shefki

Dear All, Ex 53 plate jinxed Galaxy Ghia TDDI owner here looking to (maybe foolishly) venture into Galaxy / Alhambra ownership again. My previous Galaxy was an ex Ford corperate car bought at 17 months old with 74,000 miles on the clock. The car was THE most comfortable car I've ever owned but it developed just about every common fault possible over the 10 months following purchase. Air-con failed, Alloys lost all their finish, aux heater failed to name a few faults. The car I am currently looking at buying is a 56 plate Alhambra 1.9tdi Tip-Auto with just 9,000 miles on the clock. It's stylance spec and has every factory extra except leather. The dealer is a friend (if a dealer could ever be) and he is looking at

The log book ALWAYS states the TRUE model of car that is registered. The only time I have come across a log book that didn't give the true exact model was when my Mrs bought a "dealer group" special edition Ford Fiesta .. It said Pop Plus on he log book but the dealer had added a sun roof and spoiler and some nice alloys and badged the full fleet as "Summer Breeze". My current car log book states the exact model and so does my wifes. As per this Ghia X thread this isn't strictly true ..... -_- I've just used the link to the RAC Website and ALL my previous cars are listed as exact make, model and spec. Even my current car is listed as a C180 ClassicSE Auto Estate .. Exactly as stated on my log book. My previous car is listed as a Galaxy Ghia tddi .. exactly as log book.

The log book ALWAYS states the TRUE model of car that is registered. The only time I have come across a log book that didn't give the true exact model was when my Mrs bought a "dealer group" special edition Ford Fiesta .. It said Pop Plus on he log book but the dealer had added a sun roof and spoiler and some nice alloys and badged the full fleet as "Summer Breeze". My current car log book states the exact model and so does my wifes.

Only the flat "mirror" finish is un-painted and it is this area that is often damaged by muppet motor mechanics when they remove the centre caps on services. My Alloys were in a terrible state after 2 years (but 80,000 miles) even though they were not kerbed or otherwise damaged. In the end you could pel the lacquor off the machined finish areas without resistance. The guy who bought my car had them acid dipped and re-sprayed / lacquored at

Just been reading some initial s-max stuff in Top Gear and it sounds much smaller that the Galaxy. From what I can see and from the text it reads more like a Zafira / Touran rival than a Espace / C8 / 807 rival. The engine line up looks poor from a diesel front but the 2.5litre 5cylinder petrol unit (from Volvo) looks to be a cracker if you can afford the fuel bills. After selling my Galaxy I am rally missing the space. I swap my cars every 2 years so I will have to wait to change again BUT it will not be for an S-max.

When I sold my Galaxy on Ebay before xmas. It had the integral chuld seat / booster seat and I could have sold it 10 times over. One guy, from Goole, had the same colour, model and age car as mine and he wanted to do a cash + seat swap but the buyer of the car wanted the child seat so it was a no go.

I ran a Vauxhall Vectra (I know I know) on LPG. It was a factory conversion. I had an initially small misfire when working the engine hard between 2300 & 3000RPMn that turned into a power dead spot between 200 - 400RPM. It went to Vauxhall who couldn't replicate the problem in the workshop but admitted it was faulty on road testing. They tried everything--- hooked up computers, test drove in all conditions, tried the engine hot and cold and then warm (??) but they still couldn't trace the fault. The car stayed in the Vauxhall dealers for a few days until a technical rep from Luton came up to have a look and he diagnosed the Dizzy (gas distributer). It works in much the same way as an old electrical distributer only it sent gas to cylinders rather than electricity. Anyone who had the pleaseure of owning a 1996 - 1999 Ford Escort XR3i will have had a Bosh Fuel injection system that worked i much the same way too. ANYWAY-- One new Dizzy (solved the problem on it's own), a new eveaporator (type fault so changed even though this one was OK), new HT leads & New plugs (they had been on and off & in/out more times than enough so they were changed) and a full ECU re-boot and the car ran as good as new. The car was out of warrenty but Vauxhall paid for the job lot. Give your local LPG specialist a ring because the Dizzy was a favorite problem on LPG vauxhalls and it may be that on yours too.

What model is it from...? When I was selling my Ghia I had a couple of enquiries from people wanting to swap my child seat for one from their car. Only one had the same car as me for a seat match. If you have a Ghia with the dark valour trim I'm sure he would be interested. Only problem is he lives in Goole so it's a treck to the M4 to pick the thing up.

I used CD Bramall (Citreon) in Mansfield when I had my Picasso (first MPV). They were poor to say the least. A year or 2 on and thinking about the shoddy service I received from the service departmant I put it down to 2 things. First, I bought the car new on the 1st March (02plate) and so, it seemed, did all Mansfield. This swamped the dealership and they were unable to do all the works they should have. Secon, the dealership was multi-frachise so they had no specialists. They had fitter working on Citroen, Suzuki, Mazda and Nissan in the same workshop. It all came to a head when I wanted the wheels tracking and they didn't have any tracking irons let alone modern tracking lasers. Poor service, poor staff, no specialists BUT very very good sales with good deals all round.... suppose you can't have it both ways.

