vodkas

Quite often push it up to 110 - 115 and it drives very nicely. Once took it to 130 in the early hours but only got 8 mpg.

Thats what we used to do to the apprentices 'Pack Their Nuts With Grease' LOL

Went Down this road about 2 months back when I found that the top bushes on the shock absorbers had too much play in them. I was at my mates garage who has every tool and gadget at his disposal but were unsuccessful at removing the struts without damage. The nuts were rusted solid and the small hexagonal slot at the top of the strut rounded off very quickerly. New shockies worked out at about

Been getting a bad crackling sound coming from the fuse box inside the car, sounded a bit scarey at first and couldn't find out what it was. Realised it was a relay chattering away. eventually found that if I turned my heated seats off, the relay stopped and it started chattering again when the seats heated back up, must be something to do with the thermostat. Have not looked to far into it yet but the relay is in the fuse box by the drivers footwell.

My v6 is overheating intermittently. Usually the cooling fans kick in around 3/4 of the way up the temp guage and shut off when it gets to the middle. This to me looks normal. Some times the temperature will reach just before the red before they cut in and then cut off in the middle. Other times it will carry on creeping into the red and the warning light will come on and still no cooling fans. Both fans when working come on together and I can force them on by activating a/c. This is usually enough to bring the temp back down. The two large high current fan relays are working ok as i can trigger these at will. I have noticed 3 sensors on the thermostat housing and 1 in the radiator. I am not sure what all these are, I assume temp guage sensor, ecu temp sensor, fan trigger sensor etc but which is which. I am thinking there is something wrong with the temp sensor that triggers the cooling fans to come on or a small control relay sticking. Can anybody point me in right direction of what to look at first. ta

For the last few weeks had a noise coming from the front which sounds like a wheel wobbling very slightly whilst turning but nothing is felt through the steering wheel. Lifted the front and without removing wheels checked for play. All I could find was a slightly worn rubber bush at the rear or the lower arm. Wheel bearings seemed fine. I will be fitting new bushes at the weekend. Does this wobble and the ABS problem have anything in common that I could look for ie the CV joints that you mentioned earlier.

My ABS has started activating constantly at speeds under 20 mph, sometimes not 'till i get to 5-10 mph. Even with the most gentle of braking it is kicking in. There are no warning lights on the dash. Obviously the ECM thinks that a wheel is locking up but has any one had a similar problem. Is there a fuse or solenoid plug that I can pull in the mean time as braking is noisey as hell and the pedal goes rock hard. Thanks

The reason that i think it is getting hot and it is not just the temperature sender is the oil temperature readout went up to 150degrees c, very dangerous as you should stop if it reaches 140. With both reading very high it is unlickely that the 2 of them are at fault. I am sending the rad away on Monday for a flow test and re-core if it is needed

From the look if it, the rad looks perfect from the outside. Nice and clean with no signs of corrosion or oxidisation. Just started happening over the last 2-3 weeks.

My galaxy has just started to overheat. At low speeds, about 50 or lower it can just about hold its own with the dial almost in the red and 120 degrees oil. If i go faster it gets much worse very quickerly. The fans are coming on but it does not cool down like it used to. I changed the stat on Monday being the cheapest and easiest to do but had no effect. Tonight I managed to change the bitch of a water pump for a brand new one and had no effect. There is no loss of water and the system has been pressure tested. A dye test was also done to check for exaust gasses but that was ok. The water looked fine, bright and shiny with no signs of debri. The correct antifreeze/coolant has been checked every year. The only thing I can think of that is left is the radiator. When the cooling fans kick in, the air that is displaced goes cold very quickerly as if there is little flow through the rad. The temperature is reading very high but the bottom hose can be quite cool. It takes a while before the fans kick in and i noticed that the temperature sensor for the fans is on cool side of the radiator. It looks to me like a partial blockage, but have no idea how it has happened, it must be a circulation problem. If I put the heaters on full the engine temp does come down slightly. Is this a normal fault for radiators to block? is there a way to flush/test them or anything on the market to add that may clean it up? Supposed to be going on holiday next Friday, a good 300 miles in each direction, desperate to get it fixed and keep the family happy.

Panic over. Turned out to be fuse 14 (well actually fuse holder 14). Previously checked all fuses and they were ok. Give the TIS cd a going over and it kept pointing me to said fuse. Really crappy connection. Gave it a wiggle, pushed it in a few times and will do for now. A real pain in the arse having to smoke out of the sunroof lol.

Got in my car to drive home and noticed no electric windows working, not any of them. Also no display on AC, no elec windows, front heated screen, heated seats, even reversing sensors. I am hoping its just a high current fuse somewhere but I cant find it. The 2 biggest fuses I could find were 40amp in the fuse box under the bonnet and they were ok. Any ideas where to look for the offending item, could it be a main power relay?.

