My Dads Mondeo is Broken! (Front Spring)
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- Опубликовано: 26 фев 2019
- So my dads Mondeo has been off the road for a couple weeks.. Today we got it back up and running!
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James you look like you a have a very good relationship with you dad. I lost my dad in 2013. I used to love working on cars with him and doing anything macanical with him.
Sorry for your loss man. Just keep those memories.😀
Audi Man I second that! 👍🏻😃
Tip for reassembly is chisel the gap open a bit on the knuckle to make it easier to slide the shock in
You can place a piece of sheet metal in the gap and screw in the pinch bolt to widen it.
Can also get a special tool for opening up the hub/strut pinch bolt gap 👍
For opening up the gap id usually use a 1/4 drive ratchet tapped in with a hammer or a small chisel .
I feel a lot of extra work went into changing the spring. A general rule of thumb is to put something back together in the same order you took it apart. I’ve done loads of springs on mondeo’s, just put the strut in first, align the peg on the back with the slot on the knuckle, then use a copper hammer on the bottom arm to knock it up. No need for all this milarkey 😂
Really enjoyed this one and that’s typical that the spring compressor would be too short but atleast you got it sorted in the end. Your dad is such a legend so calm and easy going wish I had a dad like yours and one with a double garage and lots of space very lucky
Really look forward to future videos! Such a great watch! Doing an amazing job J! 👍🏻
really glad to see you and your dad working together. good to be able to help him out too. you only get one dad in life so good to treat them well.
Love the working with dad videos. Reminds me of when I was younger... also those McPherson struts are a pain with the pinch bolt. Best to wedge it open slightly at the pinch with a suitable wedge or I have made an ice tool can be turned to widen pinch. Those mondeo banana springs are a real pain with small spring compressors.
I have done lots of spring changes on the wifes mondeo .I usually remove the driveshaft from the knuckle and use more than two spring compresser ,just reposition them.i don't like doing the job it's a bit dangerous. You came through in the end ,well done.
Had both go on my old MK3. To compress the strut to release it from the hub without messing about with the driveshaft or subframe we bolted a piece of wood across the strut using the drop link and brake pipe bracket, then used two trolley jacks to lift it up before tapping the hub down. Bit Heath Robinson but worked. Same thing in reverse also allowed us to get the strut back in and the hub back on. The tunnel doesn't have enough space to get spring compressors on.
Changed the exact same spring on my 53 plate Mondeo on Monday 25th , fortunately my neighbour is a retired mechanic. Great tip with the scissor Jack👍. Only issue we had was the drop pin which we a pain in the arse, took it to his mates garage to put the new spring on though. Getting it back on wa a pain but we attached at the top and used a really heavy bar to force the knuckle down enough to fit. Need to get the driver's side done now😜
Another great video again James. It Looked like a right pig of a job. At Least you got to spend some quality time with you dad. Keep the videos coming love them.
neil75 aitchy that was the only thing keeping me sane was having a laugh with my dad about it!
Had to to the front shocks on a mates mondeo st, he complained that the was pulling badly to one side when he braked, turned out that the shock absorber had rusted through and was spraying oil onto the front brake! The giveaway was the front wheel being covered in oil. At first I thought the caliper had a leaking seal but when the wheel was off, the strut was rotted. Great videos.
Hi James. To help with the shock removal, undo the track rod from the hub. Sometimes you might have to remove the driveshaft nut and push the UJ out of the hub. Well done both of you for persevering.
5:30 Great tip that also works on brake nipples when bleeding brakes helps to stop it snapping it partially cleans the thread
You can refit the strut with the newly fitted spring, into the Hub without having to remove it from the lower ball joint.. There is a knack to it.. I had to replace all the springs on my old ST tdci, 1 front and 1 rear, but done the all round.. Anyway, enjoy watching your vids.. keep up the good work fella ....
Been there. I nearly seen my dad off after 2 days trying to do this Job in winter. Think it was sheer luck we got the strut back in lol.
