msc

Nearly bought one of those for the missus a few years back, drove OK and nice concept but turned out to be a nightmare getting my deposit back since the seller was Arthur Daily in disguise selling from home, finally ended up with an A class. Looked at a facelift "froggy" last year but added costs of importing were too high and ended up with a Zafira which is a much better car from all angles. I had a Tipo for 9 years and Lancia before that, so I am quite familiar with Fiats. They are basically OK but they all seem to suffer electrical problems, mine, broken wires in the main wiring loom which took months to locate as the fault was intermittent. For me driving and sitting in the Multipla has a holiday feeling to it, I guess it's because of the oddball clocks and there's all that glass. My concern is the width, it will probably suffer side dents with parallel parking and occupants of that middle front seat might get on my nerves or my elbows on theirs. ;-) Anyway I hope you enjoy it, but no match for a shalaxy.

So on Saturday I went there, did it and got the T-shirt. Mine started with a decrease of sweep on the passenger side (LHD) and suddenly seized within two weeks. Being an engineer at heart this is basically a design fault where the suppliers have saved a few bob. The problem is that the cast body where the spindle fits seems to be made of "monkey metal" which has a high zinc content. This part is only bushed top and bottom with phosphor bronze inserts. The part which corrodes is in the middle between these bushes, basically the casting is acting as a sacrificial anode to the other steel components which the vehicle is made of. So it tightens up in the area between the bushes. It was mentioned somewhere about the mark II having a rubber seal and the problem should be less common. Well after five years and no salt exposure mine had it. Earlier in this thread someone mentioned fitting a grease nipple, the very same thought I had when I was easing the spindles out. When did you last see one on a modern day vehicle? A retro fit would be difficult as the casting is not very thick so you don't have enough to thread. One of mine was seized solid and I could just move the other about 15 degrees with force. I read a lot about hammering and banging at these spindles, I decided to take the soft approach. Remove that circlip washer and rubber seal and fill the recess with WD40 (that's what the red pipe is for), if it will move then work it backwards and forwards, making sure you keep the recess supplied with WD40. That will get it out as long as you don't try to get it out in one go. Now to the ones that don't move. Get your blow lamp out and with gloved hands heat the casting up (don't forget to take the rubber mounting grommet out), the WD40 trick is still the same as before but be careful not to ignite it etc. It will burn a bit but that's inevitable. The use of mole grips on the bottom actuating arm will help with the leverage when turning the spindle. A couple of light taps with the nut on the spindle helped encourage it out. After removal you have to scrape out all the gunge between the two bushings, I used the end of a round file, the spindles themselves were fairly OK and a wire brush and quick once over with a flat file was enough. Pack it all back together with "copper slip" (Copper ease), why? Because this seems to resist washing off better than normal LM grease, I swear by it. The copper is not going to help much in prevention of the same problem but the grease will keep the water out longer and reduce the risk of the oxidation. I think it will last longer than the original 5 years. Removal of the whole mechanism? Easy but with a few gotchas already mentioned in this thread and no I hadn't read them all. Hardest bit was removing the wiper arms. I had to squeeze in a cheap two leg puller to pop them off, they were damn tight, also you run the risk of damaging the paintwork. I removed all the three plastic shrouds (some had broken clips) , the motor cover and the scuttle tray. That gave enough space to manoeuvre the whole mechanism out without dismantling anything else. But wait the gotchas, the electrical connector to the wiper motor unless you are familiar with this VW type (which I wasn't) was a bit of a pain to get off and as mentioned earlier in this thread you need to prize off the plastic cable guide with a bladed screwdriver, otherwise you will damage the hidden sensor wire running to the heater pipes behind the motor under the centre of the windscreen. There isn't much play in it and I nearly snapped mine. I could only remove it by levering from the top of the clip, when its off you can see why. What I should have done and didn't, buy a new pollen filter as it would have been a doddle to fit with all these bits removed. So the moral is use heat, you know it makes sense. Have fun and keep fixing things. This is a good forum! Father of five! ;) :D ;)

So, spent Sunday morning checking. I got variable voltages (6 to 10 V, low to high) at the switch and headlight connectors and a 12 V supply to the motor. The ground was OK too. I pulled the motor out of the light unit for further examination and took it apart to check for anything mechanically stuck. All was OK and I was able to spin the motor with a 12 V battery connected directly to the motor poles. I connected it back to the car with the unit set to low position, rolled the adjuster switch to high, but no movement. I took the motor unit out again and connected a 12 V supply to the control circuit and motor circuit via the pins and slid the vario resistor back and forth. No movement from the motor. So it seems I need new units. I only tried one side as I had spent the previous afternoon doing the wiper spindles and I went off mardy. Added to this the 3 kids need attention too and I had promised to put the trampoline up. So it's a trip to nice Mr. Ford or was that Fraud for the new bits? I'm going to compare prices at nice Mr. VW's and Seat too. BTW original spare parts over here are 2 to 3 times UK Ford's ????? Anyway thanks for the tips so far.

