Ivor_E_Tower

I can do you a cat bag......

Condenser and compressor changed when car just over 2 years old, took 3 visits to main dealer who never had a courtesy car to lend me.

If you're still covered by a Ford 3-year warranty (depends when in 2001 your car was first registered), get it done by a Ford garage under that warranty - I speak from experience. I bought mine at 2 years old and one month afterwards the aircon failed catastrophically - about

If you think

Is it the standard factory-fit system or an after-market one?

The tyre sidewall bears the word "reinforced". Simple, isn't it, when you know how :lol:

From memory (when I used to work for a crash sensor company) 8g for 60 milliseconds is the minimum level at which an airbag will be triggered (not that we supplied the crash sensor for the Galaxy though).

Engine and its mounts are the same. May be a difference in soundproofing?

v6 4x4 - bit of a rare beast. The standard auto will have integrated final drive but not sure about the 4x4 layout. Which "final drive"? - you will have some sort of transfer box to split the drive front to rear, then another final drive for the front and one for the rear, so which one? Is this the "oddity" with one of the front driveshafts passing through the sump in a special tube?

Firstly - all new UK spec and UK registered Galaxys should be covered by a 3-year warranty. Imports are covered by a 2-year warranty. Check to see if you are covered by Ford's warranty first, as aircon repairs can be very expensive! Then, if it is not covered, investigate the Motor Nation warranty. I speak from experience - last year I bought a 2-year old Gal from an MPV specialist with 6 months of their warranty but used the Ford original 3 year warranty to have the aircon system almost totally replaced under warranty (about a grand's worth of parts and labour).

Not shims, but bushes - there should be some rubber between the rack and the vehicle body or subframe (not sure how it is mounted) to stop vibration. If it's covered by warranty, I wouldn't worry about it.

Hmmm, seem to remember something about people with VR6 engines being referred to VW dealers before, as Ford don't have the relevant diagnostic equipment to fully interrogate the engine/gearbox OBD stuff - therefore it won't be on the TIS CD.

So it's a really good price for such a low mileage vehicle with limited resale value! So long as you're happy with the seating arrangements, you've done more than OK.

It's all in the detail......

No personal experience but I gather it is likely to be much cheaper and you'll get a better job done. If you go ahead, please post the results!

Captains chairs - only 6 seats then? Are the latches in place in case you want to buy a seventh seat? Not much luggage space with just 6 captains chairs. (Who on earth dreamt up this IMHO daft name of captains chairs for a seat with 2 armrests? I have some lounge chairs at home with armrests and there are no captains about!)

Brokers are OK so long as you pay their supplying dealer and NOT the broker himself. If you use a "reputable" one you shouldn't have any problem but if you are using one to buy second-hand, make sure that you impose a time limit that if they haven't found you a car within x weeks, they are off the case and any deposit is returned in full to you. NB I'm a member of the CSMA and also tried to use their car-buying service last year but they too drew a blank after 2 months.

Not been looking very hard then - this has been covered loads of times. Rubbery finish needs special primer if you are going to try to paint over it yourself. Else, look at some of the chrome alternatives that can be bought as better replacements. Try a search on "handles"

The latest Espace looks odd but is nicely finished inside - the screen pillars are much thinner than those of the Shalaxy, but it is very expensive and parking sensors are not fitted to all models as standard - and front parking sensors are not available even as an optional extra. The dashboard will no doubt take some getting used to - digital speedo in the middle of the car etc. The previous generation Espaces apparently have a known problem with their diesel engines where the crankshaft thrust washer is prone to failure causing a huge bill for a replacement engine. Don't know if this has been fixed for the latest engines, but I suggest that you need very deep pockets to run an Espace! As to the Citroen C8 and its Peugeot/Fiat sisters, there are a few serious electrical glitches on those too, as witnessed in some of the motoring journals - would you like to buy a car where all the windows may open themselves when it is unattended? - and personally I think they look like converted vans, almost as bad as the Mercedes V-class.

If you only got 14,000 from your fronts, may I suggest that you check their inflation pressure?

They are not an official Ford item available to members of the public. Are you from Yorkshire? Eee, Bay-gum we couldn't possibly give you a clue where to look for one, but they do run on a home PC under XP!

Back to Murdoch's original question - I think you will find that the scuttle panels and loads of other bits "under the skin" are different and that it will be horrendously expensive, if not impossible, to facelift an older shalaxy. Would probably be cheaper to part-exchange to a newer model. If you go back to the motoring magazine articles at the time of the facelift (early 2000) you will find that they talk about extensive modifications and upgrades that made the facelifted models almost an entirely new vehicle.

Sounds like you are about to join the hordes of those with aircon problems..... These originate because of (a) a badly designed system and poor quality components. Can't do anything about (a), but with you take pot luck on the reliability and efficiency of the system in your particular car. The condenser (? thing that sits by the water radiator under the engine bay) is prone to corroding and springing a leak, and there are a few other reasons for gas to escape, some of which elude VW who designed the system. If there is little or no gas in the system, a sensor is supposed to prevent the compresor from running. Assuming you have no warranty cover for your aircon system, I would suggest starting by trying to establish of your compressor works. If it does, then get the system checked for gas and oil. If there is none left, you need to establish if there is a leak. This is best done by an aircon specialist who can put the system under vacuum and see if it stays under vacuum pr gradually rises to atmospheric. I'm sure other people with better technical knowledge of aircon systems will post more detailed info on what to do. Best of luck! Ho ho - had to edit this because letters in round brackets produced some smileys!

It's not good to run the engine at a constant speed under no load, especially when cold. This could just be a quirk of the cold idle programme, to keep the idle speed varying by a few hundred rpm. Has it always done this?

ISTR that noise was raised before (no pun intended) and that Dunlops were the quietest, Michelins the longest-lasting. All the Gals I looked at buying had 2020's on them as original equipment, and they seem to last about 20k on the front before needing changing. This depends on the type of driving - I suspect that many motorway miles will not wear them as fast as town driving - speaking from experience of previous cars where this has held true. Similarly, the comparatively lightly loaded rear tyres should last for at least twice this mileage. Don't forget that the Gal is a heavy car with a large nose weight on those front tyres! Try not to turn the steering wheel when stationary or at very low speeds!