Great video as always, I have a drift that I made out of the inner ram off a bin lorry I use to knock the hub off the strut, its the same on alot of cars, it was the same on my Megane, but my strut was bent at the bottom (not done by me) ended up stripping the disk off and using a bigger hammer......
Thanks for the tip on the long spring compressors.
You learn much morewhen things don't go smoothly. Well done for seeing it thru, your Dad owes you a pint lol
Pro tip. Place a thin piece of sheet metal in the pinch gap, screw the pinch bolt back in and it should open it up.
Changing a spring can be a piece of piss, but sometimes you just have one of those days where nothing is easy. I had the exact same problem with a Mercedes, like you mentioned in the vid, the springs are massive and require a lot of pressure to compress them down to get the top mount back on. A little trick I do now is, take of the wheel, then with a second jack jack the car up from the bottom ball joint to compress the spring a bit, then get 3 decent ratchet straps, tighten down on the spring to give yourself some pre load before you take the strut out and compress the rest with clamps. Same goes for putting the new spring back on. Knowing how much potential energy is stored in a compressed spring does make the bum hole twitch a bit though!! Keep up the good work!!
Liked the video before it has started, already know it's going to be a good video as they always are
My BMW seven series was also a pain to do. On that I losend a control arm Bush bolt and let it drop down so I could remove the strut.
For the spring you can use two sets of compresseors.
Lovely Jubbly , determination got there in the end, nice one.
Once it's back on the road and your dad has put a few miles over bumps on it, it is worth doing a visual inspection just to make sure the spring is seated correctly. Some makes of aftermarket springs are okay and you shouldn't have any problems, but some do not stay seated properly. I had a poor fitting one on mine and it kept on knocking the top bearing out in just a couple of hundred miles. I've got a genuine Ford spring on my Mk3 Mondeo now and have had no problems since.
Had to do something similar on my old Seat Ibiza FR when jacking the strut to release it from the knuckle I used a floor jack and a big piece of wood it was sketchy af lol, easier on RWD cars though since the drive axles won't get in the way.
I see you’re testing the tensile strength of all the rubber components 😆
Last time I did front springs on a mondeo I used 4 spring compressors to get it down enough. Couldn't believe the size of the oem springs! Lowering springs are the easier option haha
always enjoy your videos, thats the joys of working on cars. a job that should take an hour ends up taking 8 lol
You need a bigger hitting stick. I had to also use a spare jack with an extension to push the strut up whilst i knocked down the knuckle. Your idea was great.
James, this is the norm for me. You'll find that the other side will be 10 times quicker (don't forget to do it).
Tip for future, undo the wheel bearing and remove cv from the nuckle as I tried removing a strut once and pulled the cv out of the gearbox! Lost a bunch of oil, was a pain in the ass
Some vehicles you have to compress the spring even before you can take the strut out of the vehicle. That's a real pain.
Also, be careful with broken springs, they can be in a very precarious position and end up shooting out like a bullet while you're handling the strut.
Loving the vids, under rated channel mate
I'm really jealous of you, having a dad that shares the interest of working on cars and bikes! My dad (carpenter) have no interest what so ever as long as it's not made of wood :-)
Big tip - Make sure you renew the ball joint bolts as they are a stretch bolt, even though they don't say anything in the Haynes manual. When I did mine I didn't and used the old bolt. Then not long after the joint came out of the knuckle while I was driving.
Had the same issue on my Mondeo an year ago. It was the same front left coil spring. Found it broken in half in the morning.
I feel the pain with this i did my rear shockers on my MK3 a coupe of weeks ago 1st thing to go wrong the pinch bolt sheered then the rear drivers spring was snapped too. I also had to drop the bottom arms to get the bugger in what should of been a afternoon took a few days lol. we live and learn eh.