Thanks a lot Mirez, now I know what I'm looking for and will try this on the weekend. It took a while to work out how to get the various dash parts off last time to get to the switch but now I know it should go quicker. I also have to fix the wipers, they have decided to sweep only part of the windscreen, started a couple of weeks ago and has got progressively worse. I saw a few threads on this and guess I'm suffering the seizing bushes on the control arms. I'm a bit surprised as we don't salt much over here (Vienna) and the car is only 5 years old. Anyway MOT due so all jobs have to be fixed. Thanks again for your detailed information.

was thinking about that one on the way in to work this morning. Since the noise is speed dependent then it has to be something in the drive line, so I would rule out the steering. I would jack up the offending front wheel with the car in gear and see if you can feel / hear any play in the drive shaft when rocking the wheel back and forth whilst holding the drive shaft. Try it with the steering at different angles. There will be transmission slack so its a bit difficult to judge unless it is already bad. Also if the joint has a lot of wear in it you would hear a clunk when pressing the accelerator and lifting off on the overun. The tapping noise irritates me a bit as that could be a whole bunch of things. A remote diagnosis is difficult. Best of luck with it.

would have to concur with chromedome, sounds like a CV joint since a wheel bearing wouldn't make the tapping noise either. Mine had the inner half (or stub) axle replaced before I bought it so I don't know what sound that made, but a colleague who has the same car and mileage told me recently that he has this problem and said it was more a wining sound when turning in one direction.

Firstly after 1 year ownership, the 2003 Galaxy TDI PD gets an 8 out of 10 for fit for purpose! :) 1. Annoying is the closeness of the steering column to your knee. You notice this moving from the accelerator to brake. 2. The key ring also has an annoying habit of dangling on your knee, mine only has a couple of keys and has a small ring, so no options. I'm also normal size and like to sit with the seat in the higher position. 3. As a self mechanic it is not always easy to work out how the plastic parts come apart and are mostly pressed together. They are at the point of fracturing as you prize them off. 4. Electrical components sometimes behave as they want, e.g. comfort switch on windows, front wipers after operating rear wiper going into continuous mode when on interval. 5. Cruise control accelerates too hard when returning to preset speed. ;) 6. Brake fluid reservoir too far back in engine bay, hard to read or refill. 7. Bulb replacement a bit fiddley but not as bad as my A-class. Note new EEC directive coming out on this subject. 8. Those b....y torx screws with a pip in the middle. Wanted to check gearbox oil level and found a bigun there! VW! :D More tools required!

Hi, a bit of a yawn topic, but the usual searches didn't quite bring what I wanted. The headlight height adjuster stopped working from one day to the next (don't ask which one as I don't use it often). In my case both adjusters stopped working. Done all the usual fuse, motor noise/ movement checks. Nothing. Had a look at the dash wheel switch with a multimeter and get some voltage readings but wasn't satisfied that this was an accurate test as I didn't know what I should be seeing, I just wanted to make sure there was something alive. The manual (yes I got one in German), suggests that there is an impulse generator in the central control unit. This suggests that the motors in the headlights are stepper motors? Anyway has anyone had this sort of problem with both adjusters at the same time? This leads me not to doubt the motors themselves but more the control side. I didn't find anything in the manual refering to a relay for this circuit. Is there one? The lights are currently in the high (0) position. Since the other threads had such questions

might also want to check the obvious, something rubbing under the wheel arch. Does it happen on full lock or at any turn angle on the left turn? Is the frequency of the noise speed dependent? Inner half shafts are a known weak point.

