Ivor_E_Tower

On facelifted Galaxys, 115 is all silver letters on red backing, and the 130 is all red letters. There are still some facelifted LX's with 90PS engines; don't know what colour their lettering is but suspect that it's the same as the 115. Sharans are a different story, especially the pre-facelifted versions. There seems to be a mix of red "I", red "DI" and all-red "TDI".

Air conditioning can run hot and cold; aircon dries (de-humidifies) the air hence stopping the windows from misting up, then heats or cools it to the temperature you want. Aircon DOESN'T MEAN COLD AIR! For best results, and continued lubrication of the seals in the aircon system, leave it on all year round. Only switch it off when the outside air temp is just above freezing (typically 1 degree C) or below.

I concur. My old Rover 820 used to take an age to give warm air and for the temp gauge to move. My parents' 1974 Volvo estate gave warm air and had temp gauge on "normal" after just a couple of miles! - evaluated on the same stretch or road and similar traffic conditions.

Agreed - it is the radio aerial, and the Galaxy is certainly not alone in using this type of aerial. There are now laods of cars, especially estates and MPVs that use this method. Gives the vandals one less reason to target the car too.

The "problem": Auxiliary heater to warm the cabin and coolant when ambient temperature is low. There is a degree (no pun intended) of tolerance on when it cuts in, but depends on the external air temperature and the engine coolant temperature. When the weather is warm, the heater does not cut in, even if the coolant is cold, hence no smoke problems in summer. When the heater should run, what happens (with mine, at any rate) is that there is a whisp of white smoke just after the engine starts, which is the aux heater starting up. There should be no smoke after it has caught (just a second or two) but I think that the heater has 2 or 3 goes to get running if it doesn't fire up first time. The heater switches itself off when the coolant gets hot but on short runs, as has been said, you hear the jet engine immitation when you stop and get out of the car. This is nothing to worry about. What is worrying is if you are getting white smoke as you are driving. I suspect that this means that excessive fuel is being burnt but quite how this can be sorted without consulting a garage I do not know. I haven't looked but the TIS CD may offer suggestions. (See ebay for TIS CD - also you could search this site for more on the aux heater).

Time to get the TIS CD out I fear. Listening to my Gal, I have a feeling that the air control defaults to recirculate, and only "opens" to outside air after a minute or so from starting up. If you get interior misting, I think that it must almost certainly be due to the flap sticking in the default recirc position. If this is the case, and you can find it after dashboard dismantling or whatever, then either the actuator will need replacing, or you wedge the flap in the non-recirc position - which is something you could try first, just to see if the misting stops.

Nope, yours aint wrong. They keep having changes of opinion at the factory. My Jan 2001-reg Gal has the drivers-side wiper on top but I know that some later ones have the passenger one on top. I think that trial and error is called for - try moving them around and see if you can get an improvement. The one on top should definitely get about 2 inches closer to the corresponding "A" pillar.

..but UK is region 2, so your discs should play shouldn't they? Is the system faulty? Did the dealer demonstrate it working?

Rubberised paint flaking off internal door pulls of face-lifted models is supposed to be a known problem and should be covered by warranty.

...and I'm pleasantly surprised to see how reasonable the genuine Ford replacements are. Hopefully, however, I will never need to buy one (fingers crossed...)

Welcome to the forum. You will have to get used to the strange noises! There are a fair sprinkling of them in the Galaxy and its "sisters" (Sharan and Alhambra).

Buy a stick-on replacement from a motor factors or Halfrauds; quicker and should be cheaper than dismantling the mirror to remove the old glass, especially if most of it is still there but just cracked.

I did my bit for high scores except for dealer service and aircon reliability. What I find very puzzling is that for Galaxy, Alhambra and Sharan, only 2 stars out of 5 were voted for practicality/comfort. Now, nobody seems to complain about comfort, so why do almost all owners in the survey think that their MPV is impractical??? Me - I can't think of a more practical vehicle. 5, 6 or 7 people on board, loads of plants/paving slabs etc from garden centre/DIY places, a bicycle or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 without removing their wheels, loads of garden refuse. (OK, not all the above at the same time, but....)

