MrT

You mean you have seen the advert where the galaxy runs away down the hill with the dog called Lucky and fortunately ends up in the owners garage!

Some points on the TomTom2 in the car. Whilst its fuse is 2A, is does not draw anything like that. GPS receivers can only see within line of sight so if your GPS receiver is on/in the dash you have a large area of sky shielded by your roof. I have also found that the GPS signal is affected by the heated front screen. I have installed an external re-radiating attenna which has given a much better signal on my TomTom BT receiver. With a re-radiating antenna you can put the unit anywhere you like and get a good GPS signal. I took my power supply from the wiring to the cigarette lighter and used a scotchloc connector to join the wires on. You can get easy access to the cables buy sliding the radio out. Make sure that you use the cable with the square connector to the cradle when hard wiring in to 12V. The TomTom cigarette plug has a 12-5V to regulator built in so that it provides 5V to the TomTom unit, if you cut this adapter cable and hard wire it, you will put 12V into the 5V TomTom. Another minor point to note is that when you remove the TomTom unit from the hard wired cradle, it always powers off. I have also heard that the TomTom BT unit can fail if overcharged, (www.pocketgps.co.uk) but I have never experienced this.

A full galaxy with the climate control turned off or even on econony in cold wet conditions mists up very very quickly. It surprised me how quickly (seconds) this happened.

Exactly what my handbook says. I would expect that the engine management would detect any "knocking" as a result of using lower octane fuel and adjust the timing and injection accordingly. However I have not been able to notice any difference in performance or economy by using different fuels and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed any. With my cynical outlook it would not surprise me if the same fuel came of the the two different pumps at the filling station.

I find the biggest problem with the filling issue is that you get used to it clicking off so you just press the pump trigger again. When you do this with a real full tank it blows fuel back at you.

Some other minor points to be aware of: If you have climate control and switch the demist on, this will also turn the front windsreen on. There is a timer that turns the heated screen off after x minutes. On very cold mornings, the screen will turn itself on when you start the car. I think this happens at 2C or below.

Two issues to check. The first is that the screen will only work when the engine is actually running, it will not work with the igntion turned on and the engine not running. If you turn the windscreen on you should notice a slight drop in rpm as it loads the engine. The screen gets noticeably warm to the hand in cold weather. The positive connectors to the windscreen (there are two sets of elements) are just below the dashboard and you can access them at each side by lifting the tiny panels with the air vents in for those triangular quarter lights at either side of the dash. Just feel around in the hole and you will find a thick red cable with an in-line spade connector and clip on cover. The earth to the screen is a plastic strip with copper strips inside it, like attachments to a pcb board. This is connected to the body of the car at the middle top of the windscreen behind the courtesy light and will usually require you to remove or loosen the head lining if you need to undo it. This strip will become hot to the touch so be careful. When I had a replacement screen fitted, Autoglass had sheared off the earthing bolt and glued the earth with mastic to the body. I had to make a new earthing point with a self tapper and washer. If you have had a replacement screen fitted this could be the problem.

Has anyone any noticeable experience of using different petrol octance rating and performance? My Galaxy handbook recommends using super unleaded as compared to ordinary unleaded for the best performance and economy. I have used both and to be honest I cannot notice any difference in performance or economy, except it costs more to fill the tank with super unleaded.

I looked at an 03 Galaxy today and noticed that it had perfectly straight wiper arms. Mine have a offset "Z" in them so that the wiper blade is parallel and and around an inch above the rest of the wiper arm? Which sort do you have? I really would like to get better wipers added to my car.

I have a six seater and the two middle row seats mounting points are moved in slightly from the doors as compared to the 7 seater. There are not mounting points for three middle row seats unless they are holes hidden under the carpets. My previous model was 7 seater and one of the reasons I went for the six seater was that I thought that the lap only belt on the middle seat was next to useless. Have a ride in a friends new model and see they now have full belts for the middle seat, oh well. On the back row of seats in the six seater the left seat only has a centre armrest as there is not room for a left arm rest as the new Air Conditioning unit takes up too much space. I also found that with seven seats and an adult in the middle, it really blocked your rear view in the mirror.

