makil6

Hi once again folks, hope you lot can be as helpful as in the past...........Went to work this morning, noticed the gal was a little low on power. Just put it down to the cold, (wishful thinking methinks!). Just drove home about an hour ago in a cloud of thick black smoke, pretty slowly i may add. The lack of power was still there. Didnt seem too sluggish, just poor acceleration(engine has been sounding a bit rough lately tho). Didnt want to give it too much in case it came to a grinding halt!!! So if anyone can give me a clue as to what may be causing this thick exhaust smoke and reduction in power i would be most grateful. And does anyone know if the MAF is knacked would that affect the exhaust? I'll give things a wee look over in the morning before i go to work, but any help appreciated. Cheers Mike 97 mk2 diesel

Just a quick update.....Passed my problems on to a friend of a friend whos a mechanic and apparently its quite common for the gear selector mechanism to sieze up. His advice was to spray with WD40 and try to work it loose. Sprayed it, worked it, sprayed it, worked it and so on. After nearly a couple of hours of growling, crying( nearly), blood running down my arm and virtually lifting the old gal of the ground by hand..........it went. (trapped my finger! but it went) Kept this up a little longer and my prayers were answered. All gears selecting, couldn't believe it. a cheap fix! Covered all the selectors with grease, re fitted the battery tray and wotnot, and now back on the road. Happy days. Thanks again folks and hope this may help someone in the future..

sorry mate. you would have to expand a bit on that one. youve lost me a little. when i have the cables disconnected at the box should i be able to move the gears by hand. i can on the one side but not on the other.

thanks for the quick reply, ive got to assume the selector cables are ok as when i have them disconnected at the box, the gear knob moves freely in every position. and do you mean the two cables that attach to the box. one moves forward and back and the other appears to be connected to a fulcrum that lifts or lowers some mechanism. the one that moves back n forth doesnt move in and out. is this the one you mean?

My problems just get worse and worse. Replaced the starter last week easy! Now this weeks nightmare is... driving home last night dropped the gears (manual box) to stop at lights, struggled to get it into 2nd. Pulled away then wouldnt go into 5th. after that it would only select 3rd or 4th. struggled home and had a look today. Popped the linkages of at the gearbox and the gear stick moves as it should( so no fault from the knob to the box) when i manually move the linkage at the box i get a bit of agrinding noise, it doesnt appear to be from inside the box( linkage maybe). But even manually moving it i can only move it in the same 2 gears. Please please someone help. this is driving me mad. never had so many probs with the gal in such a short space.

Just an update of the outcome of my prob...........New starter motor fitted yesterday, now starting as new( with the same old battery!). Through some hi-tec detective work found that tapping the starter with a hammer(handy tool) enabled it to turn over a couple of times all be it sluggish before it gave up altogether. Took it out asked a friend to check it and hey presto it was goosed! Bosch replacement fitted in around 20 minutes. So just cos your car is toiling to start dont automatically think battery and go and waste 50-75 quid on a new one. As the money may be needed elsewhere.

cheers seatkid, but its all too easy to go and buy a new battery and still be in the same boat but 50 quid out of pocket. positive its not the batt as i had the one out my diesel golf in it the morning to no avail. the batt in the gal is only two years old anyway so i would hope for a bit longer out of it. also tried a heavy duty booster on it, no good. anyway i thought the whole point of this forum was to help each other and not tell people 'to stop messin about.............'

thanks guys, charged the battery overnight tried it this morning. no joy. when it was trying to start yesterday it was really sluggish then nothing. so maybe something blew but what or where it is thats the problem. still got all the dash lights. any help guys. cheers.

hi again folks, had a bit of bother starting the gal recently. struggled to turn over yesterday, nothing at all today. all the dash lights are on and also tried one of those battery boosters, still no joy. been reading up about relay 30. but can find it. anybody any ideas where it is on the mk 1. i think theres only one level of fuses and relays but not too sure. i can here a click coming from the relays when i turn the key but i dont know which one it is. the ones i do have are....128,169,53,72,109,18,21,19,36,53,and 103. need help desperately, cheers mike

thanks guys. It was a broken wire on the level sensor on the expansion tank, nothin to do with the other work i had done. its on the front of the tank behind the battery. anyway job done. cheers mike.

hi folks. hopefully sorted my oil leak today(new crankcase breather pipe(dealer only 25 quid) fitted today) but when i was trying to access the bolts for the pipe i removed the top radiator hose at the temp sensor end. and since putting it back on the light above the temp indicator needle on the dash flashes after about 15 secs of the ignition being switched on. engine doesnt have to be running it just comes on and stays on till the ign. switched off. i've ran the gal as normal with the light flashing and the temp indicator needle doesnt rise any more than it used to. but now the missuss thinks its unsafe and wont drive it, so the question is. have i done some damage when removing the pipe or is there a pressure problem or does this light need to be reset somehow? thanks. Mike had this in the wrong forum to start with. oops!

