Ivor_E_Tower

I've read before that vaseline can be used as a substitute. Any opinions?

If you've lost compression on 2 cylinders, may be cheaper to have all 4 cylinders renewed with appropriate piston rings fitted to compensate for wear. If this is all that's wrong, it should be cheaper than a recon engine. Do you have accress to a good garage that you can trust to do the work at a reasonable hourly charge? Good luck. Ivor

I too have to leave the diesel nozzle a few inches from fully inserted. Have you tried using the dedicated truck diesel pumps eg on motorway services? Makes for a realy quick fill-up!

Yes please - it sounds a fascinating set-up. (Wish I could afford one...)

..except that he said "Will let you know how it goes..." implying that it's nearly due. Is this true, Iain, and if so, in which roads are you ploughing two furrows?

Better to try your locking nuts at home before they seize up! Made sure I could undo all mine on the first week-end after buying the car. I also have a wheelnut spider in the car at all times - kept behind the panel where the jack is. I work on the basis "better safe than sorry" (or should that be "be prepared"?)

(gulp) he's done 10,000 miles since 1st September - that's over 1,000 per week.

I think you will find that Ford UK are not really interested. All they want to do is make and/or sell as many cars as possible at a profit. They don't own the dealerships and cannot easily exert pressure on them to get their acts together. I think also that Ford are more concerned with "company car" sales to worry about us private motorists, some of whom will never buy another Ford again purely based upon the attitudes and competence of the dealers.

New shape used Galaxys are all rare! I spent about 4 months looking for my 2-year old example (from Jan to start of May this year) and ended up going to an MPV specialist as the Ford dealers and their "chain" owners had none in group stock. Try www.mpvs.co.uk and www.galaxyworld.co.uk

....and another gem pinned to the wall of our local VW servicing dept: If the keys are in the car, make sure you are! Obviously prompted by cases of cars locking themselves with the keys inside, with nobody in the car. (Want to hear the story of the motorway services car park that was informally evacuated?)

Is your air ricirculation flap sticking so that no fresh air is getting into the car? Try leaving the engine off, turning key to position II and operating the recirc button. If no noise, it's almost certainly stuck (and probably in the recirc position too).

Yes it does. But... I have it on good authority that VW power outputs are on the "conservative" side, so a 113BHP probably gives at least 115BHP etc etc.

Is your coolant getting hot (can you get warm air from the vents)? If so, it is probably the temp sensor screwed into the engine that's faulty. If you don't get any heat from the vents, then it is almost certainly the thermostat that's gone.

If you have climate control (CC), to change display on the CC unit, press and hold 2 buttons together - from memory econ and the one below it. If you mean the display on the dashboard - sorry don't have anything to hand for that one :-((

Well done, glad you got it sorted.

Time to start a separate thread on "what would you like imported from Germany?" where those after a "new-used" Gal could post wants, and those in the Forces could post details of their forthcoming vehicles for sale. Any thoughts, Kevin ? (or could this be interpreted as a plot do do the exchequer out of revenue?)

Thanks, I thought that the elements were likely to be in the middle section as this would be the easiest (least difficult?) method of construction. Do you (or anyone else) know if Pilkington are the only glass co to make the heated front screens?

Yes - laminated screen is usually 2 layers of glass with a plastic interlayer. I was trying to find out if anyone know where the wires were - closer to the outside of the vehicle, in the middle, or closer to the inside. They must be fiendishly difficult to make!

Where are they then? Embedded in the inner or outer glass layer, or in the interlayer? I don't know if my heated front screen works yet (and I don't particularly want a frost so that I can try it out either!)

Looks like someone forgot to reset the service interval calculator when the service was done. Display should show mileage to next service, nOT what type of service. You may find in another 1000 miles it changes to in01 - although you may have got the display reset by then!

Cruise control on mine works as low as 20mph in 4th; I work on a large site (old airfield) and we have a 20mph site speed limit. Don't know if it works off the speedo/speed transducer or engine rpm.

ref Steven Tunnicliffe's posting on dashboard/instrument panels and an unresolved technical problem, fingers crossed that this may also be the cause of nonworking cruise control lamps...... Whether or not I'd risk letting the dealer loose to change the panel if there is a recall, just to get the light working, is another matter! edited to correct typo's!

Might this instrument panel problem also be the cause of the non-working cruise control lamp on many of our cars (see separate thread)?

Climate control panel flashing means that there is a fault :-(( Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Hissing from airvent may be something to do with the fault. Now you need someone with diagnostic equipment to plug in and find the fault being reported. (surely not a dealer?)

Be careful - on some versions, this resets the service interval calculating bit of the computer (if fitted).