Ivor_E_Tower

Depends on how long you want to spend investigating. Try connecting a voltmeter to the amp power feed and seeing if it drops when the engine is on. Can you bypass the amp and just connect some speakers to the radio (not necessarily the ones in the car, some spare ones if you have any) and also try with engine off and then on?

Just paid

Just had a call to say just that - they will investigate free and take it from there depending on what is wrong. Bad news is that they can't fit it in for another two weeks (Friday 13th). Fingers crossed and I'm praying that it fixes itself before then....

Ah well, took car for 2nd annual service and investigation of suspension noise. Called 2 1/2 hours later to say service done, noise fixed under warranty (anti-roll bar links). Collected car at lunch time and when I went to drive away, aircon panel (Ghia) flashing indicating that there's a problem. There wasn't anything wrong with the aircon when it went in to the garage. I stopped and returned to servie reception where they just told me to wait. After 20 mins I asked what was happening as I needed to be back at work. Told that they need to wait for foreman - another 30 mins as he's at lunch. Told them this was unacceptable and they said the car now needs a 1-hour diagnostic check but they don't know if I have to pay or not. I have returned to work; they are supposed to call me this afternoon. Will keep this updated and will "name and shame" depending on what happens... Aircon appears to be working though - cooled air from vents and the fans work, noises when distribution buttons and recirculation button pressed.

Well Eddie, perhaps your mechanic was right! Collected the car from service at lunchtime and the rattle/thump was the anti-roll bar links; changed under warranty. Bad news is it seems that the garage has broken the aircon when they did the service. It was all working finr before it went to them but when I turned the key to drive off, the display panel is flashing indicating a failure somewhere. Air supply seems to be cooled, fans work so is this just a coincidence or have they broken something? I'll re-post this under "garage/servicing". Ivor.

97 (P) isn't ancient. I was driving a 1985 © Honda (bought new before I had a wife, kids and mortgage) prior to getting my Galaxy, and my parents still have a 74 (M-suffix) Volvo that they have had from new. I hope to keep my Galaxy until it's at least 10 years old (barring a lottery win or some other stroke of good fortune!)

My car is a genuine UK vehicle; seems sad that there's only 1 rear power socket now. The net can be used as a hammock or as a restraining device to stop bits falling out when tailgate opened. When as a hammock, no it doesn't reach the floor. Hope this helps.

Well good luck in your search! I live on surrey/hants borders but work locally, bnot earning very much compared to most families around here. It took me 4 months of seraching to get a current-shape tdi 115, and I was searching nationwide! I tried all the usual "chains" such as Inchcape, Reg Vardy, Dagenham Motors etc and drew a blank. Eventually went to an MPV "specialist" and even there, had little choice. In fact the car's gone into the local Ford dealer today for a service and investigation of suspension noises. I use the car to and from work (about 7 miles each way), weekend shopping trips (about 4 miles each way), visits to friends etc, and it's averaging just over 40mpg so far - dashboard computer indicates around 50mpg on relatively traffic-free dual carriageways etc if you don't go over 60mph. The family finds it very comfortable, but I echo the remarks about parking - it's a wide vehicle (6ft between doors, 7ft between mirror extremities) so some car parks with narrow bays present a bit of a problem, especially where others have parked on the white lines. Good luck with your search!

Aha F1racer - only 1 rear power socket - is your car an import? As to the cargo net - have a look in some dealerships; some showroom models have them fitted and I certainly would not pay

Early face-lift model has new-shape headlamps, "solid" head restraints and rear bumper painted completely in body colour so you see the rear parking sensors as 4 black circles; later models, from about April 2001 I think, have "see-through" head restraints and the bottom of the lower bumper is left in black plastic, so you don't notice the rear parking sensors. Going to go for the Woodstock unit, then? Visit www.blaupunkt.co.uk for more info! Looks great; Halfords offering it at

Oh *%!# . My Gal is an early facelifted model and I hadn't realised that some Ford audio units have rounded corners, and others square. I shall stick with my 5000RDS until such time as (a) I have some more money and (2) I can get a DAB unit that I like. Well Ketchup, what you gonna do? Personally I'd go for the Blaupunkt Woodstock DAB unit if you want to upgrade.

