richardman101

look at your v5 logbook and check the date of first registration, this can help with some parts enquiries, failing that try ringing ford parts and ask them to look up your manufacture date, they should be able to find it for you from your reg number.

hopefully i will have a go at it within the next week or two so will post my findings on difficulty on here - the one i changed last year on my mk1 tdi wasnt too bad, i think it was all done inside an hour, but there were two parts to the plastic stat housing, one with the stat in which attached to the engine block, and the other attached to the rad pipe and it leaked continually from the push-together union between the two plastic parts afterwards despite both housings being replaced with new ones. ended up having to add a bottle of miracle cure (k-seal) to the coolant to stop the leak. you were not too far wrong looking in the pipe unions at the top of the engine for the thermostat, the 2.3 petrol models have theirs in there, nice and easy to get too but you have to buy the whole plastic housing with the stat built in, i couldnt find one available seperately when i changed one in my 2.3 si a few years ago, and i had to buy it from ford. the tdi stat is available on its own but i thought it best to change the housing aswell as it has the seal built in to it, didnt fancy doing the job twice if it didnt seal onto the block properly!

possibly flywheel - if your car has a dual mass type this could be the cause. the flywheel compound can break down over time and cause noise/vibration until clutch is depressed. fingers crossed its not this as it wont be a cheap fix. i would get a qualified person to diagnose 100% before doing anything about it!

do post on here how you get on wont you - best of luck mate.

is it disconnected from the bonnet end or the handle end? if handle end, get your head into the drivers footwell armed with a pair of pliers, find the barrel on the end of the wire and give it a tug!

use a set of jump leads connected between your new battery and the car to keep power to the main cables in the car when removing the existing battery, and leave them on until new one is installed and clamped. bit awkward manoevring new battery into position with the jump leads attached (dont let one drop off!!) :wacko: but its cheaper than paying ford

if the pedal is hesitant to return to the top it may instead be a problem with the hydraulic clutch, this can be bled to eliminate the possibility of this, (unless the slave cylinder in the gearbox is faulty in which case bleeding wont cure the problem,) but this must be done correctly - its not quite as straightforward as bleeding brakes so i was told though i have not done one myself, again, there may be some help in one of the forums if you try a search. the clutch mechanism itself may be worn, at 93000 miles, either of these items, or the gearchange linkage could be equally possible. did you buy privately or from a dealer? if you have bought from a dealer and have a warranty it would be worth checking out if you can get this issue checked/remedied under the warranty. i would suggest the likely scenario from what you have said is that during the fluid change you had done, some air has got into the line supplying the hydraulic clutch so i would recommend bleeding that first as its the easiest/cheapest possible fix!

sounds like your gear selector cables may need adjustment if its just those two gears you are finding stiff, as for the brake pedal, my vw sharan used to do that until eventually it would be on the floor - turned out to need replacement master cylinder as the piston had worn. i think the cables for the gear change are adjusted at the gearbox end iirc, but try a search in the techincal section faqs, there maybe a post on this already. how many miles has the car covered out of interest?

thankyou again silverbeast for taking the time to look up this info, i dont think the 130 has the stat in the same place as the 115 but all knowledge is valuable so i am grateful just the same - you never know i may be able to afford a 130 one of these days! good luck with your temp sensor if you choose to change it, i found the instructions for doing this from under the car in the forum, it appears it will be a bit of a pig whichever way it is attempted but the rewards will hopefully make it worth the damaged knuckles etc!! :wacko:

thanks chrispb - is it located on the front lower left of the engine, looking from the front, which is where i found the stat on my old mk1?

did you go to a ford dealer for the service/check? if not it sounds like they are the people to have a look at it, their diagnostic equipment tends to be a bit better than your average local garage, and they have had many hours experience of ford vehicles after all! sounds like a major electrical issue, possibly ecu related. that said, it could just as easily turn out to be a loose earth connection or faulty power relay, its sometimes that simple. get a diagnosis for the price of an hours labour, it will give you a good start to sorting out the trouble.

it would be a good idea to check / replace your cabin filter if you havent done so in a while - these can severely restrict airflow into the fan blower assembly when they get old and blocked - could end up costing you a fortune in replacemenr resistors! (voice of experience, 2 resistors later......)

