New Owner. Tdci 130 Mk3

[benessex89]

Having owned a Fiesta ST mk6.5 that had 182bhp (focus st fast), i was expecting the mondeo to feel boring. I'm not saying its as fast, but i think compared to a standard ST, theres not allot in it for me. I didn't have a bad ST either, bought it brand new and it made over 160bhp standard on 4 dyno's.

My mate thinks the mondeo is mapped how fast it feels, another i drove felt slower, especially in 4th and 5th. But every diesel i've seen mapped smokes loads (heard these do as well), my car doesn't smoke allot at all. It has 148,000m on the clock, but its had flywheel, turbo, injectors, flexi pipe, gearbox and clutch all changed within last couple of years, had a service every year since 09. It runs soo well, I've done allot of motorway and town driving, without really eco-driving and im getting 48mpg. Full leather, climate control and come with an awesome parrot system, which plays my music through bluetooth, so no annoying aux lead hanging out the glovebox. Few stone chips, leathers a bit worn. Also today i had to take the middle section of the heat shield off, hit a ridiculous pot hole, should of had a bridge going over it to be honest. Ordered a pollen filter, the blowers give off an awful smell, checked the filter and it looked pretty manky. But for £1200 i don't think i've done too bad.

I used to moan about diesels, used to say there's no fun in not dropping gears, this car has more than changed my mind. The comfort as well is awesome, 2 hour drive did nothing to me. Couldn't say the same after 2 hours in a lowered fiesta, with a a full system (even with resonated cat back) in your ear the whole time at 70. I had the full leathers in the ST as well, the mondeo's are soo much better.

Everyone i've had in it has been shocked how good overall the car is, especially speed and comfort.

I'm tempted to map my car, never would normally use bluefin, but most forums i've read say its good on the tdci, just gives off quite a bit of smoke, which doesn't bother me to be honest. Unless anyone can tell me any disaster stories I'll probably get it done

[FOCA]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Looks like you are a big fan of the mk3 Mondeo & you have bought yourself a lot of car for £1200!

Is your one a 5-speed / front EGR / VNT?

Have you fitted a solid blanking plate to your EGR yet? "standard" modification to Euro3 Mondeo mk3 diesels

[benessex89]

Its a 6 speed. I'll have another look through the invoices of work done to the car, quite a few lol. What does the solid blanking plate do?

[benessex89]

Where is it located? I've on google for location but cant find anything for mine, found a vid on youtube but my bay looks different

[FOCA]

Hello again!

The EGR "system" takes a bit of the exhaust gasses and recirculates them into the inlet "hence - Exhaust Gas Ricirculation"

Unfortunately the gasses include carbon particles that contaminate and can eventually choke the inlet maniifold -

Fitting a solid (preferably stainless steel 3+mm) EGR blanking plate prevents this, and can also prevent future problems ocurring to the EGR valve, by effectively disabling it (with the EGR valve disabled it cannot fail anymore)

Once the EGR plate is fitted and the inlet manifold cleaned out, the inlet manifold will stay clean after that

As well as the above advantages, there is a small performance advantage - as some of the energy that would normally go to help the turbo boost up is lost when the EGR valve opens, when it is blanked the turbo tends to spin up quicker, with better pick-up and less flat-spots

As your car is 2003 - it will be a Euro 3 - so a solid blanking plate can be fitted with no problem

Here is where you fit an EGR blanking plate on a MK3 Mondeo diesel with a front- mounted EGR valve -

[benessex89]

Thanks mate!

I've got a bluefin coming today, if i put that on and then blank it will that effect anything? The blanker is coming in couple of days

[benessex89]

To me it looks like its been blanked already, but with something thinner than 2mm steel, i stuck a tooth brush up bottom of the valve, no soot just the surface is like oil. Installing bluefin in a mo now lol

[FOCA]

Bluefin should work fine with the blanking plate - in fact one should compliment the other - its common to have the EGR blanked on these cars - a sensible mod/ precaution

[benessex89]

also the part you put the block in, didnt have bolts it had screws.

