Ivor_E_Tower

3-point belt retracts into the roof when not in use - held by magnets. It has 2 buckles on it, one to fit into each side of the middle seat (and obviously, the upper mount is in the roof, on one of the crossbars that form part of the body structure)

AFAIK the level of assistance isn't an MOT requirement and I think you have been "done" unfairly. Any MOT tester like to comment?

The headrests changed around Feb 2001. When I bought my X-reg Gal, the garage also had a Y-reg one which had done slightly more miles. That one had the headrests with holes in them ,and the three-point centre belt on the middle seat whereas mine just has a lapstrap. I bought lower mileage, plus it was silver and the other one was black; wife and kids didn't like black - looked too much like a van with the dark tinted windows

I wear ESD conductive shoes for work and never get a static shock problem when getting in or out of the car - any car ;-)

Xenons - lever behind the lamp units. Halogen - you need the stick-on thingies. Buy a set with the magnetic GB sticker from Halfords or Tesco for about

Auto transimssion will be available as an option, later on this year apparently. Not yet heard if it will be offered with the diesel engine

Quote: The guy who bought my car had them acid dipped and re-sprayed / lacquored at

PArt of the problem is that the 5-spoke Ghia wheels are "diamond cut" machined smooth. They are not painted and (believe it or not) they have a smooth finish which means that the lacquer finds it difficult to adhere to the metal. This also means that the mobile wheel refurbishers cannot do anything to restore them since they need to be taken to a machine shop to be re-finished. Painted or rough-finished alloys will look better, with less chance of peeling varnish...plus they can be locally refurbished whilst still on the car. Not sure how feasible it is to have the 5-spoked ones painted

The problem with all these electronics is that they seem to be a requirement to meet legislation. All good when everything is working OK, but unlike simple mechanical systems, they can go wrong in so many ways, and fault finding can be a real pain in the butt.

It's a lot easier with the wheel/tyre removed. If not - turn the wheel to full lock the opposite way to the bulb that has failed - eg if nearside bulb has failed, apply full offside lock. Thios gives you more room to get to the sliding cover in the wheelarch. A tip form personal experience (I ruined a jacket doing this) - your arm will get covered in dirt from the wheel/tyre, so cover your arm up with, for instance, a large dustbin liner bag that you open at both ends...and you need thin flexible fingers that can also apply a lot of pressure at their tips to undo the bulb holders. Good luck ...or you could remove the whole lamp cluster from the car which makes it dead easy to change the bulb...

..if you don't mind spending a bit of time, buy a rubber-backed bathroom carpet off a roll and trim it yourself to fit the car. Being designed for use in bathrooms, it doesn't rot easily when damp and it tends to last a long time. I did this when I had my Honda- lasted 19 years with no trouble and the original carpets were immaculate, as good as the day when the car was brand new. I did the same to the Scenic when I bought that but so far have resisted doing it with the Gal - I find that good quality rubber mats are OK as my kids are bigger and tend to realise that they should keep their dirty footwear off the small areas of unprotected carpet

Blade life depends on many things, like mileage, use, how long you left them frozen in the winter, how well they melted in the summer heat .... Mine are about 30 months old - I bought them as genuine Bosch replacements (curved type). FWIW for the rear, use the cheap

I'm still waiting for someone from Wiltshire's to call me to say that they have a 130 Alhambra TDI for a demo drive (one year on....) Too late, I fear

You only need to suppress something(s) if you are getting a loud crackling noise on the radio (through the speakers, of course). If this is the case, first step is to see if the noise frequency is related to engine speed. So rev the engine and see if the noise adjusts in "sympathy"

Looking at M-o-4's latest avatar- how are you going to get 4 kids in a Veyron? Strapping them down to the engine cover would be a bit cruel

IIRC the mirrors on Mk I and Mk II Galaxys are the same, but they are different on Sharans and Alhambras.

If you have side airbags, your seats will have the arrowed panel on them with the word (airbag" (Yes, I got round to taking the photos and you will also see the

If you have side airbags, there will be a plastic "lump" on the outboard side-facing edge of each front seat with word "airbag" or "SRS" on it - cannot remember which. This is the easiest way of telling if your car has side airbags. Will take some photos later and try to post them - have just finished polishing my Gal, just the black bits to clean up now

Changed it yet? On some makes, eg Honeywell, the electrics and the mechanical parts can be separated. Usually it is the electrical part that fails, so you can buy a new "box" and change it without having to touch the water part of the connections. Personally, if you do need to change the "wet" bits, I would drain the system down rather than trying to reeze it.

In the last 2 weeks, my drop link bushes have worn so much that now they sometimes knock when changing gear as well as when pulling away from rest. Really must get it booked in to be sorted.

So, did you meet up anywhere?

July's "What car" mag has a reasonable write-up on the new Galaxy and S-Max

The middle row seats are the same, but the Galaxy has different third-row seats. They are mounted higher up on different brackets and slide a little, forwards and back whereas the third-row seats in the S-Max are apparently fixed with no adjustment fore-aft or up-down. HTH Now, anyone know if the Galaxy gets a proper spare wheel and tyre, as the post on the S-Max states that it gets a can of sealant?

Spanner/socket sizes as per Tiny above - unfortunately I cannot undo mine (could not get enough leverage to shift the old nuts) so I will have to book it into the local garage to do the work :-(