Props for finishing this job off! I couldn't break that ball joint on my Volvo (exact same setup as the Mondeos) and ended up paying a garage to do it for me! :(
Every time I go to do some work on a car its a pain in the ass lol , great video 😉
The drop link bolt if it spins will have a bolt head (it was a 17mm on my MK3 focus) behind the bracket (before the bush) that you can use to continue undoing it with a socket on the front. No need to faff about with a hex key and grips ruining the nut... 👍🏻
lol did the same job today in the morning
the drop link 5mm hex was so rusted it stripped straight away so i had to grind the drop link of the car and get a new one .
good times :D
Lol, the turbo noise on the ST is savage. 🤣
Loving the videos James
Also if the strut won't slide in easily. Put a metal object on the pinch section and thread the pinch bolt the opposite way in and you can push the joint open to give you much more room.
26minute video of savage garage this looks a good one 👍🏻
Nice video bud, Iv got to change the bearings in the upper strut.. not looking forward to that one after watching this video, ha, did they align the top strut in the correct position as iv seen a arrow on it. Cheers Dan
I've just done the same job on my X Type (it's the same suspension) to compress the spring I used two sets of spring compressors. Getting the lower wishbone parted was a bitch as was putting it back together.
The design of the knuckle/strut makes it hard to remove , but it’s a good strong design- I’ve had this issue many times on fords
The sleeve for the bottom coil is to stop squeaking from spring rubbing on the strut. The only problem is water can sit in them which caused the spring to corrode over time.
Normally if you remove the track rod from the knuckle that allows it to articulate enough. It's a pain but it can be done on your own.
The real side of fixing motors, it just aint glamorous, keep it up lads.
You can tie up the caliper with string or a bungee cord or rest it on something like an axle stand
Hi, I would stick to using ford springs as I used pattern ones and they were nothing but trouble with a constant bang every time I hit a bump in the road, so a year later just had to do them again with genuine ford parts and the problem has been solved(:.
My spring compressors are the same - too short for Mondeo springs. But i have a simple way around it - i compress the spring as far as i can, then i tie the coils together with some strong nylon cord/rope. Then i release the compressors - the spring stays compressed, then i can take another bite with the compressors and compress the spring to the amount i need to. If you take plenty of turns around the spring with the rope/cord you will spread the spring force over each turn, that way you will be surprised what you can use to hold the spring compressed - something like paracord would do it with a few turns, or if you just use a bit of old seat belt you only need a couple of turns. An old farmers trick i learnt many years ago! ;-)
100SteveB I did think something like that would work but it was so easy to get the garage to do it, 1 hour and £15 later it was done lol
100SteveB another way is ratchet straps
We made up a long piece of threaded bar with plates and nuts on either end, passed it through the length of the spring, plate on each end with a nut wound on, sandwiched the spring in a Workmate then wound the nuts in until the spring was short enough to get the compressors on
Well worth it, spring compressors ( good ones ) cost a lot more than that.
HE couldn't possibly say that on here as someone might get hurt doing that. That's something you do off camera at your own risk. I've nearly been killed doing something similar 30 years ago and I'll never forget it.
I had a similar problem with my fiesta mk6 which has the same strut/ knuckle design where it sits in the knuckle, to get it off i pelted it with a sledge hammer (didn't think of a screw jack! Will remember for next time) and to put it on i heavily greased it and got the trolley jack pushing up on the wishbone to force the strut into the knucle and tapped it on the sides of the knuckle, after about an hour of swearing and graft i got there in the end. Its a right bastard of a job! Luckily ford learnt from their mistake and on the MK3 mondeo/ MK3 focus, MK7 fiesta and so on it just bolts to the knuckle instead of sitting in it, hope this helps!
Also i forgot to mention, i put the strut in first and stood on the brake disc jumping on it pretty much. Trying to push it down enough to get the strut on. Managed in the end but bloody hell it took the piss!
if your ever doing a pinch bolt strut like that again just put the bolt in backwards and put a piece of metal in the down the back of the strut where the bolt goes then when you tighten the bolt it will open the joint and everything comes out and goes back in so much easier
Great content as per keep up the good work
i was do my mondeo mk4 sim side,absolutly disaster (2 day).great video,good job.