thankyou for that - i do indeed need to change the temperature sensor in the galaxy as i have the 'over revving' at cold startup, your pictures make it look far easier than i had expected it to be! my original post though, was enquiring as to the whereabouts of the thermostat!! ;-)

i think i had better have another look! perhaps it is hidden somehow. thanks for the reply, appreciated!

i have spent ages looking at posts on here trying to find one relating to where the thermostat is on this galaxy tdi, its an x reg early mk2, tdi (pd) 115. the mk1 galaxy tdi i owned previously had the stat on the front lower left side of the engine, with a plastic housing containing the stat, which joined to the rad bottom hose. this one must be somewhere different. could anyone point me in the right direction please? thankyou very much! :wacko:

Thank you very much. I would be keen to buy the cable etc and do it myself, I'm just very unsure of which software I would need as the ones I have seen only cover diesel engines from 04 onwards. you could check the boot for excess sausages, and try jacking up the fusebox, has been known to help :)lol

i have given up with it!! trying for 2 hours yesterday but still no communication with the car. i am sure there is something silly which is not set correctly but whatever it is its not happening. i have used the kit once before successfully on another 1999 galaxy about 18 months ago bu that was on an xp laptop. i have uninstalled everything now with a view to starting from scratch when i have regained some patience!

Are you sure that you have the right port allocated. Go into Device Manager and check which port your usb/serial adapter is using. Most likely it will be using port 5 or higher ( dependant upon the mood vista is in, it could be anything ). If so change this port number to 3 ( or anything 4 or below that windows doesn't object to ). Then use this port in vagcom and all should be fine. hi big kev. thanks for that. i was on com 3 after modifying it from 5, and tried different baud rates too with no joy. following a suggestion from another member about program permissions and driver used i will make some more adjustments and have another go tomorrow! will post results. thanks again.

thanks cyborg - i have just looked at the program properties and the compatibility level was already checked, however the user permissions were missing in the 'full control' fields so have amended that and will try it again tomorrow! many thanks for the tip - hope it will work now!

hi. went to vw today and got some atf, they sold me 2 litres for around

hi al. tried mine today and didnt get much success. got as far as the laptop working with the software, and when going into the test button on vag-com i saw the message 'port status ok, interface found' but then upon trying to communicate with the car the only message i continually got was 'no response from controller'. after getting this for just over an hour i gave up. i did try baud rates of 9600, 4800 and 38400 but same result. any ideas of anything else i can try please, i would really like to get this working!! thanks again in advance of any advice you can give. richard.

Hi there First thing is this the 4 or 5 speed changing fluid and filter on 4 speed is easy as sump can be removed and filter changed, on the 5 speed you cannot change filter without G/box removal, on both boxes you will not be able to remove all the fluid because of design so to do a good change you need to change fluid 2 or 3 times with a drive between changes the colour of the fluid is a good indication as to the condition of the fluid it should be a cherry red colour. This is all against what Fords say the fluid is in there for life. I take that to mean 300rpm rise with no increase in speed Have you had the car long or just bought it with this fault I think I would be inclined to do a fluid level check first you will also see the colour of fluid also. There is a set procedure for checking fluid level/draining in the FAQ section Hope thats of help to you :rolleyes: hi again - i have read that oil must be ford-specific. is this correct do you know, or can i use dex-3 or dex-2 universal stuff for my oil change if i do one? after all, the properties of new oil surely will outweigh those of brown sludgy stuff if thats what i am running on atm!! thanks again in advance for any advice!

thankyou al, will give it a go and see what happens! all the best.

Check the oil first.If the oil is brown or black in color then it deffo whats changing. If not then i dont think an oil change will make any diffence.Other than that you maybe looking for another gearbox,Just a word of warning tho,buying a secondhand box might cost you big time.I've got to the stage now where i wont fit secondhand box'es anymore as somtomes they can be worse than the one you take out! thanks for the advice - i have just been to fords to order a replacement cap for the filler tube on the box so when that comes into stock and i have collected it, i will check out what my oil looks like! cheers.

i would like to use my vista laptop with my ebay vag-com cable and a registered (full) 409.1 software. i have read all the posts on vag-com so far but none seem to point out any differences when using vista. can anyone tell me if i need to do anything specific to the pc before trying please - i am totally familiar with all aspects of windows so be as technical as you like!! many thanks if anyone can help! galaxy 1999 tdi auto.