HJT

Certainly sounds like the symptoms. The best way to check is to swap it with a known working one. This should be covered by the warranty if the services are up date and on time. Howard

You need to get hold of a copy of the Ford TIS CD. Do a search on Ebay and you will find it quite easily. It is very useful as it's the manual the Ford garages use. Howard

Thanks for that. The fan does only come on when the ignition is switched on. The position just before the ignition coming on doesn't work the fan. Howard

On one of the threads a few weeks ago, there was mention of the pump that runs for ten minutes after switching off the engine and someone suggested this had a useful side effect of giving you heated air through the fan for an hour or so after switching off. My question is, is there any problem with leaving the ignition on for a long period of time on a diesel. For example, are the glow plugs constantly on? It's just that it would be nice to have the fan running when sitting in a car park without the engine running for warm air in the winter and cool air in the summer (I know the air con won't work without the engine running). Howard

Before you finally accept delivery, ask the salesperson to confirm that the car hasn't been in an accident and repaired. Also take the her name so if you find out that it has you can claim against the garage. Other than that, take your time and inspect the car thoroughly, don't rush or be rushed. Anything you aren't happy about then don't accept the car until it's sorted. If you're trading in a car don't forget to keep the section of the V5 that you keep and send it off to the DVLA immediately. I forgot when I got my Galaxy and ended up witha ticket for driving in a bus lane 1 month after I got rid of the car! Had to then prove I didn't own the car. Howard

Wow this is turning into quite a lively, interesting debate. I bet Gofar never expected this with that innocent first question :rolleyes: As Ivor says, with running costs there are many variables but basically, the longer you keep a diesel car the more you will save in the long run. I'm not the sort of person who regularly changes cars. I will buy new or nearly new then run it for ten years or so, therefore diesel makes financial sense for me. This is coupled with the fact that a diesel car physically burns less fuel and is therefore less wasteful on the environment. As for the emission and particulate debate, I did some research on this before going for a diesel and the situation these days is as Ivor explained above in that modern, well maintained diesels, are far less destructive on the environment than they used to be and give off less C02 than many petrol engines. Howard

The very fact that fossil fuel supplies are being used up at an ever increasing rate is a good reason for wanting the best fuel economy possible from any vehicle and I don't think anyone who is concerned about this has "lost the plot". I bought diesel for both financial and conservation issues. Howard

The service is due 10,000 miles after you put it in for a service. So if you put the car in at 9500 miles the next service will be due at 19,500. My Gal (for some reason, don't know why, it was before I got the car and it's not on variable servicing) had a 20'000 mile service at 15,900, which mean't the 30,000 was due at 25,900. I decided to get it back on schedule and had another 20,000 mile service done at 20,000. I believe the mileage leeway on the warranty is 600 miles over the due time for the service but don't hold me to that. Howard

I tend not to listen to AM much but I have noticed that in general that radio reception in the Galaxy is not as good as other cars with seperate aerials on the roof. If radio reception is important to you, it might be worth considering fitting a different aerial. You could try fitting the unit, temporarily into another car with a roof aerial and see if that works better. At least it will confirm that it's the aerial and not the unit. Howard

You may not be a fan of oil burners but I get 39.8 mpg average according to the fuel computer and thats mostly around town. Motorways it can top over 50 mpg. Mind you both those figures drop when the wife drives, she treats the accelerator like a switch, full on or full off and she only stops at junctions if a collision is going to be completely unavoidable and then by slamming the brakes on. Diesels these days are much better than the old tractor type units of 10 years ago. There is very little difference in noise level these days between petrol and diesel. Howard

Variable servicing is (according to the VW Sharan brochure) where the car measures the kind of driving that has been done, i.e. short trips, hard driving, cold temps etc, and decides when the service is due. The brochure says that this can be switched off by the dealer and a normal service regime run i.e. 10,000 miles or annually. Howard

When I saw the first post on this I thought, SA's going to love this one :rolleyes: Howard

Way to go, give em hell!! Howard

The only experience of the Ford Customer Relation Centre was when I bought my Ka from a car supermarket, the manuals were in German. So I phoned the centre and explained the situation and the next morning, on the doorstep, was a complete set of manuals and service books in english. So I've not had any cause for complaint about them but my problem was very easily solved. Howard

Could be one of several things. The MAF sensor could be on the way out. (Do a search on sensor on the forum for more on this) or could be the engine management system, in which case you will need to get it booked into the workshop to get the error codes read. Howard

Which model and what year ? Howard

Try www.roofbox.co.uk They should be able to help. Howard

Just got my Galaxy serviced (20,000 mile service) for the first time. Took it to the dealer I have mentioned before ( County Garage, Herne Bay). I can honestly say they gave an excellent service. After dropping the car off, they took me back to work. The car was ready exactly when they said it would be. They came and collected me from work to pick it up. The service seems to have been carried out to very high standard and the car was left in a clean and tidy state. The icing on the cake was that they quoted me

What I tend to do is, stick the boys in the back row of seats, and fold down the middle and one outer seat to make tables. The last outer seat has the baby in it it so the seat is folded up into a booster seat which gives a lot more leg room. The floor height is a bit high but I've not found it too bad for a short period of time. Howard

Not quite sure what you mean about the swivel seats. We regularly take our Galaxy out for picnics and swivel the seats round so we can face each other while we eat and close the door. You are swivelling the seats right round 180 degrees aren't you? The reason I ask was that I was in a supermarket car park the other day and had swung the passenger seat right round to feed my baby daughter more easily while my wife went in the shop. A Galaxy Ghia exactly the same as ours parked next to us and the driver came over with an amazed look on his face and said he didn't realise the seats went right round, and he was going to go and have a play later! Howard

Red line it everywhere, that'll sort it :D Seriously though, my Tdi seems to pull well from low revs and I've not had a problem with stalling, so it sounds like there is something going on and it's not a characteristic of the Tdi. Mind you, in comparison to my Mondeo Tdi which was only happy between 2000 and 3000 revs the Galaxy is positively perky right across the rev range. Is this only happening when the engine is cold or has it happened on a warm start? Howard

Had a similar situation with my Mondeo. Blew a fuse, check the book, couldn't find the fuse number mentioned. After much searching, I found a second fuse box behind the glove compartment and the fuse was in there. It did mention this in the handbook but wasn't very clear and removing the glovebox to get at it was a real pain! So check the book and car to see if you have a second box somewhere. Howard

Yeah same here. My 2002 Galaxy TDi 115 Ghia was showing up as a Ghia X 90. Had to get them to fill the details manually. My previous car, a 2001 Mondeo TDi Ghia showed up as a Ghia X as well. So the databases are not to accurate. Howard

If it's a Ka Collection or Luxury, then these have body colour bumpers as standard. Not sure about the earlier version (i.e. the 1,2 and 3) I have a feeling the body colour bumpers were introduced later. Howard

I don't have my Mondeo anymore so I'm working from memory but I think if you unlock the doors but don't open them, after 30 seconds the doors lock again. I don't think this would close all the windows and sunroof though. Just a possibility, might be worth experimenting. I absolutely loved the handling on my Mondeo. It was probably one of the best handling cars I have owned. Howard