Sadly those springs breaking are a known fault on the mk 3 mondeo. I did one on my st220. Great video. James.
Just to let you knw James, whenever I've done mondeo front springs, I've always found it easier to remove one side of the subframe bolts to get the strut out of the hub m8 👍 love your videos pal ☺
Ashley Griffiths quite a few have mentioned this! Noted mate 👍🏻
You do realise the subframe bolts are torqued very high, they also have thread lock on them so when loosened should actually be removed, clean threads on hole and bolt and reapply lock thread and torque back up, that is a major no no to just loosen and then tighten them back up, especially on a rattly diesel that could in essence rattle them loose again and could cause your vehicle to be dangerous.
Yes I am fully aware that the subframe bolts do have to be removed to take the strut out of the hub and put back on with thread lock and touqued to spec, I've done loads of mondeo springs m8 👍
Quickist and easy way is to take the lower arm ball joint out so there is no strain on the drive shaft as you can pull it out the inner joint
Make sure the driveshaft is not popped out, I think it is after that severe angle. If you try to drive off with one of the bearings fallen out, you are looking at a new driveshaft. The correct way to do it is take off the caliper mounting from the strut, without taking off the caliper itself to make things easier, hang the caliper somewhere with a rope or cable ties.. Take off stabilizer bar rod from the strut, remove abs sensor connector from hub, remove the driveshaft nut, remove steering rod from knuckle, remove the balljoint bolt, pop the balljoint off, take out the driveshaft. Then remove the 3 bolts on top and the whole strut comes out. Did it in 20min last time I did it. The strut to knuckle bolt is know of getting broken, so it easyer to remove the complete assembly.
Kind regards
Richard.
For future reference, here is a video of doing a replacent spring ruclips.net/video/gh54GOIStwk/видео.html
Mondeo front springs are a pain in the backside. They are barrel shaped, not cylindrical. So normal spring compressors can't clamp onto the top and bottom coils. I ended up having to swallow my pride and take it to a garage to get the spring compressed. Mondeo's have very fragile front springs so you have to be wary of speed humps. Broken both my front springs but after the struggles with the first one I bought a complete strut the second time.
Tbh the mondeo/jag x type springs on the front are normally a pain, tho a 6ft bar and the use of a ramp makes light work of it lol
Pro tip, use a bigger hammer.
I use a 4lb lump hammer for literally everything. Struts like that come apart in just a few hits.
Need to drop subframe on the side you are working on to get strut in and out, it’s only 2 bolts to undo.
Best off with any ford broken spring is to drop the whole knuckle off ie drive shaft bottom ball joint and track rod end and take the lot out so much more efficient
Hey mate great vid again just a quick tip it would have been easier the get the shock out if you had took the track rod end off 😁😁
Can be quite awkward these front springs, I normally leave the strut attached to the hub assembly and split the ball joint, track rod end, and hub nut, remove it all as one lump, much easier.
have always been told to change two at a time, but we have never had a problem with just changing one in our workshop
You need 3 or 4 spring compressor, it's very very easy. I made mine the measure (50cm) for the mondeo. easier and much safer.
I've got a set of those 380mm spring compressors. Don't buy them.. The hooks don't fit over the spring well at all. I used them once and I will not use them again because of the fit. Try and get larger ones with the hooks that look similar to your 250mm set, they will fit better.
Sometimes a heat gun on awkward bolts then WD40 straight after and let it cool down seems to help get the WD40 to hit those parts that are sticking. Seems to help me. Also makes the WD40 more thin/runny when hotter/warm.
best bet 2 sides mechanic done 1 broken on mine asked him do the pair nope done 1 and 2 weeks later other one gone even i knew the new spring put stress on the old 1 so there you go
We`ve all been there, we think a job will take a couple of hours max. Six hours later we wish we had never started. Then suddenly it all comes together, a job well done. Looks a real stinker of a job. I think I would remove the strut and take it to my local garage, also saves loosing a piece of your head/body if the spring flies off.
