edwardoplunkett

Can someone please point me to a source for some line drawings or photos of the intercooler installation on the 1.9 tdi? I have TIS but it's pretty sparce. Thanks Ed

Have searched the forums, tried the usual suggested places, but no luck. Anymore suggestions? I'm just tring to find out what oil filter I need to use...

2003 TDI with 12k miles. Sudden loss of power while driving. Initially would start up immediately, but lacked any torque for acceleration ( would move as if 5 guys were puishing it!). Rough idle quickly developed, followd by hard starts and lots of smoke out the tail pipe. Had it towed to Ford dealer as it's still under warranty First thought wrong fuel - No. Tried new MAF - No. "Master Tech" working it now. Any suggestions on what it is? I'll post back on what Ford finds.

But why? My 2003 TDI just went through it's MAF at only 12k miles. Ford is going to install a new one under warranty - great, but what about my trouble getting the car there, etc. Seems VAG has had MAF problems for years, and nows it. Have read about some sort of "secret" warranty campaign in the US good for 7/70 or something like that. Fat chance here huh? Anyone know what is up with these parts? Have VAG superceded the poorly designed part with a new one. When will my new MAF fail and leave me stranded?? Also, how about consequential damage from this fault? Is the CAT OK after dumping so much soot through it? Anything else to watch for now.. :rolleyes:

100k service intervals are a marketing point for some manufacturers. On many front drive large V-6 engines, the intake manifold has to be removed to get to the rear bank of spark plugs for a change. Customer complaints led to better plugs (platinum) with longer life (hence 100k). I can't inmagine trying to get a plug out of an aluminium head that has been in place for 100k though. Regarding oil, it is very common to change oil every 5k or so in the US. It's not simply a matter of distrust, it's just that the oil breaks down and looks downright nasty. Further, with many, many oil change franchises charging only 25 usd for decent oil and filter, it's a no brainer. Plus you sit in the car while they do it (30 minutes - tops). Down side is all the horror stories of all the kids working for minimum wage doing this job, overfilling/underfilling and forgetting to tighten sump plugs, etc. Even with the outrageous price of everything here (As we are paid in USD), I still plan on a DIY oil change every 6-7k. Mind you, I have never had my oil sampled after 6-7k, but old habits are hard to break are they not? In my opinion, the annual service requirement is a big ripoff racket here. 100 plus pounds for oil/filter and some checks...Give me a break

Anything special about filter changes? I can't find any info on oil changes in my new Ebay bootleg Ford TIS CD.

I plan on changing fluid about every 30k depending on condition. Lifetime fluid in an autobox is a joke. Just ask some audi A8 owners who have had to put in new transmissions...

Just rotated my tires for the first time from new. Lug bolts were significantly over torqued from factory. Torque spec is 125 ft-lb, and I bet these were 150 (calibrated arm) or better. My "Windy Gun" was having to work real hard at 100+psi. Wound up using a breaker bar for some. Reinstalled with some WD-40 for ease of removal later. Heaven help you if you need to change a wheel with the factory tool on the side of the road, at night, in the rain, etc...

Thanks for the help everyone, especially M. Marauder. :( Bought a set of reverse helix sockets, and was able to remove over-torqued from factory lock bolts. Finally able to rotate my tires. Found left front wearing most as predicted by Michelin UK due to traveling same direction in roundabouts...Received the following comments from Michelin a while back: The Galaxy being front wheel drive, front tyres will wear more rapidly. The rear tyre/wheel assemblies are recommended to be moved to the front axle, when tyres are to be replaced, with a new pair fitted to the rear axle. * Note: It is fairly normal to see the outer shoulder worn on the front tyres, especially on the 'passenger side' front, when driving in the UK. During cornering manoeuvres, the vehicle weight is transferred to the outside of the bend. We all drive around the roundabouts in the same direction, leading to the left hand side having most work to do. The functions of steering & front wheel drive merely exaggerate this wear on the left-hand front tyre shoulder. One can extend the overall mileage of tyres, in regard to this 'shoulder wear', by acting way before the shoulder tread depth becomes too low for legal/safety limits. Swapping left & right tyre/wheel assemblies spreads this type of wear between tyres, along with having tyres 'turned' to the opposite sense on the wheel rim (assuming the tread pattern allows- not asymmetric or directional) in axle pairs. Low tyre inflation pressures will exaggerate 'shoulder wear', along with vehicle wheel mis-alignment ('toe-in'). Yours sincerely Michelin Tyre Public Limited Company

Tried to rotate tires Friday on 2003 Galaxy Ghia with factory alloys. No wheel lock bolt key! After some investigation this weekend, found 4 people who took delivery of new Galaxy's with wheel lock bolt keys missing as well. All of these so far have been 2003 through 2005 models. Ford does not have a master key set for this type of lock bolt, and regularly charges 100+ pounds to drill/split the lock bolts off the wheels - unbelievable! Called Ford customer service - they confirmed that this is their reccomended procedure - unbelievable According to some dealers, if you have the wheel lock key number, you can get a new key from Germany for 40 pounds plus 2 weeks - unbelievable! New set of lock bolts from Ford is 30 pounds. So the immidiate question is do you have a wheel lock key that looks like it would match the lock bolt in the attached photo (Center post with 9 splines - sorry for the bad photo)? If so, can we get together so that I can get these bolts off? I am in Walton on Thames - Surrey. A bigger question is how many of you are missing their wheel lock keys???

