MrF

Even if its not that, Ill inject some tracer dye into and check for that issue specifically thanks. Just to confirm if this pops up in any searches about central locking issues, the lock modules themselves are not handed, and you can strip the electrical part of the door lock away from the mechanical part of the lock and swap just the electrical/solenoid parts of the lock module itself. Its just a case of defeating 3 small clips on the halves of the outer cover with a small flat screwdriver or similar, removing a steel cover on the alabrama door lock I was sold as a galaxy one that's secured with two m4 allen bolts, and then two self tapping screws hold the white electrical part to the black mechanical parts & on reassembly just align the plunger and spring with the mechanism and put it back how it was. So my two nsr door locks are now fitted (well the solenoid assemblies anyway) and my central locking is 100% functional again. Both of the original lock modules were corroded inside around the small dc motor's from water ingress over the years. If I'd have been feeling really fastidious, I'd have took the new modules apart and packed them with dielectric grease to prevent this, but this is my wife's galaxy not one of my project cars :-)

I cheated and used the 3rd key to code the missing one in. I put the working key in the mini zbull, and it identified it as a vag 44 crypt type, but the key blanks I bought were really that, completely blank virgin chips, and the zedbull reported the key chip as being reprogrammable by the ecu. So I put the blank chip in the remote fob, and followed the 3 key adding key to the car proceedure and it worked. I now have two working "proper" keys. Probably the zbull clone with effi will be able to code a blank chip also but I can't say this as I haven't actually cloned the key like I intended but we can call this one a win anyway and I'll play with the spare id44 chip I bought for when I cocked up the first one in the near future. The locks to fix the rear doors turned up today too, but sadly one of the ebayer's doesn't know their offside from nearside it seems, good old ebay eh. Yes we have rear roof vents, I'm going to go full on to fixing it myself as my wife told me yesterday the last garage told her it had lost the refrigerant completely (yet only a few weeks after the other garage said it was full and to pressure and had electrical issues...) so I've bought a two gauge setup and a vac pump and its on its way, and if it is degassed when I put the gauges on it, I can vac the system to find the leaks and test/prepare it for recharge then charge it knowing it holds a vacumn. It'll probably cost the same as finding a garage that's competent and getting them to fix it by the time I tot up the price of gauges and more refrigerant & spent time etc, but then I'll have the kit around for next time. If it hasn't degassed, then all I have extra is a vacuum pump, and a indicator to never use that last garage for anything again.

Will do, I'm waiting for a minibull cloner to turn up and today some id44 immobilizer blanks arrived (its the id44 from the position of the odbII socket under the fusebox), so then we can finally have two separate working keys again too. Quite a few years back my wife lost the immobilizer chip out of the remote key when it fell apart and she didn't notice the chip had dropped out and the dealers wanted lots of money because we only had one working key at the time so we just kept the remote key + the non remote one on the same ring so the non remote activated the immobilizer properly as a temporary fix. And there's nothing quite so permanent as a temporary fix. I just found the original 3rd ford plastic key to reprogram it unboxing some long forgotten box in the storage so now I could add a 3rd key anyway but I wanted to tinker with key cloning and canbus stuff in general. I'll probably hook it up to the laptop after that to check if the cloned key id's are the same. I also wonder if they've been charging it with the correct weight of ac gas, since we have the dual independent ac controls front and rear which I think means it takes significantly more gas, but that should just show as a low pressure alarm in the logs. Hopefully they can have just been all that idiotic in all the garages that allegedly checked it.

Got it, both of it. First the wasps were hanging out in their new clubhouse inside the spare wheel inside the well. Or were, because they've been turfed out by a can of raid. I generally like nature, but when it attacks me for trying to work on my own vehicle it has to go. Second, the rear right door lock module is the real culprit. When I unplugged the loom to it, the central locking suddenly started working again. So I meter'd out the wiring harness from the door pillar and no shorts or breaks. Then I unplugged just the lock module and it was behaving, so off to ebay for some used lock modules instead. Now just the aircon that the local garage have said is unfixable, I have my suspicions around the activation solenoid on the compressor being stuck, as its not lost gas quantity when we had it checked...