Phew, that was a snaggly job, glad you got it done in the end. You should have watched chazz's vid first lol.
Didn't think you could lever the mk3 Mondeo front lower arms down as the rear bush is an oil filled hydro jobbie
Is this just Ford and Haynes being over precautious?
It's better to change the spring on both sides at the same time because due to the inbalance between the springs now, the other one is likely to snap soon. Happened to me on my mondeo as well. One side broke, changed it, 2 weeks later the other side....snap.
Peter Sarlai we are doing the other side when we get a moment
I'll raise you from a Mondeo spring to a Citroen Xsara Picasso spring. That spring is a beast to compress enough, practically all coils touching to get the top mount on. Stupid amount of coils!
props to your dad and his jack, whos is the little fiat
Great video james
James, when you replace the spring on the other side, IIRC you'll need to lower the actual subfame on a Mondeo before you begin to remove the strut. Remember, Google is your friend :)
You were taking a risk not unclipping the abs wire whilst you were using the jack fella. Lucky sod lol.
I thought the same. You don't wanna break those
Final tip would be to ensure you always remove the ABS sensor. An easily broken sensor. And always support the caliper by resting it on an axel stand. No need to remove it
In the days of the Cortina..never heard of springs breaking, on any car, unless they went soggy they would be on for the life of the car.
Your first punto !!!!
In the background
Im sure that wasn’t his punto his punto was green and years before that model
Was it on original springs before? I changed mine about 125k miles. Currently 200k miles, so still 50k before i need to replace it again.
I've replaced shocks and springs on Astra g today but it took 4 hours. It is way easier than Mondeo
His dad is so lucky having a double garage I wish James had a double garage at his house for all his car videos maybe James should relocate to his dads house and rent the garage out lol
Brendan Brady fan I would if I could sir!
The Savage Garage haha 😁
you are meant to drop the subframe. The Bushes in the wishbones are damaged by forcing them much beyond the angle they are at when the car is jacked up, that bush has had its life drastically shortened.
You need to drop the subframe even to just pop the wishbone ball joint from the hub carrier, it reall cant be forced far without damage but when i say drop the subframe i dont mean complete removal, you only need to undo one side (front and back bolts) and have the bolts undone to the last of their threads but still in place.
When dropping the subframe it is critical that the frame has a jack on it putting pressure on it by the rear bolts under the floor otherwise there is a high chance the captive nut will spin when you try and undo it.
If the captive nut spins you will need to lift the carpet inside the footwell and make a hole in the floor to access the nut to put a socket on it.
The good news is it looks like ford expected this problem and the area the hole needs to be made is slotted and covered in tar and you only need to cut one end of a couple of slots and bend them up to gain access and you can bend them back after.
Chisel in the back of the hub next time to open the hub up, also loosen the subframe bolts can help
My drop links used to come off like that then on my new car I ended up cutting them off and stopped running drop links 😂
Was a mechanic for 2 and a half years, and I hated changing springs on Mondeos, you have to get at least three could touching to get the spring back on the shock, dangerous job wouldn't recommend
hi great video are the Mondeo springs the same as the jaguar x type do you know
Your dad's way to get the shock off with the screw jack is genius!
AndyE46 yeah mate an dangerous when it come out a takes ur face off
@@milesfendell2804 Would never happen
You could try putting a chisel were the pinch bolt goes to loosen the shock
Alway undo the sub frame bolts makes it so much easyer too het the strut out
Definitely loosen the subframe, when I did mine the lower arm would not go down enough to get the strut out as it was hitting the subframe.
@@rhowelll yes very true iv done dozens over the years mate make the job easy evan more so on your own 👍👍
Yeah if you undo subframe bolts much easier, also unclip the abs sensor on the hub
6.52 automotive miracle!!!
Don't forget the other side, they always go in pairs!