littlebrownbike

Ah right, better leave it to a garage then....how long do you think it will take to fit? Then I can figure out how much it will cost me.

How difficult is it to change the ball joint? The blue allen key (bolt on the other side) attaches it to the hub, thats easy, but whats the story with the red circles? Is it a relatively easy job? Cheers

Add to the fact that when semi slicks do let go, you'll be travelling faster than if you were on standard rubber (I do drive with ESP on). I must say though, I don't feel the goodyears move around at all, unlike the Conti premium contacts and toyo t1's.

In terms of handling, my lack of knowledge for the Nurburgring is what holds me back. I go round corners quickly, but far from the limit of what my car is capable of from. I thought that by using a set of semi slicks, I could corner considerably faster without worrying whether or not the car is going to make the turn. This is how I drive. As you can see the car has a lot to give, tyres are Goodyear F1's with less than 3mm tread. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwDplni0yTg

Good input Jon, but can you expand on how regular tyres made it more fun? I feel I can improve my driving a lot and am still far from the limit of road tyres.

They bearings are hydraulically pressed in & out, I did not think the hub & ball joint had to be disconnected to do this? If you look carefully at the pictures, the nuts & bolts do not appear to be disturbed?

No they didn't fit them as they looked nothing like the ones that are on at the moment, which is strange as they ordered the parts via my reg... I would buy the ball joint from Ford anyway, the chances are that item on eBay is not genuine. But would we agree that the damaged boot looks very fresh? Is there any possibility that the garage who changed the wheel bearing two days ago are to blame?

Ah, this may do the job! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FORD-MONDEO-MK3-ST22...93%3A1|294%3A50 What do you think the labour would be ok that? (hours)

Just read, its the split rubber is an MOT failure...so will have to be fixed before September. The question is do I replace the joint, or both wishbones?

In this application, whats the purpose of the ball joint and how much are they? I expect the wheel, brakes and hub will have to come off in order to replace it? I suspect a wishbone is in the region of £150 and requires to be replaced in pairs. The ARB bushes were suppose to have been replaced a few days ago, but the dealer got sent the wrong bushes. Apparently its a pig of a job hence the £100 labour charge. As for poly bushes, I had them on the rear anti roll bar, they squeaked so bad I had to rip them off!! Here is a picture of the lower arm bush, you tell me what condition its in?

Noticed this leaked grease today on the offside, just under the hub. What are your thoughts Tony? It looks like the rubber cover has come off slightly, looks very fresh too. Is it livable with or can I simply re-position the cover? This car has cost me £1,875.21 in maintenance in the 22.5k miles I've had it - don't want to spend any more. Here is how the nearside looks. Secondly, its the offside arb bush that is damaged, nearside looks much better. Cheers

Ok I have changed the tyres round, will let you know the results when I'm on the motorway next.

Fair enough, but I'm not convinced with your comment "pants make of tyre". Those F1's have won almost every test they have been in.

Yes, but to such an extent as seen in my original post?

Ok its raining badly at the moment so I can't change the tyres over... Took it to my local alignment centre, here are the results. Compare them to the original picture, that was done exacly 8,020 miles ago. As you can tell, this does not explain the inside wear on the front right tyre. But after a discussion we came to the conclusion that; Car aligned @ 57,700 Goodyear tyres on @ 62,000 (current tyres) Alignment was knocked out at 69,045 and the steering wheel wasnt straight. 700 miles later I got the car aligned, this is the "before"; The results are as they are at the top of this post, and the tyre wear as it is in my original post. It was said that because the tyre wore badly for 700 miles, it stuck in its memory and despite beging rectified, continues to wear like that. I chose not to have it realigned as the car ideally needs its front anti roll bar bushes doing. It will be aligned before I replace the tyres....for now I think I will swap them round in order to slow the wear. Your thoughts?

I will report back with my findings :-)

If the swap confirms its the tyre, is it still safe to drive on? Still a nice bit of tread on it....don't want to bin two tyres for the sake of a small noise that my mother wouldn't notice.

Lads...do you think that the above tyre could cause a funny noise? Its hard to describe, but the noise is definately coming from that wheel / tyre area and increases with speed. I am going to swap the wheels over tomorrow and see what that does.

Everything considered, I think I will be staying with OEM suspension. Coilovers have too many variables and it would be difficult to configure them to their optimum settings. With standard dampers and springs, you know that the manufacturer has spent hours of research, developement and testing in order to ensure maximum comfort, ride handling and reliability. Not to mention a damper for a Mondeo is about £70, and a set of springs are £130.

I have enquired about aftermarket pads and have read mixed reviews, worried about picking the right pad, I stick with OEM.

I have no reason to believe the brakes are working at any less than 100% efficiency.

I appreciate that I have a habbit of opening a can of worms. In this scenario, the brakes were not powerful enough to lockup the wheels / engage the ABS.

http://www.europerformance.co.uk/pages/pro...roduct=12574433 I think thats right?

I appreciate this forum leans towards chassis dynamics....but I was hoping someone could comment on the below....as this is the "general problems / discussion" section. My car takes 4 seconds to slow from 140mph to 50mph....the rate of deacceleration is 22.5mph/sec or 33ft/sec (in the dry). I'm trying to figure out if this is on par with what is considered normal braking performance? At the time the car weighed approximately 1,600KG and features 320mm front discs with 57mm pistons, and 280mm rear discs with 37mm pistons. To extend this question, in this scenario, how much of an increase, if any, would you see if the car was running the likes of 330mm 4 pot AP brakes... Apologies if this seems like a strange question.

Just to be clear. All mk3 Mondeos, regardless of shape, size, weight...(1370kg to 1570kg) have a 18mm front anti roll bar....EXCEPT the ST220 which has a 22mm front anti roll bar and weighs in at 1480kg & 1580kg (saloon & estate).