I thought this post would generate more interest/responses?? Either these Gals never break, and you don't need Vag-Com, or most folks just go to the dealer and ask how much?? I decided long ago to never again put myself at the mercy of incompetent/unscroupulous dealer/garages, and find scan tools such as these to be invaluable to the home mechanic. And they are so cheap! Anyway, comedy aside, if anyone has anthing positive to add to a Galaxy specific Vag-Com FAQ please post it. I'll try and put something usefull together in the near future. BTW, I'm in Walton-on-Thames if anyone ever wants to swing by to use it.

While researching VAG-COM tweaks, ran across the following site: http://www.tdiclub.com/ In particular, check out the TDIFAQ.

So I got myself a Galaxy, then I got a Vag-Com. Now aside from using it to fix things, what cool tweeks can it do to my Gal? For example, can I tweak my Tiptronic box to run in sport mode all the time like you can do on an A8? How about lowering all the windows with the key remote? Anything else? We need a Vag-Com FAQ!

A reccomended dealer/garage list would be great. How about the best/cheapest place for annual service as well? I can't beleive what is charged for an oil change!

Received this from Dunlop UK: Thank you for your e-mail. We do still recommend tyre rotation unless the vehicle manufacturer in their hand book has advised against it. Less and less people in the UK do their own servicing due to the introduction of Chips and other engine complexities. This has also meant the reduction of other maintenance items such as tyre rotation. Tyre dealers will often charge for changing the tyres around so many people unfortunately leave the tyres where they are until they are worn. I hope life will be good to you here in the UK. Regards Peter Wayte Product Support & Service My objective is to maximize the life of my tires. To me, it would seem that the contact area of each tire is nearly the same with out regard for tread depth untill the tire is literally treadless, in which case the contact area increases. I believe we want tread to help channel away water, snow etc when roads are not dry. Clearly, the deeper the tread, the more resistance one will have to aquaplaning in heavy rains. Wet skid resistance is a function of tire compound, contact area and axel weight, IMHO. New tires should have the same wet skid resistance as those half gone. So now I'm thinking that I will rotate my tires every 5-7k as I always have, and reduce my trips to the tire dealer (stealer?) by 50%. I will wind up buying 4 at once, but I'll try Costco. Thankfully my air compressor/impact gun/ makes rotation a 15 minute job. Still a pain though...

Standard practice in the US. Typically specified by manufacturers (and required as a condition of mileage warranty): http://www.dunloptire.com/care/faqs/should_I_rotate.html I'm now trying to decide if it's better to let the fronts wear out and replace two at a time, or rotate and replace 4 at a time every 30-40k. Any thoughts?

Has any one ever converted their halogen headlights to HID? How hard, how much, etc??

Once I have a schematic, I will put a switch between the interior motion sensors and the central locking/alarm ecu so that I can bypass the sensors when necessary. Might get real fancy and use one of the extra switch postions, say under the park distance control switch. Wonder what an OEM switch will cost??? I am amazed at what the stealers :ph34r: (what we call them in the US) get for parts over here. Hopefully we will get more online parts dealers to help get the prices down.

This is great stuff. I'm so glad I found this board!. Untill I get my own schematics of this system, would either of you helpful fellows be willing to post the alarm system schematics for me? Ed

Proprietary modules on the Galaxy that can only be interrogated by dealer tools? Will Vag look at ABS, Air bag, AC, Auto Trans ECU, etc? Do I need to buy a dongle here in the UK or can I get one that will work from the US or?? How about best source for software? Thanks foor your help Ed

Would prefer printed manuals. What are the Ford dealers using? Are the CD's on Ebay any good? Which do you reccomend? Thanks Ed

Can some one look at a schematic and tell me if I can disable the interior motion sensors for my 2003 alarm system. I want to be able to lock the car and have the alarm active (blinking red light) with the dog in the car. Is there some secret handshake that will allow mw to do this without unplugging things from an alarm module or ECU? I already know that I can disable the alarm by locking the car twice. I would prefer to also have the alarm be active as well. Thanks in advance Ed