Ivor_E_Tower

It's something to do with the design of spool valves fitted in the racks, and their flow rate when in "maximum displacement" position, and the speed at which the pump can circulate the fluid through all the pipework (including valves). NB if you stall the car on full lock, there is a sharp "tug" through the steering wheel as the fluid pressure in the rack suddenly drops, which could bruise your thumb/finger(s) depending on how you are holding the wheel. Be warned!

Don't know location of switches - hopefully Nimrod or someone else will provide details, but it is amateur do-able with no need to drain the oil, and you shouldn't loose any oin when you change the switches - but have a rag standing by to collect any slight dribbles just in case. Once you've found the switches, it should take a couple of minutes to do each one.

There is a series of known "concerns" with the auto box. One is that unless the car is absolutely stationary when you engage reverse, then you cannot rev the engine - sounds like your problem. Make sure the car is at rest with footbrake applied before you change from "D" to "R". If problem persists, you have ... Second known fault - engine will not rev when car is in reverse. Reason unknown to me, and I don't think that Ford know why either. May be worth contacting a VW garage, as the diesel and auto box are sourced by Ford from VW (box apparently comes from Japanese manufacturer). There are other concerns with the box, some involve expensive rebuilds and/or replacement of the entire box. Hope you still have a valid warranty.

Been covered before. Supposedly much better if factory-fit HID type. After-market expensive blue-tinted bulb option is a no-no.

Rayman - you're wrong, I was wearing an anorak when I took the pictures. Taliska - no offence taken, I can josh with the best. Photos only took a few minutes after walking my elder daughter to a friend's house on Saturday morning. Followed by some serious shopping including risking buying a freeview receiver even though we live in a "marginal" signal area. Great frustration Saturday evening trying to get it to work as it's to feed a PC running a TV card with no SCART sockets yet all freeview sets are designed to work via SCART. Use of video recorder with 3xRCA sockets and "trick" SCART lead required and finally got it going at about 11:00pm with all free channels received. So no Monday morning quote at work of "I measured my mudflaps this week-end"!!! I'm now waiting to have a free toy fitted to the car - a Satnav-powered guidance system (no display unfortunately) courtesy of Haymarket Publishing.

If you really mean on maximum lock only, both directions, this should be nothing to worry about - try not to keep the wheel hard over against the lock stops, though, as this is not supposed to help the life of the system.

..so just change the switch, should be about a tenner. As Stirling Moss once said, the only thing an oil pressure light tells you is when to buy a new engine (assuming it is working correclty, that is).

The Honda I traded in for the Galaxy had front and rear flaps too - front as factory-fit, rears fitted by me on the day the car was bought new in 1985. Rears fitted into plastic rear bumper and via a plastic stand-off thingy, part of the inner rear wing. No rust when car sold at just under 18 years old. Fronts fitted to front wings, and nearside was also rust-free wehn I sold it. Offside front wing had just started to bubble on the surface around the attachment point. Not bad for 18 years! Second car in the family, a 1998 Scenic, has genuine Renault rear flaps that I fitted. These are a hollow design with drain hole at the bottom. They fill with mud, silt and other cr*p off the road. Very badly designed.

Glad to see you back in action!

I stalled my TDI 115 a few times when I first had it last year, but never had the flashing light problem.

When you cleared the message it should have defaulted back to trip mode. If it hasn't, either it is broken or are you sure that the knob is not stuck "in"? Try resetting it again - hold it in before inserting your ignition key, keep it pressed in whilst you turn the key to "ignition" position (dash warning lights on) then hold it for about 5 seconds, release the button and the trip function should be working again. Good luck.

I've had a good look and I'm pretty sure that the front mudflaps aren't fitted to the bumper. Not quite sure what gave Seatkid that idea

I didn't attach any of the flaps, they were already on the car when I bought it. Don't tell me that my front springs are on back-to-front. I feel membership of the DGO coming on.......

Agreed- you need somebody like "Chips away" to come round and do a local repair. It may seem expensive, but if you take it into a body shop you'll get a very nasty shock at the cost of even small repairs.

Don't know about the lights. Good luck with the filler though. only had to do a couple of filler patches when a student, and I have immense regard for the "panel beaters". There is definitely an art to getting it smooth and with the right contours!

Just noticed that you are describing your Alhambra as the SE spec - this comes with the sports suspension as standard, which the Galaxy doesn't have (maybe on the Ghia 2.8's only, not sure). This will probably explain the 2.5 inch difference - but that does seem a lot for a sports set-up. I know that the ride is firmer with the sports pack, one of the reasons that I preferred a Galaxy to the Alhambra. Maybe worth measuring the settings on an Alhambra S and SE to find the SEAT difference?

Dumpie - sounds like you've got the same interior mirror modification as I've got. Let us know how the ride and handling feel, compared to the standard set-up after you've done a few hundred miles please.

His work is too good for Haynes - how dare you suggest that!!!

Exactly.....I have the sloping driveway to slow the car down, but the mirrors need folding in otherwise they'll hit the doorframe, and there's a workbench against the back wall too. Oh, and we have a cat not a dog and he's not called Lucky and there's no paper shop nearby. Other than that, exactly!

Mine are set a little low if anything - I have to rely on the water striking the wipers and splattering over the glass to wet the top part of the screen, but I had come to the conclusion that they were not adjustable after attempting to do something with them.

And finally - the flash bleached out the marks on the tape here, but it's just under 5 inches to the body of the tape, plus the 60mm These of course are the genuine Ford mudflaps, and I don't know if they are identical to the VW/Seat ones.

..and now the front:

Tyre to underside of wheel arch - rear

Approx 23"from top of flap to ground. Orange tape body is marked as +60mm or about 2 3/8 inches. Bold red mark is 1 foot.

Well, the tape measure graduations aren't too clear on these condensed jpeg's but they look magnificent on full-screen blow-ups: