MrT

There was a bolt or stud fitted to the roof metalwork and there was a plastic strap with embedded copper strips just like a PCB board connector from the windscreen to this stud. There were other earth wires also connected to this stud which I assume were for the lights in the roof panel, but these were not connected to the stud after the windscreen was replaced. If this was not connected your heated windscreen would not work. You should check the voltage or continuity at each end of the bulb and see if your earth or 12v supply is missing.

I had a similar problem many years ago when I had a windscreen replaced and they did not properly refit the earth tag (for the heated screen) which is mounted just above the centre of the windscreen in the roof, this can be accessed by removing the light unit in the header. There is also a relay with a timer that controls these lights but that should not affect the light not being able to turn on locally. I also have vague recollections that the door switches are dual in that they have one set of contacts for the sensor and another for the lights, but I may be totally incorrect on this one. You need to check at the lights if you have both an earth and 12V, (switched and unswitched)to the unit. You need to check if anything else is on the same fuse as the internal lights and if this has also failed, but bear in mind the fuse location in the fusebox does not always agree with the handbook, the stick-on label or marking on the on the lid of the fusebox is more likely to be accurate. Again it is a long time since I went in the fusebox so I might be confused between vehicles, but are there any fuses behind the first panel that you see in the fuse/relay box in the second or third layer panels?

Kwik Fit should be capable of topping up an air con system but I would not expect them to be able to carry out anything more than this basic task. I doubt the way they filled the system would damage it but overfilling a system could damage it if the overpressure switch fails and does not cut the system out. Most proper filling systems use both ports, using one means you can add gas but cannot accurately measure how much is already in there, a rough guess can be made from pressure. You should normally be able to get down to around 6C or 40F at the vents at full fan speed on a warm day. The exact temp would depend on external temperature, fan speed and engine speed. There is a chart somewhere on this site.

One and a half tons of gas is an awful lot!

Sounds like a dodgy kit putting out electrical noise which is interfering with the management systems.

When my condensor went it was checked several times by different garages who could not detect a leak using dye and a sniffer. It was only when the compressor went and that was being replaced that there were actually traces of dye in the top of the condensor under the plastic cap. So you could like me have a slow leak in the condensor that you just can not find. Your year is one when when the problem condensors were made.

Are you absolutely sure you have the dual climate control air conditioning? The dual climate control has roof vents in the middle row and the back row in the rear of the car whilst the single climate control has no roof vents in the rear but does have separate controls on the dash panel for both the front and rear. I ask because the two systems take a different amount of gas (750 or 1050g) and if it is filled for the wrong version the over/under pressure switch will activate and stop the compressor from engaging to prevent damage to the system. When this happens the climate control unit display will flash when you start the car. From memory I think there is also a relay between the climate control and the feed to the compressor clutch.

The problem is that on mine the sticker has both the 2=1050 and the 1=750 values as the dual con was an option on all the models at the time. On mine I painted over the incorrect value on the plate just to be safe.

The caps have to be removed to connect the equipment needed to do anything to the system. A cheat would have been to remove only the low pressure cap and test one side of the pressure and top up there but that would have been a DIY rather than a proper service. A proper service would remove both caps and connect their equipment, vacuum out the system, pressure test it and then refill with the correct amount of refridgerant and oil.

Those electrical diagrams are rubbish, nothing more than an attempt at a adjustable pulse generator and in the league of snake oil.

On this model and year they came with faulty coil packs that VW recalled world-wide but Ford should have, but did not and would not. It is normally best to replace them all (6) if they were the faulty batch as they will all start failing one after the other. There are posts on this forum around 3 years ago by me and others where the faulty part numbers were discussed so try and search on this to find if yours are in this range. The part should be freely available from Ford FINIS Code 1362718 or Part YM21-12029-AD, if you cannot get it from Ford many VW V6 and Audi use the same part and it is made by Bosch original part 022-905-100A (there may be an updated part available but a Bosch catalogue would show this)

I am led to believe that the engine compensates when the lower octane fuel is used and can run perfectly well on both even though you are supposed to use the higher octane. It feels smoother and more powerful on the higher octane but that could be just imagined rather than real. If there is about 2-3p difference per litre I buy the higher octane but sometimes I have seen "ultimate" and other brands substantially more expensive and then I just buy the cheap.

