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Ford Mondeo
MOT 2023
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Ford

Mondeo

269,092 MOT tests analysed. lands in the middle of the pack — here's where Mondeos pass, fail, and end up on the retest sheet.

That's 3.2 points below the UK fleet average across our 1,988 tracked models — buyers should expect more first-time fails than the typical UK car.

Pass

72.5%

Pass-after-fix

5.1%

Fail

21.8%

Avg miles

113,009

Pass + Pass-after-fix + Fail = 100%

The picture

Mondeo at 113K Miles: 72.5% Pass, Powershift Trouble

Tested at an average of 113,009 miles — the highest mileage point of any Ford in this dataset — the Mondeo still manages a 72.5% first-time pass rate. Suspension bush wear, worn tyres, and plate lamp failures are the routine culprits. The bigger concern is the Powershift dual-clutch automatic fitted to 2.0 TDCi models: multiple owners describe the gearbox triggering a 'Transmission limited function' warning and requiring a full stop-restart to clear. One owner described the fault recurring on a long motorway run.

High-pressure fuel pump seal failure was reported at just 47,000 miles on a 2016 car. Manual Mondeos avoid the Powershift lottery altogether, making them the safer used buy at high mileage.

Top ten reasons for rejection.

  1. 01

    A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources

    13,754 occurrences · 5.1% of tests

  2. 02

    Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements

    9,647 occurrences · 3.6% of tests

  3. 03

    A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn

    7,614 occurrences · 2.8% of tests

  4. 04

    Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view

    7,483 occurrences · 2.8% of tests

  5. 05

    a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm

    6,844 occurrences · 2.5% of tests

  6. 06

    A lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning

    6,485 occurrences · 2.4% of tests

  7. 07

    A tyre cords visible or damaged

    6,460 occurrences · 2.4% of tests

  8. 08

    A suspension joint dust cover severely deteriorated

    4,857 occurrences · 1.8% of tests

  9. 09

    A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot severely deteriorated

    4,564 occurrences · 1.7% of tests

  10. 10

    The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements

    4,431 occurrences · 1.6% of tests

Counts cover Major and Dangerous defects logged at test. Advisory items excluded so this shows why a car was rejected, not just what the tester flagged in passing.

Worst-case fix budget · top 4 failures

£228–£530

If every one of this Mondeo's most-logged Major fails hit at the same MOT, that's the real-world UK garage range. Reality is usually one or two items, not all of them. Open the estimator →

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Tools that pre-empt a retest.

Picked against this car's top failure patterns. Affiliate links to Amazon UK — we earn a small cut at no cost to you. Disclosed up-front, doesn't shape the data.

Item 01 · Amazon UK

H7 / W21W bulb pack

A spare-bulb kit lives in the boot. Test morning is not the time to find your stop-lamp's gone.

Search Amazon UK

Item 02 · Amazon UK

Digital tyre-tread depth gauge

Five quid for a gauge beats £150 for a retest. UK MOT minimum is 1.6mm — most testers fail anything below 2mm to be safe.

Search Amazon UK

Item 03 · Amazon UK

Brake pad measurement gauge

Testers fail pads under 1.5mm. A wear gauge tells you if you've got two months left or two weeks.

Search Amazon UK

Owner reports · Honest John

What owners actually report.

Verbatim faults logged by owners on honestjohn.co.uk over recent years. We didn't summarise — these are the words people typed in.

What's good

The Ford Mondeo once served as a barometer for the state of the country. Now it’s been pushed aside by SUVs, but remains a comfortable, capable family car.

Where it falls short

Steering isn’t as sharp as previous Ford Mondeos. Bumpy ride of ST-Line models. Some of the diesels are quite noisy.

Recent owner-reported faults

  1. 10 May 2020

    Problems with Powershift transmission of 2016 Mondeo 2.0TDCI continue (see 3-10-2019). On a long trip, again the transmission seemed to jump out of gear, with the same message “Transmission limited function - See manual” as previously. Stopped for a while, but the problem was still there and got steadily worse. Feels as if it jumps out of gear and the clutch starts slipping, but suddenly it all engages again briefly, before jumping again. Dealer says there is a communication failure between the control module and the gearbox, which will cost about £4,500 to repair. Also told owner that the fluid and filter weren’t changed when they had it last, despite what they told me - they topped up the fluid and re-set the software.

