Further to my original post, whilst talking to she who must be obeyed or else, she said, and I quote, " Do you think it could be the plug thingumajigs?"

Hmmm, says I to myself, surely the garage would have checked when they A, put it on the fault code reader, B, changed the EGR valve and temp sensor?

Well, I checked, and lo and behold, plugs number 3 and 4 leads were not pushed fully home. Said leads duly re seated properly, car test driven and voila.....not a stutter or hesitation to be noticed.

The engine ran and performed as smoothly as I am led to believe the Duratec HE motor is meant to.

Needless to say, boss lady has been giving it large ever since!

But, I cannot believe such a simple thing caused such an issue and eluded several fully trained mechanics on three seperate occasions.......not to mention not showing up on diagnostic machines....................

Regards

Pete

That's why the mechanics couldn't fix it, it didn't show up on the computer - it would seem some mechanics lack the good old fashioned skill of having a look for a problem.

However, great result. Glad your sorted now. Oh and you better get the wife that bag or those shoes now

You shouldn't have told her it was that. Should have told her you reprogrammed it.

I would have told her that Jeebo, but unfortunately, she knows I have an extremely high degree of technophobological inexactitude.....she would have fallen about laughing lol, and Stef, she already has more bags and shoes than Imelda Marcos and Fiorelli combined .....Will need a bigger gaff soon just to house her collection lol.

I took my last ST into what I thought was a knowledgeable dealer, with all the symptoms of having cracked a cylinder liner but they didn't go any further trying to fix it because it wasn't bringing up any codes

Took it to a branch of Evans Halshaw who reported the same back to me but with the additional instruction to monitor the amount of coolant being used after they had topped it up. Once I'd reported that back they did the right thing and kept the car in for further investigations etc.

Fitted a new coil pack and ht leads and plugs today...what a difference....put my toe down to pass a van and the car shot away like a scalded cat with a firecracker up its !I like trains!....... really felt the few extra horsepower the Duratec HE lump has lol.....It hit 110 before I knew it!.....Air filter also changed, oil and fuel filters also done, car is good to go .....But, her that makes the rules around my gaff says she wants to go back to a FOCUS!!!!!!! Guess who's gonna be getting a 170 for his other half to bimble about in??

Gonna de badge it though so she dont know lol

Haha, well, I'm presuming you meant 110 horses as clearly you didn't mean mph lol.

Stick with the Mondeo, its a cracker motor

Ha ha Jeebo.......I would love to stick with the Mondeo, but the boss lady wants a Focus, and she owns the car, so I'm stuck with having to get rid of it lol.

If I did not have the van, I would just buy her a Focus and keep the Mondeo for myself......by the way, is it worth me changing the standard air filter to a cone type one?

Lots of people say so, but I'm not sure what difference it would make as I don't intend to have it remapped nor change the exhaust.....what you reckon.

Regards

Pete

Hi welshpete, just noticed that you mentioned 'cone filter'...

Yesterday I took out my 57i k&,n and put the old filter box back in, mainly because I couldn't get enough cold air to it, so consequently it was sucking in warm or sometimes hot air..ie when stationary.

I'm going to miss the induction roar which admitttadly is very nice but the motor will run nicer with the box as that is cold feed as the intake is in front of the radiator, rather than the cone just sitting in the engine bay..although there was air coming in from the disconnected air box feed pipe when moving it was just mixing with the hot underbonnet air..

Adendum to my last post.

My problem now is whether to stick with the generic panel filter or a more free flowing sports one by k&n, just a slight problem with the price difference...generic about a fiver but the k&n sports panel filters are about forty quid!!!

At the end of the day it's your choice man,mine had been on for 2years before I changed my mind,but that was after reading some posts on the mondeo ST forum (mine has same engine, but st has 20more bhp due to better exhaust system (and a 'different air box' on pre facelift) and the owners of these beasts recommend staying with the air box and a k&n filter on the 3.0v6.

You have a two litre petrol?

I would stay with the standard set up if I was you,just get the sports filter... Plus for what you actually get these cone filter kits are a bit of a rip at a hundred and sixty quid or thereabouts.