Full catestrophic failure of compressor. Killed aux drive belt and left me stranded.

For the moment I will have to get warm. The clutch has been electrically isolated so I can't engage it by mistake and the climate control can still run in auto mode. Obviously there is no chilling or dehumidifying but you can set a temperature and use the outside air same as eco mode. I AIN'T SPENDING

Now that the compressor is banjaxed i ran an AC specialist for advise and price. New comp

AC bane of my life at the moment. Causing nowt but trouble. At least I'm not the only one who aint happy wth it.

Has anyone considered a blocked pollen filter, just a thought. try temporelery removing it and see what happens. Had a look at mine. god knows how u get it out, just about get my hands in the gap.

You will need to plug in a diagnostic computer and read off the fault in the AC section. This should tell you where the fault lies. I had a fault showing p switch (pressure switch). There was no fault with the switch, just showing pressure was low. vods

Had to take one of my precious days holidays today to try and get it sorted. MSF ford dont have an auxilary belt in and got to wait till 2.30 for one to be delivered. Day is almost over by then, any way only

Display on climate control started flashing late last year. Connected it to a diagnostic computer and told me it was a pressure switch (the sytem was low on gas and showing an error). Six weeks ago I got the system recharged but there was still a small amount of refrigerent in the system, not enough to trigger the pressure switch though. Had it checked for leaks and seems ok. The drop in refrigerent must be down to acceptable loss over its 6 year life. Luckily for me the fridge engineers I work with have vac pumps, gauges etc and as much R134a as a very large factory needs. Just need 1 of them to know what they are doing.

First thing is to get the car back on the road ASAP as i need it to get to work. Hopefully the pulley on the compressor will still be ok and i'll do without AC for now. Since getting the car 20 months ago remote locking/unlocking broke, cruise control jacked in, cracked windscreen, cd player dead and now AC. OH well there is still plenty more to go t*ts up. Best car I ever had MK1 ford escort, nothing on it to go wrong.

Thanks Seatkid Found that the fan resistors for both fans had burnt out so only getting full fan speed when every thing was 'red' hot. Created another problem now. Bypassed resistor on one fan to give constant cooling and everything looked great. Engine temp and AC looking good so went out for a few hours drive. Then whammy, AC compressor seized up pulley became hot and snapped pulley/fan belt. Had to call out RAC recovery (there goes my RAC no claims discount). On checking the AC compressor when I got home, It is now free, little bits of burnt belt stuck to pulley and the centre of the nylock nut melted. I am wondering what caused it to seize up, could the compressor have frozen ?. Cant test it properly because I cant source a pulley belt as it is bank holiday. Its just going bad to worse. Never mind, the fun of motering lol.

A friend of mine made me aware of the sockets as 2 of the taxi drivers who go to his garage have galaxy & sharon and have tow bars for their boats. They were quit tough to find and are in the off side luggage compartment, very low down and as far back as possible. I almost gave up looking for them and started pulling wires on the light cluster to try and locate a point to tap in and there they were. vods

Thanks Seakid for the promp reply. The car is a 1998 v6 auto 4wd ghia-x if that helps. I have a haynes manual but it does not include my model. There are two fans on the radiator one higher and to the middle and one lower towards the near side. Any idea what the difference is. Also there is a fan control module (looks like heavy duty relays) infront of the battery with two high ampage plugs feeding the fans and a smaller plug, probably the signal wires. I cant be certain but I think I am getting a click out of it when the AC starts up but no fans coming on. I have checked the signal wires and one is live by the ignition but none of the others change status when AC comes on (stange because this would account for the click as it happens when AC starts). One becomes live when engine temp is too high. I am checking the wires while the plug is off (4 wires) so maybe i am getting anomalies because it is not in circuit. I have never noticed the fans running at half speed even last year when it seemed ok, could it be that one fan runs all the time and the other cuts in when engine is hot? If they are duals speed as it shows for other models, do you know wher the resistors are hidden. It may be possible to hot wire one fan on slow speed. A circuit diagram would help loads. vods

Having problems with air con not being very good at all. Had it charged 3 times at work even though it is not leaking (vaccumed out incase it had been contaminated). The temperature of the air coming out of the vents was varying from sligtly cool to warm with hissing noise (not leak) intermittently coming from evapourator. Sussed out the cause. Condenser fan is not coming in and pressure on the HP side is rising to around 25 bar becoming very inefficent and causing the evapourator to hiss. When the cooling fans do eventually come in due to high engine temperature, the AC begins to work but only for a short time 'till the HP becomes too high again. The AC is not controlling the fans only the engine temp. Question. Is there a HP switch to bring in/control the condenser/radiator fans and if so where is it. Also is there a sight glass or receiver on the system to show the charge. There are so many pipes and swiches on the V6 and the engine taking up all the engine bay that I cannot find anything. thanks vods