O/T- Ford DMF (Dual Mass Flywheel)
Turbo Mini Forums

I've mentioned it before, the DMF. especially the Mondeo TDCi one is crap.

I've actually got one in my hands now, I did most of the dis-assembly but gave it to my local garage for the final bit (didn't have the facilities/room in my garage to get the car high enough to drop the gearbox) and here is the result.




The pictures don't really show it but about 10mm movement on the outside of the flywheel without hitting the springs.



And nearly 1.5mm axial play.



Self adjusting clutch springs at their limit.


And all this from 65k miles.

The new flywheel/clutch I bought was from Eurocarparts... dot

When I picked it up they said the Mondeo TDCi was their best selling flywheel bar none (the VW/Audi was a very poor second best seller).

Edited by Rod S on 29th Nov, 2011.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Do you mind me asking the price? Wouldnt be surprised if I need one soon

I seriously doubt it!

My old mans mondeos starter motor just packed up. It turned out the flywheel had broken up and killed the starter. It had new clutch, flywheel and starter at the cost of £1200 from Ford.
Fortunately it's a company car. This was at 132k though. The power steering is starting to go now!

Manufacturers are now apparently turning away from DMF,s and I know of someone close to me who managed to replace his failed DMF with a "solid" one quite easily.

It was in an Audi rather than a Ford but it seems to me there is an opening for some enterprising young man to make a business out of this.

The only problem that I see is that the biggest cost of replacement is the labour.
I think it is ridiculous that to get to a clutch and flywheel it is necessary to drop a front subframe and suspension and then remove engine and gearbox.

OOPs thats we what we used to do to minis wasn,t it ?.

got mine done about 2 months ago!!

i got the bits off ebay and gave it to my dads mate who is a mechanic. he charged me £160 to fit it then i needed a new starter which was £90.

its back at his now to have 2 injectors and a new ecu fitted and programmed! not sure on the price for this yet!! apart from its cost £200 for the injectors and £60 for the ecu!!

when you get your new flywheel kit make sure its a duel mass one and not a single mass one. the single mass one is for the transit vans.
apparently if you fit them to the mondeos, the clutch just slips. i read this on a ford forum.

mine went at 140k but i think it was going before then as the previous owner had a new starter and clutch fitted, but not the flywheel!!

My build thread..

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=542985

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

They did a clutch around the garage where my mini is stored the other day and it was completely twisted, they had to cut the middle out with gas bottles as the holes for the flywheel bolts no longer lined up. And they drove the car in with a bit of a judder :-S

one day boost will be mine!

I did Lisa's V50 DMF at 105k its got the ford tdci engine and 105k is actually reasonable mileage, its a fair old job to do so i put in a genuine LUK unit as we have had some problems with the cheaper SACH's unit from memory i paid about £380 trade for the lot i also changed the slave cylinder as its inside the box on the ford engines and there is no way that box is coming off the car again.

I think have only picked up one VAG car in nearly 5 years of recovery for a failed DMF and only a handfull of fords however i have picked up loads of hyundai 4x4's with failed DMF's

My a4's bighting point was highish when i bought it with 50k ish in it. now approaching 160k and its a little worse. i reckon the dmfw is worn causing the high bite, but not worn enough to slip or drive badly. I'll change it when it causes a problem. my old a4 was the same...

I had mine done on the A4 at 80k as the car was vibrating badly at tick-over - £800 all in; nothing wrong with the clutch performance as such. Apparently the 2.0 tdi vag units are really bad for it too

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

I went to look at an Audi S4 a few years ago, it had had the clutch replaced at 40k miles and had cost just short of £1000, I expect that was DMF failure but the owner didn't know what a DMF was so couldn't tell me! I have a similar engine in my car but without the DMF and it is on 161k miles and still has the original clutch. I'm very pleased I didn't buy the S4 although that's more because of the depreciation than the DMF!

Wintersurfer is still having trouble with his after a garage completed their second attempt at fixing his Mondeo.

Clutch DMF and slave have all been changed, but he still has sporadic gear engagement issues.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

DMF's really arnt the best. I cant see the extra benifit of having one over the huge increase in weight from a standard assembly. Ive changed one on a diesel vectra which was a pain in the arse but much like the rover 75 diesel ones. All i had to do was loosen the subframe mounts enough just to shove the gearbox into the inner wing, leaving just enough gap to get to everything. Not sure you can do this on the mondeo though as ive never worked on one.

The extra benefit is the reduction in NVH which was always a problem with diesels. It also then means the car can be driven at lower revs in higher gears. This reduces the emissions, and helps manufacturers comply with ever reducing emission limits, and get the vehicle into a lower CO2 band.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

You won't hear any disagreement from me on it. I don't agree with the smoke and mirrors of car CO2 banding where people believe they are saving the world because they pay no car tax on their milk float. Reducing NOX and particulate emissions is a different matter and worth it in my opinion.

I agree entirely on NOX and particulates but CO2 is a con.

People are being told to reduce CO2 but most of the products that use less CO2 make a hell of a lot of CO2 during their production.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

But the bottom line is. If you're car has a DMF and the clutch needs replaced. Make sure you get a new flywheel one way or another !!

I just pulled my Combo van to repalce the clutch. Engine ran smooth, no noises, rattles, everything drove perfect apart from the clutch slipping. It's been doing it since about 140k but Ive babied it to 155k now.

SO I stupidly assumed the DMF was ok. Now it's stuck on a ramp and hoping a replacement will arrive tomorrow.

New DMF from dealer was around £450+vat. A Local clutch specialist says they can supply for £160+vat.

I hope they can. There are no solid conversions available for this. Some gearboxes can safely revert to a normal flywheel, others are designed to be used with the DMF and cannot be altered.

Bloody pain in the hole now, as no van, no work !!

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

The point to dmf as i understand is because of the torque that engines produce they save the gearbox... some people have had problems with gearboxes after doing the solid conversion. but from what i hear they are going back to solid and using the ecu to control the torque instead.

what do they actually do?

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???