Mondeo Dmf Carnage!

[Cameron 16]

For quite a long time now my Mondeo has been making some pretty heavy knocking noises on idle and when pulling away, which is a common symptom of a knackered dual mass flywheel. Ford wanted £1250 to fix it, so I decided to do it myself! I've had the parts for months now and have only just plucked up the courage (or had the time) to try and fix it. Anywho, yesterday I got the flywheel off and f*** me am I glad I did!

 

The first clue as to it's condition was the huge amount of metal dust and filings that covered the inside of the bellhousing, then when I went to remove the clutch noticed that the outer flywheel (that the clutch bolts to) was flopping around all over the place! Once I got the flywheel off I decided to take it apart for a bit of a laugh, and found the following..

 

First off, I drilled out the rivets that hold the outer flywheel to the "flange", or "bit that touches the springs and lets it move". Then took the outer flywheel off to find this:

 

 

 

Some pretty nasty scoring where the outer flywheel has been smacking against the spring cover! Ouch!

 

The spring cover is laser welded to the inner flywheel, so I took my cutting disc to the weld seam and had a look inside to find:

 

 

The drive "flange" has been removed, but you can see the scoring where that has also been clattering around inside, and knocking against the main flywheel. Nice!

 

Here's a little close-up:

 

 

Nice!

 

So it looks like the plain bearing that allows the two flywheels to rotate against each other has worn pretty badly allowing the two to wobble and smash against each other, but more worryingly the thrust washer that takes up the force caused by the clutch cylinder has totally disintegrated allowing the plates to grind against each other! I have a feeling this happened while I was in France a short while ago, as that's when it got really bad.

 

So yeah, don't you just love modern cars!

[Anthony 1,003]

Dual mass flywheels - don't you just love them?

 

I'd love for someone to explain to me the benefit of DMF's and how that outweighs the cost of replacing them when they fail, which from everything I've seen across several marques, seems to be around the same interval as a clutch! Having driven the same car with a conventional flywheel and with a DMF, I can't say that I noticed any improvement in refinement or smoothness... so what does it do, besides keeping dealer servicing departments busy and owners wallets empty? </cynical>

[mojo1997 0]

it happened to my TDCi mondeo, glad the garage where I got it from paid for it... very common fault.

 

Ford should be made to contribute to the cost when so many are having this trouble..how many mile has your car done out of interest.

[Cameron 16]

It's done 95K now, although it started failing at around 80K.

 

They're supposed to make low RPM running smoother and make life easier for the gearbox as they iron out the torque pulses. I have to say, they do actually do a pretty good job! If you drive a non-DMF diesel engine, particularly a high injection pressure one, you'll notice that they vibrate quite heavily at low RPM. The Mondeo on the other hand (and a couple of transits I've driven) are really smooth at low RPM.

 

The problem is that it's the low RPM running they were designed for that kills them!

[welshpug 1,730]

Changed several of these in transits!

 

like Cam said, its due to the heavy vibration and pulses the modern diesel creates, the manufacturers are now making engine blocks and assemblies much lighter than the diesels of old, it was these big cast iron lumps that absorbed a lot of it.

 

As well as that the amount of torque these engines produce at such low revs means they can cause vibration due to resonant frequencies, as well as having quite long powerstrokes compared to the old mechanical injected engines.

[DanteICE 72]

Oooo surface fatigue!!!

 

I know this sounds sad but can you take some more pictures of the damage that you can see on the last picture you posted before?

 

Geoff

[Cameron 16]

Yeah I can if you want!

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

See my sig, i'm in the dmf club too!!

 

fun isnt it

[Cloverleaf 1]

Oh nasty. I'm having the clutch done on my 330d tonight, dmf seems OK though so I'm not planning on changing it, unless something horrible is discovered. £360 for a genuine clutch was bad enough!

[Cameron 16]

Sooo.. flywheel bolts are in at Ford now, today's the day I try and put it back together!

 

Wish me luck!

[woodsy 0]

As said its such a common thing, i have replaced a few in rear wheel drive transits and put a solid one back in. They usually wreck the starters too as the dust from DMF ruins them.

[Cameron 16]

Clutch release bearing doesn't fit. Good old eBay!

[Cameron 16]

Jesus tapdancing Christ that was expensive!!

 

Anyone care to guess how much a CRB is from Ford?

 

 

 

 

 

Wrong. £176!!

[woodsy 0]

Bloody hell thats dear. Probably due to it being hydraulic, any decent motor factor does them though cheap enough.

[Cameron 16]

It's done! f*** YEAH!!

 

So glad I decided to do it myself now! Ford wanted £1250 to do it, I've done it for a little over £500.

[shalmaneser 26]

Did you put a DMF back in or go solid?

 

Interesting animation here BTW Anthony.

 

 

very clever but looks inefficient and complex to me!!