JONESERIC

Hi IanSkill I changed my cam belt on Saturday, as part of the job I routinely remove a lot of bits and clean and check them. When i had finished the job I took the car for a test drive and everything was fine. Set of for Bristol at 5 in the morning and firstly I noticed that fuel consumption was slightly higher, ok its probably me driving. Whilst on the M6 driving at around 75-80 the car coughed and went into limp mode, when I increased the power at almost exactly the same point a rasping / sucking type noise could be heard from the drivers side. When daylight came the rasping noise was accompanied by black smoke from the exhaust. Because of the amount of work I had done I carried my full tool kit + my vag-com. Last night run vag-com and 2 codes were present. 1. 17552 MAF short or open circuit. 2. 17964 Charge Pressure Control: Negative Deviation-intermittent" Everything upstairs in the engine was fine, searching the internet revealed many causes all looking expensive. Ok back to basics, the car had worked fine before I fiddled (my wife

Hi I had a similar issue with my Galaxy. It turned out to be a faulty relay. However, concerning the ECU. The ECU monitors the engine temp and applies power to the glow plugs if required on engine start, it is not as simple just applying power at Start, the ECU also commands power to the glow plugs when the engine is cold to enable smooth running, it is this interdependency between the ECU / Glow plugs and engine temperature that is crucial at start-up. Therefore to summarize it is probable that delayed starting could be caused by the "hot wiring" of the glow-plug system. Rgds Eric

Hi This post is let everyone know of the modifaction I carried out so that our Sony MP3 players could be connected to our Galaxy. The mod consisted of fitting a comerical interface that used the CD auto changer input on the rear of the radio. The main points are 1. The MP3 player audio output was connected via a headphone type socket to a speacial adpater I purchased. 2. The adapter emulates the CD auto-changer. 3. The adapter connects to the CD autochanger input. 4. CD autochanger is selected on the base unit. 5. The MP3 player volume is set to mid and the master volume controlled via the base unit. 6. The MP3 player is mounted in a Sony clear case which id fittred to a Brodit bracket fitted to the dash. We have this mod is our Mk2 Gal and Mk1 Focus. If anyone is intrested I will write up full account with photos and parts etc. Regards Eric

Hi Our Sharan did 180,000 before we sold it, of our two Galaxies, one is on 60K [still a baby] and the other is 30K. What is important, as others earlier in the thread have said, is to correctly maintain the engine, oil-belts-etc. We have a Galaxy in work which is on 350K and it looks like new, well almost. Regards Eric

We have THULE Bars, Narrow Top Box and 2 x Thule Roof Bike racks. We also have the rear tow ball Bike rack for 3 machines. Quality = superb.

Hi Please let me add my AIRCON expereince! The AIRCON failed in the winter and like so many we did not notice. Come spring and out impending holiday to the south of France meant time to sought AIR-CON. In the 3 yrs we have owned this car we have never had the AIR-CON checked. A mobile AIR-CON man arrived and there was about 650g - R134a gas in the system, Given the capcity was we thought to be 750g the system was serviced. The temp at the vents was 5--6C with OAT of 19C. I was happy with that as the AIR-CON had never been great. Overnight, however the GAL had lost its AIR-CON; at this point I thought this is serious money. Off I went to a really freienldy knowlwdgeable chap in South Lincolnshire, whose address was found on E-bay. First problem not enough gas according to AIR-CON chap my GAL should have 1050g of R134a, I was very sceptical as TIS says it should be 750g! Anyway in went 1050g and I waited for the 3 way pressure switch to kick in, everything fine for 10 mins then the HVAC module went haywire, the pump compressor kicked in and out on its own accord. Again this looks like serious money. The status so far then is System = no leaks; pump OK when running; no faults on VAG-COM. However the AIR-CON would start and operate for 10 mins, then a pulsing of the engine could be sensed, this was traced to the pump clutch going in and out of engaugement. OK time to learn how this system works, our is system without ATC (auto temp control). There are a number of sensors that have the ability to switch of the AR-CON, the three way presuure-switch tested fine. Gooing deeper located in the LH wing adjacent to the water bottle is the AIR-CON OAT temp switch. This switch operates at 5C an shuts dwon the AIR-CON if the OAT is below 5C. I tested the switch off the car and it failed intermititlay with air-con ON. A new switch from FORD and everything is no Ok we have 2-4C at the vents which is superb. Our GAL 1.9tdi zetec 59k miles model 03 Regards Eric