hi folks. hopefully sorted my oil leak today(new crankcase breather pipe(dealer only 25 quid) fitted today) but when i was trying to access the bolts for the pipe i removed the top radiator hose at the temp sensor end. and since putting it back on the light above the temp indicator needle on the dash flashes after about 15 secs of the ignition being switched on. engine doesnt have to be running it just comes on and stays on till the ign. switched off. i've ran the gal as normal with the light flashing and the temp indicator needle doesnt rise any more than it used to. but now the missuss thinks its unsafe and wont drive it, so the question is. have i done some damage when removing the pipe or is there a pressure problem or does this light need to be reset somehow? thanks. Mike

hi, my air con gave up ages ago and its not something that really bothered me but recently i have been under the gal to find a persistent oil leak(crankcase breather pipe, replaced today) and i found that one of the air con pipes had totally snapped. on further investigation i noticed it had been rubbing against the oil filter which produced a weak spot and this is where it had snapped. and by looking at things its a one piece pipe which would be a nightmare to change. so at the moment its just tied up out the way until i or someone here can offer a solution. just another experience to share with folks. cheers Mike.

ever since i've been searching for my oil leak i've now got an annoying whoosh(technical eh?)when you accelerate. The oil leak i thought was coming from the crancase breather, so i changed the o ring on the crankcase breather. i now need to buy the pipe to go along with the o ring as the connecting flange was cracked. any ideas what the noise is and could it be anything to do with the leak i have? i was reading a post about the intercooler? could it have anything to do with it? oil mist etc.

thanks guys. i bought an 'o' ring from ford for

so is it possible to have an oil leak where its bolted to the engine block. i assume its sealed by an 'o' ring or gasket. By the way its a 97 1.9tdi with 135000miles. cheers.

Can anyone tell me wot goes through this pipe please? At the end that bolts to the engine block i seem to have an oil leak but the other end appears to come from the air box (i think). So the question is ' is it oil or air?' and is it possible to have oil coming from this fitting or is it coming from elsewhere? Any help. thanks.

had a slight leak before and the guy at the garage said he tightened the sump and had a look elsewhere. But i think wot he really did was cleaned the plastic under tray and its took this long to start seeping down again. when i took the tray off it was saturated! ive just been out again and tried to clean around about and left the engine running to see if i could see anything. there is a plastic fitting connects to the engine block just above the filter with two bolts, there seems to be oil seepage around here. but the other end of this hose comes from the air box( i think) so will this be an oil pipe( i dont know). once again any help. took a pic, whether it helps.

After removing the engine top cover and having a better look i have now come to the conclusion that the oil that is dripping, isnt coming from the sump gasket as there a lot of oil around the top of the filter and around the engine block in this vicinity. After reading a few archive posts i think it could be the oil filter is on too tight and there is damage to the mating faces. there is also a lot of oil on the unit the filter screws onto (the oil cooler?) are there any vulnerable seals here? If anyone has any idea if this could be the problem please reply as i dont want to do the sump gasket if it aint gonna help. Most of the posts regardin oil filters say 'tighten by hand only' and there is obvious tool damage on my filter.

thanks wolfie. i'll see about gettin one tomorrow. do you know if you can put hylomar on the old gasket rather than buy a new one or is this a bad idea? i'm hopin it is the gasket and not some obscure seal further up the engine. cheers

can anyone help here? my 97 1.9tdi has developed an oil leak and im sure it is the sump gasket. Problem is the last 2 bolts next to the flywheel. you remove the small cover but the two bolts are inaccessible even with a universal socket. one mechanic told me on some you have to 'draw back the box' can anyone assisst me in this procedure as it sounds a bit iffy. or if anyone knows where else the oil could be coming from and running down to the sump maybe this would help. i'm open to any suggestions please....

Mines a 1.9 tdi and ive just been going through much the same 107k on the clock, thought it was something really major replaced the front droplinks on the anti roll bar, this helped a little then i got some advice from a ford mech and he pointed out the strut top mounts were goosed, changed these and now its solid, not a nice job to do ,relatively inexpensive but try getting those top nuts off...........Hope this helps..

:( anyone know why my galaxy wont start? Drove,stopped but wouldnt restart speedo going up/down,fuel doing same dash lights coming on going off, wipers coming on/off. Doesnt even turn over just a loud click when you try. Any suggestions..