I took the drivers door off completely in the end. There's no way I was getting my fingers in there to fish the plug back out the hole otherwise and it seemed easier than stripping the entire dash out to put a plug back in. Its only the 10mm on the check bolt and two torx bolts on the pins though. Once the doors out the way, its easy to fish back out via the hole and seat the sealing ring to hold it like you say. It did lead to a comedic (if you weren't me) moment when I had the door hanging on my shoulder doing the job on my own, having plugged the harness back in and got it home properly, some aggressive wasps decided it was time to go in for the attack while the stupid human was compromised at being able to respond as the loom was connected but the door not on the pins at that point. I only got stung in the head twice, got the door back on, and got a large cut in my shoulder for my troubles. I've killed and removed two wasps nests from it earlier in the month from the door jambs and rear boot area, so I guess they've moved house to somewhere else on the car, although I've used it a few times since, so they must have gone on some pretty epic journey's by insect standards to still be there and alive. And for insult to injury it hasn't fixed the loom issues, so I'll have to get the meter back out and take it off again, once I've located where the wasps nest has been made and eliminate it. I am beginning to remember why I have in the past bought my wife fairly new cars and have the dealers fix them...

Thanks for your post, they're flat pins, but the issue seems to be that there's 3 physical sizes in the connector with matching different wire diameters when I checked it out casually, so as you say buy a old sub loom, and rebuild it at my leisure with new wires as a hot spare & then can measure up and source loose crimp ends + right gage of wire to remake the loom with. Noted on the difference between marquee's, I noticed already that I need looms from a rear power windows model car, and to complicate things mine is a lhd, so passenger side for me is actually drivers side and has more wires in to control the power windows for all the other doors + mirror controls in it. When I patched up the two door looms, I spliced in a length of wire to get the solder joints out the flexing area but its a bit piecemeal and doesn't feel like doing it properly long term. Currently I have the drivers door loom unplugged, but issue 2 is the bit the plug goes into has fell into the door pillar (think its broke somehow as the socket should be captive in its position), so perhaps the loom wasn't making the contact it should too, its so tight to get access to that plug area with the door mounted its hard to tell. I think I'll have to take the door off completely to get better access, and probably the lower dash, as the column/pedals/fusebox and odb plug are all trying to occupy the same area being a lhd.

I have the 130bhp Mk2 with electric windows all round, that I've owned from nearly new (6k /6 months old ex hertz car, 200k on the odometer now!). Its been a great family bus with just the usual bits around the diff drive splines etc, and even now we keep it about as a second car to something more economical but its starting to age disgracefully with electrical issues. I've already spliced some wires in two of my door looms after my rear electric windows started playing up and central locking stopped working, but as everyone else is finding, the looms are fatigued where they flex for the door openings and it keeps re-manifesting itself in different doors. I'd like to just replace all of them and be done if possible. Does anyone supply replacement door looms that aren't fatigued? Or know of a source for the original connectors (or even just the blades for the oem plugs to reterminate a homemade loom) so I can make my own up but with oem plugs? I don't mind making my own looms up (I have a hobby of building hotrods and drag bikes) I just like to stick to oem connectors for a easy life. All I can find on ebay so far is used looms, which are going to potentially be as bad as what I have already.

One rear tyre 5mm of runout radially, the other with 1.5mm or so. We've remounted the new tyre on the spare's rim and got that down to 2mm, and most of the horribleness has gone from the handling. My friend thinks there's maybe something wrong inside the hub making the hub eccentric to the stub axle too, but that's a investigation we'll make another day as its too close to the big trip to be spreading it all over the garage floor. Drove it unbalanced as its booked in the am to yet another garage for balancing and at 130kph/80mph on the autoroute its fairly smooth feeling compared to how it was. We also noticed the rear tyres are wearing more on the inside than the out, pointing to something wrong geometrically out back so when it comes back from the uk, it'll be up on the ramp yet again for rear axle bush inspections. What a mess, lost any little faith I had left in the dealership, and the tyre houses its been to.

Update, tyre house who supplied the marathons took a look yesterday under their guarantee terms, and confirmed the tyres do indeed have 5mm radial runout at one spot. They say they dismounted the tyres and the bead area of the wheel is the culprit not the weights but its co-incidence the weights were needed there because the rim distortion has made that the spot which requires balancing, the two wheels they checked both are twisted slightly enough to cause this runout and the distance to the tyre tread outer amplifies the issue, and they say the culprit for the vibration. I went back and they were finally re-balancing them on the machine, and it was obvious visually they were running out badly, I asked them why they hadn't pointed it out as a courtesy and they told me they were only paid to fit and balance tyres. True but a very modern attitude... I'm off out to get a second opinion on if its the tyres or wheels as the inspection happened a bit cloak and dagger for my liking, so I'm getting my friend to dismount a tyre and we'll check the rim on a wheel jig, and if it is the rims, we're off to buy a set of specific galaxy fitment alloy wheels to replace the steel rims. My theory now is the wheels have been like this all along, and caused all the previously fixed components to go bad over time. Lets hope its finally correct.