OK FIXED IT!!!!! It was the b....y MAF! After more reading and searching and thinking I had nothing to lose I decided to take the MAF off and have a look. A question from a member on the TDI site gave me a hint, asking if it could be cleaned. Answer was maybe but don't touch the element with anything. Well got those daft screws out and promptly made a hacksaw cut for a flat blade screwdriver for refitting and possible future removal. The hint was to wash it in white spirit, well I used petrol hoping that bosch used quality plastics which wouldn't go brittle. The heating element which sits recessed in the airflow was a bit dull (tarnished) but looked OK. The metal element looked quite stable so I decided to wash it with petrol, this didn't remove the dullness. I then filled the recess with petrol and gave it a light scrub with a 1/4 inch paintbrush which was stiff enough and fitted in the recess. The element then came up shiny. I still wasn't hopefull but thought if this gave a marginal improvement it could be a pointer for me. Well about an hours job (mainly because of those screws) and it was all back together. Next day drove to the docs and no stotter. Still touching large lumps of wood the following day I drove to work, no hesitation, stotter, kangarooing whatsoever. It completely transfomed the car and I am still astonished how such a light covering could have such a dramatic effect. So for all those who have similar symptoms as I had (remeber it only gave a stotter after lifting off and slowly acelerating again) then try cleaning the MAF. Other jobs just completed include fitting a Bosal towbar in 1 day, (4 hours working out how to get the bumper off, no manual and finding the reversing light / fog light cables, they change colour at the connectors so the main loom isn't as in the fitting instructions). Fixing the clang of the drivers door shutting with window down. Thanks to the article about door pad removal, I would never have found those 3 hidden bolts or getting the grip off. I'm familiar with removing these but never came accross such tight clips, I lost half the points on 4 out of the 9 and one lower bracket which the clip fits into. I read someone on another thread had similar noises. I guessed at a loose lower window guide and was right but that wasn't all, the front glass clamp was loose and the rubber pad had split and fallen into the bottom. Recovered that and refitted it. The clang is still there but less so, not the thud you expect and get with the window up or that of the passenger door with the window down. I couldn't find anything else hitting the glass etc. so it will stay like this for now. The pics on the door pad removal were helpfull, one which would also help would be a picture of the back so you see exactly where all those clips are which would help in knowing where to go in with the screwdrivers etc. I was in a rush and it went dark otherwise I would have taken a picture. Maybe next time when I waxoil the car and inside the doors. TIS disc on its way. Now got a German manual (a bit limited on the PD engine though) from my colleague who sold his Sharan. Not sure which way to go with the VAG-COM SW and lead. Thanks to all for the suggestions and tips on this one and I hope this thread may help someone else. Steven

Yes I suspect you may be right. Gone are the days of listening down the carb venturis with a piece of rubber pipe to ballance them on my midget. If you haven't got the right tools you're stuck nowadays. Any good tips where to get this SW and cable from? Maybe a silly question but are these readout cables standard across many manufacturers or do they all have their own type? Thanks

Thanks mumof4, couldn't reply till now as I'm off sick which started when I started this thread, my excuse for boobing on the RPM figure (Chris) ;-) , actually I was serious about the download possibility (free of course). I haven't had a really good scout round yet. There are some nice people who put them on their websites and some who burn them on CD and sell on ebay. I have a link to a Russian site who have most popular Japanese bikes up there, original copies of factory workshop manuals. Not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here but I guess members who might want to avail themselves of the info could drop me an email, I remember activating that bit somewhere to be displayed. There are also alternatives to Haynes to buy if you are comfortable with German. I haven't looked for the Galaxy yet, but have bought one for my A-class via Amazon Germany, the titles go under "Jetzt helfe ich mir selbst" (now I'll fix it myself) by Dieter Korp. It has some useful stuff in it and good pics, but avoids the difficult things like an engine strip. Another one is Verlag Bucheli. The one for my old veedub type 3 doesn't have pictures of the strip down and the authors hands but it covers practically everything in detail. A colleague of mine has one for a Sharan and has just sold the car, maybe I can tap him up for that before he moves to Germany. He's dad of five! They replaced the Sharan with a T5 bus. ;-) So now back to my original problem. Chris, I did read the articles on the solenoid actuator sticking problem on this forum and the tdi owners forum. In my opinion this would result in poor performance, or uneven acceleration as the boost pressure wouldn't match the said revs. I will squirt some oil on it when I finally get that silly plastic cover off. I like the idea about the anti runon kicking in and out suggestion because this would produce a similar result. However this circuit is linked to the ignition key position (I think) and should only come in when you turn the engine off. If this were faulty wouldn't it happen on other occasions other than after the throttle off which I'm experiencing? Or maybe the central management computer has got itself mixed up. Now for more info and corrections. Finally I forced myself to go to the docs yesterday, I originally thought I had a summer flu (common over here, like a normal flu but without the runny nose), then my wife noticed some spots round my waist and sure enough the doc confirmed shingles, so that's me out for a couple of weeks. I didn't know that its like having a megga hangover and that since Tuesday :-( Well all this is relevant as the docs are in the oposite direction to the normal way to work and starting off with a long downhill and 30 kmh speed limit. Try provoking the stotter again and sure enough it was there repeatedly, engine cold! So whilst resting in bed the old grey cells came up with a theory. This happens after lifting off with the engine braking, also it seems to happen when you have lifted off for a longer time before you accelerate again especially at low revs. So is the following theory possible? Could there be a loss of fuel / pressure, leak through / leak back in one or more of the injectors on the overun mode (where fuel supply is cut) such that when you put your foot on the accelerator again it sends the signal to squirt and there's nothing to squirt or too little untill the system gets up to pressure and sorts itself out. This is assuming that our AA guy messed up the readings as I would expect this to show up in a fault code. I have a reason for suspecting this as he thought his tester wasn't working, they had a SW problem / upgrade the day before but his colleagues said it was. His first attempt brought nothing as he had selected the wrong engine or something. The second attempt worked and listed out each step from engine to ESP, Klima, ABS, Airbags etc. but no errors. He said a dicky MAF wouldn't register an error code, is this true? So that's where I'm at and although at home am not able to work on it. I have a few more unrelated questions not having a manual to refer to so I will start a new thread for those.