Hi Located on the RHS behind the glove box is the evaporator core, this component is co-located with the heater matrix. The relay sound you are hearing is most likely the front tempreture flap operating. Also located adjacent to the evaporator is the heater blower motor. I am in the process of teaching myself AIRCON for dummies. The detialed diagnostic procedures are straight forward but it is the almost casual way the TIS says replace component and test! Regards Eric

Hi Our Sharan does about 55 mpg, in summer got it up to 63 mpg, over the 150k miles we have covered it has averaged 50-55 mpg Our Galaxy however about 50 mpg tops Regards Eric

1. Eric 2. Bourne, Lincs 3. 97 Sharan 1.9tdi GL, 150K: 03 Gal 1.9tdi Zetec 115, 34K 4. Since new 5. Great Car, build quality on later car is not as good as my 97 car. 6. About 3k overal excludes servcie items 7. Aircraft Wpns Engineer

Hi all We have a 1997 1.9tdi with a tunning box fitted since 1998, we have done 150K in this car, the on-board computer normally shows 55 mpg and I have seen 62 mpg as a I drove home after a late shift in serious fuel saving mode. Having had this car since new we have checked its fuel consumption by filling the tank every time and recording miles run. Therefore the data is accurate. I already here howls about how the various chips alter the way the on-board computer measures MPG, but we have over the years seen a real measured gain of approx 5 mpg. The on-board fuel computer is at best a compartive device. What is important is how you drive the car in those all important first few miles. My wife drive our 130bhp Gal to work everyday through a semi rural area and that car records 550 miles per tank with the Sharan recording approx 650 per tank. Eric 1997 Sh 1.9 Tdi 2004 Gal 130 tdi

Hi I have a 1997 Sharan with an Infra Red remote key, although having problems now, the sync of the remote by placing the key in the drivers door does work and has done on a number of ocassions since we bought the car in 1997. My vehicle handbook quotes this procedure so does ELSA WIN for a 7M Sharan 1.9GL 1996 model year, from 1998 the remote became radio operated. Hope this helps Eric

Hi I would just like to share some experiences I had recently with my on-going central locking and windows problems. In the beginning: I had a flooded passenger foot well and a flooded central locking module. I replaced the module, the central locking then worked fine apart from the remote no-longer worked. Lived with central locking problem and suddenly the off-side rear electric window started doing its own thing and then failed in the closed position. After a protracted testing of the various looms I read a thread on the forum about cable failures within the loom in the rear door. I stripped the door and eventually found 4 broken cables, including the main power feed for the electric window. Next I checked the near-side and found 3 cables on the point of failure, these were duly repaired. I have taken photographs so if anybody wants copies please send a PM and I will gladly e-mail them. Now with all electrics repaired plugged in VAG-COM cleared the intermittent fault caused by the cable damage. However when attempting to enter sync mode by inserting my remote key in the drivers and rotating to the un-lock position 3 times for

:blink: Very Funny, was that a joke? I was only trying to help.

Hi I don't know if this is too late, my roof mounted DVD also has the same wiring arrangement. VR6 is correct, some installations fit over were the interior light lives, however in the Galaxy mine sits some 20cm forward of the interior light, so I didn,t connect the light wiring. As an side my Galaxy dosn't have a sunnroof so I glued a large piece of MDF to the roof after cutting the headlining and fitted my unit to the MDF. How did you mount yours? Eric

Matt is write, the only way to measure mpg is by how much goes in the tank. I have tested my car over 8 years, and my fiqures consistantly show there is a difference in MPG between box fitted box removed, in my case the facts speak for themselves. The reason why the tuning box gives this increase is because it invites a change in driving style caused by change to the fueling map. The ECU calculates fuel consumption by measuring the duration and quanity of fuel used by each injector. A word of caution a friend of mine bought a "tuning chip" on e-bay for