  2. 26 Oct 2019

    Report of engine of 2015 Ford MOndeo 2.0TDCI Titanium cutting out, but all electrics remaining on. Engine will not re-start unless all power is cut and then button started. Fault usually occurs when driving at speed in 5th or 6th but the other day it happened in 4th driving through town at 40mph. "While it's in cut out mode the engine will try and start itself but fails as if it's on turn over but can not fully start."

  3. 13 Oct 2019

    Report of high pressure fuel pump seals leaking on a 2016 Ford Mondeo 2.0TDCI at 47,000 miles, 6 months out of warranty. Dealer wants £381 to fix. If car has been consistently maintained on time by Ford dealers then we think there is room for a goodwill contribution from Ford towards this repair.

  4. 3 Oct 2019

    Report of problems with Powershift transmission of 2015 Ford Mondeo 2.0TDCI at 38,000 miles. A message flagged up "Transmission Limited Function" and immediately the car indicated it was not happy when changing gears 1 - 4, less so heading into 5th and 6th. We think probably overdue a transmission oil and filter change that should be carried out every 3 years or 38,000 miles whichev er comes first.

  5. 2 Oct 2019

    Report of electrics playing up in 2015 Ford Mondeo Titanium X. All the windows drop down and the sunroof opens after locking the car. Additionally, I locked it after moving it off the drive and the tailgate opened. Likely to be moisture seeping into the locking and windows ECU inside the driver's door.

  6. 10 Aug 2019

    Report of leather cover of steering wheel of 2015 Ford Mondeo 2.0 SCTi T EcoBoost 240 Auto Start/Stop Titanium coming apart at 4 years old.

  7. 1 Aug 2019

    Report of ESC failure on a 2015/65 Ford Mondeo at 25,000 miles, as well as Hill assist not available, Adaptive cruise control not available, Pre collision assist not available, Active city stop malfunction, Lane keeping system malfunction, steering assist malfunction, all whilst towing a caravan. Dealer advised that the car was not safe to driver and prescribed a new "sensor motor located in the steering gear" costing £1,600. (Possibly the dealer meant the front radar sensor.)

  8. 16 Jul 2019

    Report of small coolant leak from 1.5 EcoBoost engine into cylinder 2 of 2015 Ford Mondeo resulting in "bore scoring and cooling jacket grooving". No Ford goodwill. Ford cannot even supply an engine, which has been "on back order" for 2 months. We managed to find some on eBay.

  9. 13 Mar 2019

    Problem with severely out of date mapping in Fords's Sync 3 satnav (in this case in an April 2017 Kuga) fiinally cured by an update. If you visit https://www.ford.co.uk/owner/resources-and-support/sync-bluetooth/update#/status/ and enter your chassis number it tells you an update is required. It needs to be downloaded onto a USB stick and then loaded into the car.This takes a long time because the file is massive approx. (25GB). Enter chassis number bottom right, then it’ll find map update required and click ‘prepare maps download’ and then take it from there. This afflicts all Sync 3 sat navs to date.

  10. 30 Dec 2018

    Report of 2015 Ford Mondeo 2.0 SCTI Ecoboost Titanium draining its battery if left for a couple of days.

  11. 23 Aug 2018

    Report of engine oil found in cooling system of 2015 Ford Mondeo 1.6 TDCI at 80,000 miles. Head gasket and oil cooler replaced, but still has problems.

  12. 5 Jul 2018

    Report from reader that Ford dealer unable to complete Safety Recall 12-3-2018: R/2018/53 (see Recalls) on Mondeo 2.0 Duratorq estate and had problems with other attempts for customers.

Source: honestjohn.co.uk · 19 reports indexed, top 12 shown

Buying or keeping a Mondeo?

Use the failure ranking as a pre-test checklist or a haggling lever. Treat the headline pass rate as a fleet-wide trend, not a guarantee on any individual car.

If you own a Mondeo and your last MOT looked nothing like the ranked failures above, that's normal — individual cars vary widely. The ranking shows the patterns testers flag most often across the country.