I'm sure SA Intruder will correct me if I'm wrong, but... Government fuel figures are produced using a rolling road in a laboratory and do not take drag into account. Hence, basically no car will achieve the constant speed figures quoted. The larger the car's frontal area, the worse the disparity - so MPV's will struggle to get within several mpg of the government figures for steady-speed fuel consumption. Low 40's mpg at 70mph for 6-speed diesels is the norm, but depends on number of hills encountered and whether you had to go up or down them, plus a few other things will affect consumtion too, like headwind, buffeting from HGV's.

Plastic light protectors don't appear in the Galaxy accessory brochure - are yours genuine Ford ones? If so, I wonder what other accessories Ford make that they don't show in the accessory brochure (eg I'm still after a split dog guard to allow 6 seats plus pet).

I didn't think that the doors had changed; would have thought that wind deflectors that fit the Mark I would also fit the Mark II.

The Ghia has fabric mats that appear to be made from the same material as the carpet. They are held in place by pushing plastic rings over pegs in the normal floor carpet. All three rows fature these mats - the front "row" has separate left and right mats. I have nevertheless invested in a set of Cannon rubber/velour mats for the front and middle rows, plus used the remains of an old set of mats for the third row and boot, also to cover up the gap in the middle row between the 2 rubber mats as the interior os soooo wide.

Take as much trim off as you can, then put the car though a nice automatic car wash in bright daylight and keep watching very closely. This should soon enable you to find the source of the leak. If the carpet stays dry, then the water is coming in from underneath somewhere. You could try sitting in the car and getting someone to point a hosepipe in strategic places if you don't fancy the carwash option.

I'd agree with Johnb80 here, assuming you know that the rest of your engine is OK it's better to get it refurbished.

You can get a digital clock display on the radio via the RDS Clock Time function. Trouble is, it reverts to radio/CD/Tape info after a few seconds. If you could find a way of stopping this, you would have your solution!

Time to try the scrapyards in person or via the internet. Hope you get a cheap fix soon. Had a similar problem on my old Rover 820; little consolation to be told that had it been 18 months newer, Rover redesigned the mechanism and the parts would have been about

Reminds me of a bloke where I used to work - he bought a second-hand Clio 16V which seemed extremely rapid. He had a few problems with the way it was running and took it to his local dealer. He suggested that if it were chipped, it may sort out his problems. They then tested it and found that the previous owner had already done this, but obviously not told anyone when he sold (or insured?) it! This was the reason that it seemed so rapid when it was running properly..........

It's probably aging too quickly - annual service after 5 months!!! Hav you driven another V6? Is it a characteristic of the engine management system?

Sounds like a loose connection or blown fuse (or both). Probably straightforward, but sometimes it can take ages to track down the fault. Good luck. Oh, and welcome to the forum. Ivor

New Gals will eself-lock if left unlocked for about 30 seconds with no door being opened; it is sometimes very frustrating! It is a wise precaution with any car that gas central locking never to leave the keys inside the car if nobody is inside; my local VW dealer has a big sign in his workshop: "If the keys are in the car, make sure you are". A few years back, when I worked in Swindon, one of our employees fom our scottish office flew to Heathrow and stoped overnight at the travellodge or equivalent on the nearby M4 services. In the morning he tarted his hire-car and left the engine running whilst he scraped the ice off the windows. Whilst he was doing this, the central locking self-activated and he could not stop the engine or get into the car - even tried putting his shoe over the exhaust pipe to stall the engine. Breakdown service was called, they couldn't get into the car and ended up dragging it into the middle of the m'way services car park whilst they waited for their senior technician to arrive - this was because the under-bonnet area was getting VERY hot. Eventually the correct technical help arrived, the car was opened and the engine stopped. On opening the bonnet, the fuel line was in the process of melting! The breakdown person(s) on the scene told my former colleague that this was not an isolated incident, and that you should never leave a car with central locking unattended with the engine running. Be warned!