Mondeo TDCI DMF to SMF conversion?
 

Anyone changed from a dual mass flywheel to a solid one? The car is a Mondeo 2005 2.0 TDCI 130 and the slave cylinder has failed. When I've got the box out I was thinking I should just change the clutch kit too but I'm not a fan of the DMF. Anyone got any experience of a solid conversion? Any issues?

Yeah I've seen that already, sorry should have mentioned I'd trawled Google already. Thing is, there's no posts that are much newer than very early 2014. Nobody seems to have actual experience either, just a lot of people saying "don't do it" and not a lot of reasons why.

Ive done it to a transit which are pretty much the same lump and tbh i couldnt really tell id removed the dmf, slight more vibration on the clutch pedal but nothing that worried me or the customer, got the full conversion kit with clutch for the same price as a new dual mass too. :thumb:

On the mondeo youll need to mark the position of the crank sensor as if you move them of of line theyre a pain to get right.

Thanks for the heads up! Where did you buy the kit from? I see techniclutch sell them on eBay from £175 upwards but they get terrible reviews on the web.

I've got a new Sachs slave cylinder from ECP already too.

I don't get why people think you'll turn a car into some horrible undriveable tractor by going SMF :cuckoo: My Toyota Yaris D4D has a SMF from the factory and it completely fine and that's a modern common rail diesel. I've heard of it being done on some Skodas and Pugs with success so i see no reason not to do it on a Mondeo.

I'm not saying anything about the effect it has on the car, I stuck one in my mates Skoda Superb a while back and it's 100%. I'm just not seeing a huge amount of kits for the Mondeo and the majority that seem to pop up are sold by techniclutch. It's the quality of the kit I'm concerned about really.

Gonna start to get the box out tonight and see what state the DMF is in before I buy anything though!

Off the top of my head i think it may have been an luk kit, but i am going back a while so could be wrong. It come from car spares i think.

Another way is to weld the dmf up which in turns essentially makes it a smf, its not ideal and i probably wouldnt do it to my own car but i have seen it numerous times and it does work effectively.

Believe it or not I was just thinking about that earlier today! It's a car I bought for a few quid off the wife's mate because of the said clutch issue. I'm planning to clean it up and sell it on once I get it through MOT.

We've fitted a few conversions from ECP to 115 mondeos but they will not sell us a kit if it's the 130. They are prone to destroying the gearboxes due to the harsher gear changes. As for welding up a dmf...have you ever driven a car with the wheels slightly out of balance? A dmf has an easy life expectancy of at least 70,000 if driven in a normal manner, why chance it.

Sounds like I should stick with the DMF then. I had been reading about damage to the gearbox and crank too. Well, I didn't get the box out tonight as I was home late. Tomorrow night hopefully!

Little update, the gearbox is now out and as I suspected the slave cylinder is destroyed. Unfortunately so is the flywheel! It wobbles and bangs and its for the bin. Looks like I'm gonna go down the DMF route again. Having said that, I was talking to a man today who works on nothing but Ford and he told me he's fitted many SMF conversions to Mondeos without any issue. I did bring up that the 130 was potentially a problem, he didn't seem to agree. Awaiting prices from the local motor factors for both.

Shouldn't be much more than the value of the car lol

:(

SMF kit seems to be around £200 and DMF around £250/300, it'll be fine!

Gearbox is back in along with a new LUK dual mass flywheel, drive plate, pressure plate and slave cylinder. Clutch is bled and ready to rock. Replacing the ball joints tomorrow which then leaves me to bolt up the subframe and pop the drive shafts back in. Managed to get the entire clutch setup for £210 by being patient and buying parts separately. Dual mass appears to be the only way to go on the 130 from what info I can gather.

Maybe a bit late to say this....but have you looked at the state of the starter motor? Any metal filings?

Its quite common for these to fail after the DMF goes as metal dust ends up in the motor. Could strip it and clean it....but I'd only do that if you are used to taking apart starter motors. Not a major job to replace the starter motor though, just the cost of it.

I was looking at the starter and thinking about giving it a clean because of the metal particles, my neighbour actually mentioned it last night too. It's easy to remove so I'll pop it out for a look. Hopefully the car will be driving tonight if I don't have to work late!

Video of the old flywheel:

I suppose I should have made a final update at the time. So, I finished all the work on the car and took it to MOT and it passed without any issues. Sold it a couple of days later and I still see it driving around. I have to say when it was all done it drove really well, I was impressed! Even made a few quid to spend on my holidays in August :)