Could well be...my dad had a problem with an old Austin/Morris in the 1970's - same sort of thing with odd noise, but it stopped after a while then there was no noise when the key was turned. The starter had jammed on and burnt itself out (fixed under warranty, from memory). Sounds like you've caught it in time. Perhaps time to take the starter off and give it a quick overhaul??? (how old is the car?)

It should fit the dashboard OK as it should be the same size as all the "custom" Ford units. Whether or not the wiring/connectors is the same is another thing! Anyone know if the Ford unit is a true "double-DIN" size so that 2 DIN "E" units can be fitted, one above the other? The only blanking panel I've seen for fitting your own unit looks much smaller than a DIN slot.

Ah yes, but the cruise control is not as clever as it could be... Used on a motorway it's fine on the flat and an incline, but at the top of the incline the road went downhill and the car kept on accelerating (under gravity) although the fuel supply had obviously been reduced or cut off. So it doesn't apply the brakes to slow you when you exceed the set speed!

Checked my multi-unit audio manual again last night but it doesn't cover your unit. However I suspect that "Cut" does something similar to the 500unit - when the volume is loud and the sound starts to distort, the volume is automatically cut. T/P is as described before. AMS: to work it, first push button until "AMS ON" appears in display, then press Fast forward or Rewind on cassette to locale next/previous track. M/S - on domestic system this usually stands for music search so would appear to duplicate AMS - unless M/S is what appears in the display when using the AMS. Hope this helps (Does this mean that the 7000 unit is now being fitted into Galaxys?)

Have you tried lowering the seat? I'm 6ft tall,like to sit upright and usually have a problem in seeing all dials and lights on car dashboards but no problem with my Jan 2001 Galaxy! - Also, try adjusting the steering wheel in - it moves fore and back as well as up and down.

Sounds worrying; diesel exhausts are much colder than petrol so the exhaust should never run red-hot. Black smoke os almost certainly unburnt diesel so it looks as though your engine is using too much fuel - metering fault? Don't know much about the injection system - is it electronic or manual? Anyone else got any ideas?

err, sorry. Do you mean you have a button marked TP as well as one marked TA? TP on the radio display means that the radio station tuned to has a travel news programme; you can then press TA so that you get all the travel announcements. What's the 2007? Does it have cassette with a remote CD-changer? TP may be something to do with CD's; sorry but I'm not into CD's!

Should be covered by 3-year warranty assuming car has been serviced to schedule. Sorry don't know what could be the cause - maybe just a loose wire somewhere...

Have you contacted Ford about this? ISTR that a few years ago, they promised to change a car if the same fault occurred 3 times. 16 repairs to an aircon system is unacceptable to me; press for a swap for a new Galaxy!

AMS is auto music search - uses the 4-second gap between tracks on cassettes to find the next track for you; TP is traffic programme on RDS radio stations - automatically raises volume and plays travel news. Don't know about the other 2 functions you mentioned, sorry. Only got 5000RDS unit in my Gal!

Not realy possible without them; you could try some old nails I suppose, but you risk causing damage with them, plus some of the "pullers" require one side of the ends of the "u"'s to be flat to locate on the radio-cassette to "grab" it so you can pull it out. The pullers should only be a few quid and are fairly universal - I use a pair that came with a Blaupunkt radio/cassette I bought in the mid 1990's.

You should just need to get the special "u" shaped pullers froma good car audio shop or maybe Halfords. Push them in until they click (should be 2 small holes each side of the radio/cassette unit fitted as standard), then pull hard and the unit should come out. Then extract the fitting surround unit carefully and replace it with the one with your new unit. You should now find standard power lead and speaker connectors so any new unit should be a 5-minute job to switch over. Good luck!

Parkers gives, for 100,00 miles old pre-facelift LX diesel: Trade

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