Bluefin is on, first 20 miles were normal apart from you could tell turbo kicked in sooner. After about 25 miles it started to pull allot more, only could see a puff of smoke every time i booted it in passenger door mirror. mpg went up from 47 to 53 as well. Pretty pleased i got it now, was a bit worried, my mate put bluefin on his fiesta st, kept cutting out while he was going along.

Got no complaints with it on the mondeo now though, easier to drive, faster, little added smoke and better mpg. Maybe if i was nit picking im sure it sounds louder stationary now, more diesel clatter, would that be normal?

[FOCA]

also the part you put the block in, didnt have bolts it had screws.

Bluefin is on, first 20 miles were normal apart from you could tell turbo kicked in sooner. After about 25 miles it started to pull allot more, only could see a puff of smoke every time i booted it in passenger door mirror. mpg went up from 47 to 53 as well. Pretty pleased i got it now, was a bit worried, my mate put bluefin on his fiesta st, kept cutting out while he was going along.

Got no complaints with it on the mondeo now though, easier to drive, faster, little added smoke and better mpg. Maybe if i was nit picking im sure it sounds louder stationary now, more diesel clatter, would that be normal?

Yes, it can be normal - the Bluefin basically injects more diesel - more deisel - more power - more energy for the turbine - turbine spins up quicker - compressor spins up quicke - more boost sooner - even more power

Power = noise

Its worth fitting a fresh air filter, (pattern, about £10 online) or a K&N (cotton) or Pipercross "performance" panel filter / about £35 (replaces regular filter) - if your presemt filter is old/ clogged it can reduce airfolow and force the turbo to work harder, a fresh one (i replace mine every 6 months) can help reduce smoke as it increases airflow, can also increase airflow before the turbo boosts, (at low revs) - increasing bottom end from tickover - the K&N/ pipercross may outperform the stock one in this respect, MPG may be improved slightly (new stock or pattern vs K&N/ pipercross), an old clogged filter is liable to increase smoke and reduce MPG

Resetting the ECU might improve performance (Mk3s have a "learning" ECU) - you do this be disconnecting the car battery for half an hour - watch you don't loose your radio code - some have reported big gains in performance after doing this but a decrease in MPG - so if MPG is more important (and you are getting such a good MPG) you could give resetting the ECU a "miss"

Its still worth cleaning out the inlet manifold - the inside of the intercooler can get "gunged up" from the breathger too - so thats worth cleaning out as well

Other possible (low cost but effective) mods worth doing are -

Resonator bypass - replacing the turbo resonator (supposed to cut turbo noise down but you won't hear a difference without it) with a short length of silicone hose - turbo picks up sooner, slightly smoother, stronger power reported from those who have done this silicone hose only costs £20-£25

Decat - cat is replaced with straight through pipe - about £40 - £120 may not now, or in the future be able to MOT the car with this - will pass emmisions and i have had mine pass so far

Back box delete - the exhaust back- box is replaced with a "straight through" pipe or silencer - makes the car a wee bit noisier (but acceptable - turbo and middle muffler cut down the noise suficiently) but really helps revs and is worth a few HP

You can improve the EGR system by removing the transfer pipe and blanking it at both ends

You can fit a catchtank for the breather

then a little bit of (sensible) lightening - the decat & backbox delete saves about 10kgs, if you can live without a spare that saves 20kgs, a lihter battery (but only slightly less powerful) saves 6kgs , and fitting the lightest wheels can save 20kgs = total = 56kgs (8-stone 11lbs the weight of a (smaller) passenger) - it increases the usable payload by this much too - to loose 150kgs - takes a lot of work/ money - but the car will "fly" (especially if it has 360+ Nm)

After that its deminishing returns - you could spend ££££££s but with little improvement (dont ask me how i know )

Let us know how you get on

[benessex89]

Thanks for the advice. I'll change the panel filter, is due 1 by look of it. I think i'll leave other mods for now. I bought the car as a run around for a year or 2, but was shocked how good it was so decided to add some easy power with the bluefin. I'll probably end up doing the 1's you suggested bit by bit though, as i found with my fiesta st, once you start tuning its hard to stop lol

[benessex89]

Fitted my own blanker that came today, the 1 that was in already was about 1mm thick, my 1 is 3mm. Looks allot better, the other 1 looked like a bit of metal found on the side lol