I went to an independant air con specialist who normally deals with Dixon Ford. They couldn't identify the part needed from discription so they faxed my specialist an exploded diagram of the pipes in the system to identify them. From that drawing we picked our pipes BUT Dixons still couldn't get the part because my VIN number wasn't bringing up the right pipe. They also said the pipe(s) I'd need would be about

I bought mine from GK Ford in Retford. The pipe you refer to runs from the condenser outlet to the expansion valve in one piece. There is a return pipe too (larger bore) tha runs from the expansion valve to the filter drier on the suction of the compressor that follows the same path around the inner wing / bulkhead. The pair cost me

Hope you have more luck with the ML270 than the people who filled in the last JD Power survey. It was bottom of the pile. Then again, the "C" Class was not much further up the list either. Hope the re-vamp of both cars has been for the better or we could be starting www.mercedes-benz-trouble.org.uk

Thats about what I'd be happy with to be honest. As for 8year old cars with 78,000 miles on the clock.. Do you leave your car in the garage 8 months a year...? Average miles are now up to 15,000 a year and NOT the 10-12000 that they were 20 years ago.

With the impending arrival of a company car on the 1st December I need to sell the Galaxy. She's a 53 plate tdi130Ghia with 78,000 on the clock. Body and interior in great nick with just the wheels showing the signs of the miles. Any idea what I should be asking as a minimum startin price.

When I bought my Gal in January all 4 wheels had some slight lacquer damage which was starting to allow water in and corrode the polished surface. I went to my local body shop who advertised alloy refurbs and he said it was because Ford have lacquered the polished Alloy surface rather than painting then adding lacquer. This gives a better finish when new but the lacquer will never stay stuck to metal as it's designed to bond to paint. I'm now having all 4 alloys stripped and resprayed in silver (was going to go for a blueish tint to the silver but the caps are a bugger to spray) and there will be no polished surface to go bad later.

At the back end of last winter, around March time, I started to have problems with my Aux heater. Each moring there would be clouds of grey smoke from the mini exhaust (not water vapour) smelling like part burnt diesel. I had the unit looked at by a Fraud dealer and was told it needed a glow plug at

I've had a problem with my Galaxy since june. Loses 500g of gas within 24hrs of regas yet will stay under pressure with 250g in for a long time after. I've had the expansion valve re-sealed because it showed signs of a leak.. b'stard to get to too... and still the same problem. Now all seems OK, sniffer says there is no evap leak BUT We have now traced the leak to the blind side of the condenser (against the main rad) by running the aircon for a few moments and then shutting the engine down and sniffing in still air. Looks like a new condenser job so may not renew until next spring.

My Aux heater, along with my Air Con, is u/s. Time will soon be upon us where the air con is not required and the aux heater will start to smoke us all out again. Does anyone know what fuse supplies the Aux heater so I can disconnect it rather than having some muppet car mechanic attempt, and fail (just like they have with my aircon) to repair the heater. I do long journeys so the car does get warmed up even on the coldest mornings so I don't really car if it runs or not to be fair. Also, the galaxy will be going to the trade in December and I don't want to give the game away with old smokey burning away when I go to trade in. PS.. My car is a tdi130 ghia on a 53 plate with 76,000 miles on the clock and in perfect condition (bar the above) if anyone wants to make me an offer for the car.

For 11k you could have my 53 plate with 74k on the clock, full service history.

Where is yours leaking from..?? When I contacted a local Ford dealer they said I would be better off going to a VW dealer as the pipe into the expansion valve is a recognised type fault that is corrected if fault found.

I had a zafira before the galaxy. Engine OK for size of car and did the 1000 mile each way to Biarritz with 4 adults, 3 kids, roofbox and bikes on the back just as well as the Galaxy and at 40mpg at 80mph too. I had numerour engine management faults all related to the glow plugs / injector units and also the brake pedal switch. No other problems though. More important, the air con never failed and the service is 20000 miles not 10,000. I like the galaxy for size ane level of equiptment and the quality feel. I hate it for the unreliability of the VW parts (aircon, aux heater) that you would assume to be first class. I loved the Zafira for the seating, hated it for the dull interior and lack of space on the rear bench seat.

Does anyone have an exploded diagram of the aircon system available to post on here.?? I have a small leak from where the high pressure pipework enters the expansion valve. It is a swine to get to as it's behind the engine. My aircon guy thinks the pipework is corroded and leaking at the joint. Me, a mechanical engineer, thinks it is highly unlikely the stainless pipe is u/s, more likely the seal into the expansion vale. If I could get my hands on a diagram of the area I may be able to savemyself the

After 2 days in a local air con specialist my air con problem of slowly falling gas pressure has been found. With the help of flouresent die a small hole in one of the pipes as it runs through the bulk head has been discovered. It looks to have been caused by vibration. New pipe now ordered BUT to get to the pipe the engine needs dropping (labour charge ouch...!!) BUT at least it's not a major system failure. Has anyone else suffered the same problem..??

Just been on my anual hols in the south of France. Last Wednesday went out for an evening meal after the car had been in the 35degC heat all day. After about 2 minutes I noticed the car was still hot and thye air from the vents warm. Had dinner and went back to base and problem still the same. Next day, booked car into local ford service centre (not a dealer) for a system check and recharge. On collecting the car, and parting with