I have just checked and the plate is marked "2: 1050g +50g" for the dual air con. Remember Dual Air Con is roof vents in the rear not just temperature controls for the rear.

You say you have dual climate control which means there are vents in the roof in the rear? If you really have dual climate control you have two evaporators then 700g is way too low. The correct amount is much more than the standard system and off the top of my head is either 1050g or 1250g. Both the small (~700g) and large volumes (~1050)are printed on the plate on the top of the front panel inside the bonnet. Also if the compressor seizes due to lack of refrigerant and oil the shaft can break internally and the clutch engages and disengages and appears to be working, but you can usually tell this by the load on the engine when it engages. If the system was totally empty when you bought it you need to think where the refrigerant went, it can only have leaked out.

If you get the Ford Galaxy bike rack you do not need a light board as the bikes are above the lights and they can be seen. It holds three bikes.

The point is the passenger side airbag does affect the driver as it is (at least in mine) installed in the side of the seat back adjacent to the door pillar. When the seat is rotated the air bag is now in the side of the seat back against the driver.

Wouldn't it be easier to just put the back of the seat flat then you get the front footwell as well for extra length?

The swivel seats are very different and a conversion would be probably more expensive than a replacement. Whilst they sound a good idea the seats are actually very difficult to turn around (especially captains chairs) and you cannot do this from inside the car. You need to move the seats back and forward and have the back at the right angle before you can turn. You also must be very careful about driving with the passenger seat turned around as it has the side air bag in it (some models) and this would then be against the driver and could cause an injury if it went off. If the seat is also height adjustable (some models) when trying to turn the drivers seat and you move the wrong lever (they do look the same) the seat jumps up as there is no load on it and hits you in the face with quite a whack, it happened to me to my families amusement.

There should be a slot about 25mm x 7mm on the rear side of the door (the bit you cannot see when the door is shut) near the lock mechanism with a little black plastic piece with a slot in it. This plastic can slide between two positions to enable or disable the child lock

Not sure on your model but there is an air temperature sensor either integral or nearby and if this has failed, it could mess up the readings.

I vaugely remember when getting my early MK2 that I could not get some other style Ford wheels as an option as the 2.8 Ghia had uprated brakes and the wheels I wanted could not be used with them. They may now be using the "uprated" brakes on all models.

When my coil pack started playing up I had engine misfire faults recorded which I read by VAG-COM. There were a load of faulty coil packs around the time yours was made but the replacements should be fine. One thing to check is the wiring harness to the coil pack, garages have a habit of damaging the retaining lugs on the plug when the forcibly remove the plug from the coil pack. As to the MAF, I bought a cheap aftermarket MAF and it caused nothing but problems, buy a discounted BOSCH and not a BOSCH equivalent. (Some aftermarkets even have the BOSCH part number moulded onto them).

The TMC (traffic) data is transmitted inband (FM) by various radio stations such as Classic FM. The TMC receiver unit has a wire aerial that normally runs up the inside of the windscreen but in the Galaxy due to the heated screen you can only do this right next to the A pillar which severely reduces the signal. An external FM aerial could be used but I do not want to do this, so another option is to use the existing fitted aerial split to feed both the car radio unit and also the TMC unit which is in effect another radio receiver with a data extraction facility. However a splitter such as in the picture may not work as the Galaxy has a power amplifier somewhere in the vehicle which I suspect is fed by 12V through the aerial coax. (Also the splitter shown has the wrong connectors for the Galaxy).

Basically I want to add one of these to the aerial system so the aerial feeds the standard car radio and a separate SatNav aerial input but I believe there are issues with the powered aerial. http://www.nexxia.co.uk/Car_Stereo_fitting_kits/images/PC5-105.jpg

One of the ways to improve TMC information for SatNav is to insert a splitter into the aerial feed to the radio and connect it up. However I have read that the Mk2 Galaxy has a powered aerial system and I do not know how this is configured so I do not know where to insert the splitter and where there is power on the aerial feed. I assume that somewhere between the radio and the aerial in the window there is a booster amplifier that is fed by a 12v supply? Is this supply on the coax connection from the radio so inserting a splitter would either short the 12V out or open circuit it? If so could the splitter be put between the booster and the window aerial or is the 12V here as well? Where is the signal booster located? Has anyone split the feed in a Gal?