Thanks, I'm not able to check this at the moment, but if this were the case I would expect this problem to occur when blipping the engine or when the engine is cold but it doesn't. I'm new to the TDI world so all these electronic sensors etc. make life difficult without a personal reader. I made some more observations on the way home. This hicup of the engine doesn't happen every time you lift off and accelerate or when changing up the gears. It seems to come in phases and is more pronounced at low revs, 1500 or so. Also it only happens after the overun e.g. under engine braking and then accelerating, but as mentioned before not everytime. Sometimes it will stotter once and sometimes twice before taking up the acceleration. Could this be related to a vacuum issue? Just to add missing info, the engine type is AUY, it has a full dealer service history (for what that's worth), the last one 1000KM ago, also it had the cam belt done at 60t KM. A correction to the idle speed as I read the dial wrong, it idles steadilly at 850 to 900 rpm warm or cold. Elsewhere on the forum I read about drive shaft problems, mine had the RHS stub axle and drive shaft replaced at 75t KM allong with the front discs but these are well worn and look original to me. A link on this forum suggested looking at the tdi owners site, they mention the possibility of cleaning the MAF, anyone had any success with that? I checked the contact to the MAF, its fine and no corrosion or water ingress. Also does anyone know where I can download a workshop manual? Thanks

I searched the forum and only found one reference to the symtoms I am experiencing but no solution / reason given. I have just aquired my Galaxy 1.9 TDI PD 116HP 6 speed manual May 2003 (After facelift) 55t miles. I had the fault codes read by our equivalent of AA (I'm living in Austria) and there weren't any. They suggested maybe the airflow mass meter was at fault. The symtom occurs after you lift of the accelerator and slowly depress it again (in any gear or speed). This results in a short hesitation of the engine to pick up (as if it stalls for a split second) which jerks the car and snatches the transmission. This only occurs when the engine is at full operating temperature, i.e. not during warm up. Other than this the engine runs, accelerates and ticks over (approx 9,500 rpm) fine. I also suspected the accelerator sensor but allowing the car to tick over in first on a flat road results in kangerooing as the engine tries to maintain its tick over speed which for me rules out the sensor. Basically it is an exageration of what is experienced at higher speeds e.g. cruising in 4th at about 30 to 35mph on a flat road where you need to occasionaly slightly accelerate and lift off and so on, you get a slight jolt each time you accelerate after you lifted off. Varying the the position of the accelerator pedal does not result in the problem, only after you fully lift off. BTW I am an engineer and eperienced home mechanic, this is not a transmission or turbo lag problem. I would appreciate any help with this annoying problem which spoils an otherwise brilliant car. I am also hesitant to take it to the dealers based on previous bad experiences, also parts prices are more than double UK's. German and Swedish didn't list the airflow mass meter for the 2003 Galaxy, any hints in the parts direction are also welcome. Thanks