Andrew T

Your tailgate already does this when you turn the ignition on, so some of the technology must be there. I presume you would need an inertia switch or something similar to unlock in event of an accident ?

National Tyres are doing half price MOTs with this voucher

Brink Dealers. Price quoted was

What a clever idea. I need to fit a plug for a lighting board for the bikes and I really can't be bothered with chopping into the wiring and fitting those horrible scotchlock things.

As long as you can get about 4 inches of cable out, the wheel can be removed as follows; Sit on the road with your chest to the bumper and legs underneath. Use your knees to push the wheel up and take the weight off the cable. Now undo the cable fastener with your hands. N.B. If you've never undone it before you won't have much chance of doing it now. Best trousers/wet road/children crying in the car/9pm on a sunday night are all optional ingredients but add spice to the process. Enjoy.

During my recent fun and games with the alternator I noticed that when the battery was reconnected, on the first turn of the ignition switch the traction control light came on. I didn't come on again so I presume it was part of the ECU relearning its parameters, i.e. looking for the traction control and finding it wasn't fitted and not bothering again. Or do I have a TC and it's not working ? Perhaps it's something else you can enable ?

How do you connect it up then ? Is there a prewired connector ?

Thanks Guys. The bulb comes on at start OK. I think the reason it didn't come on with the fault is that the Alternator was completely disconnected. A colleague who has a garage full of crusty old MGs and is therefore an expert on electrical failures (his words) has looked at it and come up with the same theory of a longstanding bad connection.

Panic phone call from MrsT yesterday afternoon to say that the Galaxy had died while she was on her way to the school. Luckily it did it on the only straight bit of road for miles around and someone from the village stopped within moments to give her a lift. Splendid fellow that she is, she had already diagnosed electrical failure, so I went to retrieve it armed with a charged up Battery. Battery on the Gal was at 11.4V so no wonder it was dead. Fitted another battery, showed 12.6V static, 11.8 with the engine running. Drove it home, NO alternator warning light on, although it came on and went off at start up as normal. Started to check the wiring and noticed the dash display now said "ALTERNATOR WORKSHOP". Traced the main wire from the alt' to a junction box type thing mounted up in front of the battery adjacent to the washer bottle neck. The top of this was melted slightly, inside there was a lot of charring and white oxide dust suggesting a long standing problem. Anyway the Alt' terminal was broken off so there was the problem. Made a new connection and it and measured 14.5V. Drove the 20 odd miles to work this morning and it was fine. I've ordered a new unit from Fraud

I won't prentend to be any sort of expert on such things, but would the ECU have to replaced or reprogrammed as well ? e.g for the kickdown function .

Reading all this reminded me of a R*nault Laguna a friend bought a few years ago, which had been imported from Germany in such in such circumstances. When it went for its first MOT it failed because the headlights dipped the to wrong side. Something else to check for?

I know someone who has bought cars both in the UK and Europe under the Forces scheme, so what the dealer tells you is true. Bear in mind that if it was bought in Europe the Ghia Spec can be lower than in the UK. The invoice for ours, which was bought in Belgium, has several items of UK Ghia spec shown as extra cost options e.g. the cruise control and electric rear quarter windows. Are you sure this one is fully specced with parking sonar etc ?

How much advantage you will gain from a diesel will depend to a large extent on how you use your car. Frequent cold starts, short journeys and stop-start driving will show a diesel to its best advantage. Long journeys at steady speeds will show the least advantage.

No dimensions to hand, but it is full with 3 spectacle cases in it. Big enough for a palmtop maybe ?

I would say that if snow chains are specified then winter tyres would not suffice. In my limited experience of using both, the difference between summer and winter tyres is not great, where as driving on chains is a revelation (after you've spent half an hour untaggling the little buggers and got frost bitten trying to fit them - the spiders sound a much better idea).

Do a search, somewhere there is a list of AC fault codes. IIRC you hold two buttons down to access the codes then use the fan up/down buttons to scroll through them. PM me if you can't find them I've got them stored somewhere.

I got mine from My Tyres. They have a selection of the correct 215/55/16 Reinforced winter tyres rated up to 130mph, which is probably as fast as you would wish to go on snow. They are from

I think the clearance problems would be experienced on full lock, where the chain could foul the bodywork at the back of the wheel arch. I've been running my Civic on Michelin Alpins since October and they seem as quiet (or noisy) as the 4 season tyres which were on before and wear seems about the same. They are also the same speed rating as the 4 season tyres. for a 175/60/14 they cost less than

Twin balancer shafts account for the smoothness. It seems a reliable unit too, the only complaint that seems to come up on these pages is of occasional ignition problems. Official combined figures figures from the Ford Galaxy Brochure are 28.0mpg Manual, 25.7 Auto. I would suggest (for a manual) 30+ mpg on the motorway staying below 80, 33-35 on a restained cross country drive. We live in the country so school run type journeys are in the high 20s but those who live in town have suggested very low 20s.

Mine shows this if you press the radio on button without the keys in. I assume it puts the radio on for one hour and then switches it off to prevent it draining the battery.

They probably didn't keep the cable tight as they winched it, it's far too easily done. When I dissected mine for repair the cable was tangled beyond belief, there should be a warning in the handbook to emphasise how critical keeping the cable tight is.

I copied and stored this when it appeared a few weeks ago. Remove the wheel, unplug the sensor wires and remove the spring clip off the caliper the caliper is held onto the caliper mount by two bolts, remove the covers off these if fitted and remove the bolts, the caliper should now lift off the inner pad is located in the piston by a spring clip on its rear, remove the pad and bin it, the outer pad should now pull out of the caliper carrier plate and join the other one in the bin you will need to reseat the piston back into the caliper, use a G clamp to force it back while turning the piston as you push, you will need to undo the bleed nipple to drain off the excess brake fluid,while doing this, DONT flush the fluid back up to the resivoir as you could damage or block a valve in the ABS pump by back flushing debri from the hoses/pipes back through the system! once the piston is back as far as it will go clip in the new pad, locate the outer pad and slip the caliper back into position, replace the bolts and plug in the sensor wires pump the brake pedal to reseat the piston and pads, check the fluid level and top up if needed? replace the wheel, lower the car and repeat on the other side I think thats all you need to know?

What about a mobile auto-electrician ? He'll probably have more idea than a garage and be cheaper.

Ford Dealer in Lancs quoted

Had the same with our 2.3. By the Dryer do you mean the condensor ? why is the garage changing this if the system is holding pressure ? The comp' and its clutch seem to be a weak point of the 2.3s system. IIRC a new (Hella) comp' is around