First Mondeo Purchase! Problem :d - But Vibration Above 30Mph :(

[MondeoNewbie88]

Hi guys,

I have just recently purchased my first mondeo!

Its a 2011 2.0 TDCi Estate Titanium X, manual, full leather heated and cooling seats, adaptive lights, privacy glass, front and rear sensors, a nice few extras

It has however got a slight problem.

When travelling on any road surface (can be more noticeable on particular ones) there is a strange rotating kind of vibration coming from the car which can be felt through the cars floorboards. it is quite noticeable at 35mph but will start around at that speed and continue to be there.

Up until 30mph the car is quiet as anything.

It has got a fair few miles (around 135k) but has full ford service history from day one.

Any ideas of what it is?

One mechanic has said its the drive-shaft and another has said wheel bearing. I do not personally want to be in the hands of the mechanic as they play around with trial and error. I don't want to end up with a huge bill and it still not being repaired..

Sorry for starting off the forum with a problem.

[iantt]

Can you hear it at higher speeds, if you can then wheel bearing, if not then out of shape tyre, put the palm of your hand over tread and feel for roughness/iregular tread, hard to explian really. Or get mechanic/tyre fitter to look for for you

[BOF]

Welcome to the forum!

It take it this noise occurs whether you are on the power or off (on or off the accelerator), whether you are driving the car along, or you put the car into neutral?

It could be either of the things mentioned, but it could also be wheels out of balance. Getting the tyres balanced is quite cheap, but, you should have a look at how much tread there is first - if it is minimal, or the condition of the tyres is otherwise poor, you might be better off getting the affected tyres replaced. (I should say that 35 mph is low for wheel-out-of-balance effects, it would be more normal to start around 60 mph and go away again 10 mph or so later, but it depends on how bad the out of balance is - if the wheel has lost all balance weights, perhaps as part of re-furbing the wheels to make them look 'pretty', it might be really bad).

Wheel bearings ought to be easily detectable; jack a wheel up, and if the wheel rotates completely smoothly and doesn't have excess play, it ain't that wheel bearing. Repeat. (If you have a mechanic who is prepared to tell you as a fact that it is wheel bearings without doing that simple test, the problem is probably your mechanic...although someone who says 'it is probably wheel bearings, we'll know when we get the car jacked up' might be all right).

I don't really believe drive shafts, unless they have been obviously damaged - it could, however, be one of the universal joints on the drive shaft, and the mechanic may have just been being a little imprecise in his description.

If you have bought from a dealer, you ought to have a warranty. It could be their problem!

[MondeoNewbie88]

Thanks for the replies.

You can hear it all speeds above 35mph; even on or off the throttle the noise is there. I will have a go today with popping it into neutral and see if the noise is still there.

I had a quick look through the service history again and noticed that the drivers side front wheel bearing was replaced only about 15-20k miles ago and this is the same wheel bearing the garage said needs replacing

There was a slight grinding noise noticeable when that wheel was spun off the ground, so it could need replacing again (bearing is part of the hub kit so will set me back alone £120!!)

The front tyres need replacing so that is what I will be doing first and get all 4 wheels balanced and the tracking done. This needs to be done anyway as the front tyres are close to the limit; if this doesnt improve things, i will continue in finding the problem

[BOF]

The front tyres need replacing so that is what I will be doing first and get all 4 wheels balanced and the tracking done. This needs to be done anyway as the front tyres are close to the limit; if this doesnt improve things, i will continue in finding the problem

That sounds like the right thing to do; you need to do it anyway, and it might be the thing that does it. if you have any kind of warranty from a supplying dealer, then it would be good to do it quickly, to ensure that you still have a go at the dealer, if it doesn't turn out to be the cause.

I had a quick look through the service history again and noticed that the drivers side front wheel bearing was replaced only about 15-20k miles ago and this is the same wheel bearing the garage said needs replacing

Unfortunately, that isn't great evidence either way of whether it needs doing again. While bearings usually have a much longer life than this, when the bearing is pushed in, under high pressure, it isn't exactly difficult to damage the bearing, and that shortens its life.

There was a slight grinding noise noticeable when that wheel was spun off the ground..

It could also be the brake pads rubbing on the brake disc, so be careful. Usually, you would either see a strange pattern of rust/shiny on the working surface of the disk, or a lot of rust at the edge of the disk if this is happening.