI from end of 2004. Bought it relatively cheap at the end of april.

Isn't the prettiest one but it had only 87500 miles on it, the rest i saw had a lot more and also cost more.

First thing i did was block the EGR valve with a plate with a quarter inch hole (6 mm to be exact).

Made a lot of difference at low rpm, picks up much better and won't stutter like before.

Next i removerd the DPF and put a simpel middle exhaust pipe on it. Also replaced the thermostat cause the engine temp wouldn't rise above 158 F (70 C degrees on the continent).

After that it ran even better.

Few days ago i installed a John Gold AP 500 cruisecontrol, ripped it out of my Merc, soldered a different control stalk to it (VDO) and it works like a charm.

And also installed a selfblinding rearview mirror from a Mondeo i got from the scrapyard.

I know i only have it for somewhat more than a month but it really drives nice, of course no comparison to the Mercedes but that car is in a whole other class.

Want to change my cambelt this summer and see if i can make my own kat replacement pipe, a kat is not necessary for MOT on a diesel.

Well that my introduction so far ;) .

Hi welcome :)

Hello and welcome