Any ideas why the new passenger wiper blade is shorter? Are the arms longer on the newer models? Does this leave a noticeably larger unwiped area at the top in front of the passenger? I was considering leaving the long bent one on the passenger side and the new long straight one on the drivers.

Can you explain what you mean by increasing the sweep and how this is done? I can see how you can move the drivers wiper arm one groove anti-clockwise on the spline so it moves closer to the pillar, but then it parks above the shelter of the plastic surround and bonnet and causes more wind noise at high speed. My Galaxy is late 2001 but is has come with (or has had replaced) two bowed 700mm blades. I bought the Halfords straight blades and oddly one is 700mm and the other is 650mm. Is the shorter blade for the passenger side and does this sweep a smaller area than the long blade. Why is it shorter? Also the curved passenger blade fits nicely into the curve of the plastic tray when it parks, the new straight one does not. A WORD OF WARNING TO ALL. IF YOU LET THE HEAVY WIPER ARM ON A GALAXY SPRING BACK ONTO THE GLASS WITHOUT A RUBBER BLADE, IT WILL CRACK YOUR WINDSCREEN. I HAVE SEEN THIS HAPPEN ON A 1997 MODEL.

On mine there is some cooling fan on electrical equipment that runs for a while after the ignition has been turned on. Not sure where it is, but the sound is just like a PC-laptop fan.

Why not try VAG-COM and see if it works? The limited shareware version is free and it works on my 2001 2.8 Galaxy.

What the hell, I just ran the test and there were no problems.

VAG-COM warns that certain VW cars have a problem in that if their Air bag contoller is scan by an ODB tool, it will ruin the air bag controller. (http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/vw_issues.html#Airbags). Does anyone know if the issue affects Galaxies of the same vintage as they are built by Volkswagen? I suppose the ony sure way to check is by removing the centre console and ac/radio surround to read the label on the air bag controller which is a lot of work. Unless anyone knows of a shortcut to reading the label on the air bag controller.

I have found the only use for the roof bars is for holding on to when polishing the roof. I personally would rather they had not been fitted as they make extra wind noise when driving at high speed.

I don't know on your particular model, but it certainly does exist. On mine if one wheel starts slipping, the brake is applied to it and there is the characteristic banging of the ABS as it tries to stop the wheelspin. There is also the EPS system that cuts in (seems to cut power) if you wheelspin whilst turning.

Does the facelifted Galaxy, 2.8i Ghia Auto (204bhp) mid 2001, have the same ECU as the Sharan? Is it running PWM or ISO protocol? The only thing I can glean from the car is that it has a purple 16 pin connector under the fusebox on the RHS of the column. Has anyone used VAG-COM on a Galaxy and did they select the Sharan or Alhambra as type? I have been told that VAG-COM only works on VW derivative engines but not Ford and that Galaxies can have either, how do I know which derivitave I have?

Can the VAGCOM software read from the recent Galaxy? I see it supports the Alhambra and Sharon but no mention is made of the Galaxy.

When is a mod considered a mod by insurance? Is fitting a phone car kit a mod? Is a GPS speed trap detector a mod? Is an IPAQ mounting kit a mod?

I am very curious as to what these wind deflectors do and why people fit them. I assume that they are so you drive with the windows open, but why do people want to do that? I would have thought that you would just have more noise and it would negate the use of the climate control?

It is illegal to drive with fogs on in the UK unless the visibility is less than 100m. (Reference Law RVLR reg 27). It is amazing how many people don't know this and use them in other conditions.

Interesting, I asked because the handbook referred to fuses and was going to look as my front heated windscreen had failed and was listed as having a 50A multifunction fuse on level3. This was not the problem in the end. Where did you get the above quote from, more of this sort of information would be interesting?

Found out the cabling. The two live cables are beneath the panels at either side of the dashboard with the vents that clear the small triangular glass. At the top centre of the windscreen is a plastic strip with many copper wires in (like a PCB cable) that is bolted to an earthing point underneath the bump where the roof clock was in the older models. My problem was caused by the total incompetence of Autoglass. They had sheared off the earthing bolt so they "earthed" the screen lead by sticking it to the roof beam with black sticky mastic, a well known electrical conductor. I had to remove the roof lining at the front to get into the space to drill and fit a self tapping screw and washer to earth the strip. This strip gets rather hot in use, but all works again.