no dmf is original, we've been lucky and only done routine service work to it until relatively recently. It doesn't seem to have the vibration from the engine when driving I'd expect from a bad dmf, though that will probably fail now I've said its ok. I am still unsure about the health of the diff, and we've not changed the inner stub axle and spline that everyone else seems to have had problems with also. A independant did the halfshaft changes when it started to play up and I asked him to check everything in there was fine while he was fitting as I was aware there was a wear issue with the splines, and he said he checked it while doing the job and all was fine. I should have done the job myself and been certain, but the whole idea of this car was buy something and have it fixed by the professionals while I got on with stuff I wanted to do. Earlier this year I ended up having to set up a laptop with vagcom and diagnose the crankshaft sensor going bad after the dealership kept saying there was no issues with it but maybe we needed a new ecu at £££££, so that slippery slope has already started. I checked the runout on the rims in situ with a pointer, and theyre ok, so its tyre bead seating issues or the tyres themselves. Tyre pressures are what are marked on the door jamb on my decent gauge, it behaves itself a tiny bit better with the heavily loaded pressure settings though. I think its the balance weight clip stopping the bead going home properly as mentioned, but I can't believe everyone else isnt having the same issue, as tyre houses the world over must be using similar clip on weights on the original steel wheels they came with. We were running the agilis's but now have a pair of goodyear commercial marathons as a tyre house recommended alternative. They showed it me in their book as the fitment for a galaxy. We can't move to wider tyres Im afraid, as the car is registered in france and on the log book (cartre grise) the tyre size is specifically defined as the 195's. And its a mot fail here to have the wrong size tyres than what is exactly specified there. It cost me £400 for four tyres on my merc van when I first re-registered it here as it had 215's instead of 205's on and they made me change them. I broke down and asked my wife if she wanted to trade it in against something newer, but she doesn't, she just wants me to fix this one. Its off on a trip to wales from central france in a couple of days so it'd be nice if it was driving ok or at least we had confidence it was going to make the trip.

Here you go, the last good set of agilis on the car still. I don't select them, I usually get a phone call from my wife asking me if its ok to have the tyres fitted the tyre specialists recommend, and as long as theyre not remould or indian nylon specials and a reputable make with the correct weight load rating, I agree. Ive noticed the problem seems to change in sensation if I swap the front wheels with the rears. Ive measured runout and both the new rears seem to have a flat spot about 5mm in variance axially (ie with reference to the centre line of the axle) which seems to coincide exactly with where they have clipped the wheel weights on, and one of the fronts is the same, the other is perfect but doesn't have any weights fitted (I presume it was in balance without). Are these wheels designed to be used with steel clip on wheel weights or bonded ones? It seems to me like the tyres aren't sitting in the bead properly because the weight clip is interfering with the bead going home for that part, but I don't know the actual tolerance expected for runout in the diameter. If it was my race bike, I'd throw the tyres back at the supplier in disgust for fear of tyre shake, but its my wife's shopping car where I lack any form of experience at what is correct. A proper mechanic I am not. Another thing I have noticed, is its worse when we have more people inside the car, and going up a incline it gets worse too. We were on the motorway at 70 testing it and it started to shake going up a hill, then stopped at the peak and went ultra smooth for the descent. So I think I am going to have a poke round with the rear axle locating bushes, and maybe look into if those tyres are seated on the rims properly. Ill ask my friend to strip it of wheel weights on his tyre machine and we'll see if the runout disappears.

They are commercially rated tyres, the C denotes commercial vehicle, ie a van fitment and the higher load index that the galaxy requires. They are the 195/60 R16 99H you quote. I have the old partner to the failed agilis on the spare still as we change tyres in axle pairs and it and all the tyres currently fitted (two agilis, and the agilis replacement goodyear marathons) are the same dimensions and also 99H rated. I've had 3 carcasses go bad, and they have all been the correct load rated and dimensioned tyres. So I suggest your statement that "all" people who have had carcass issues have been using the wrong tyres is incorrect.

I don't know about everyone else but ours have definitely been the rated C for commercial versions, although its always a battle with the tyre houses to get the right tyres fitted as they don't seem to understand it needs commercial van tyres. We've had 3 of these go bad and egg. The last one on the rear was horrifying to look at.

Gregers, its had 3 different sets of tyres. We've had some of the agillis's fail (split apart at the root of the tread) and egg, so we've switched to a alternative as we have read of others suffering the same issues, I think its a goodyear but definitely a commercial tyre but Id have to check to tell you the model and my wife has just drove off her mum's in it :) Yesterday I swapped the rear's with the front's to see if the problem did switch ends and its exactly the same. It could be this long term vibration problem has caused the agillis C's to fail early too so not rubbishing them, we had no issues with them till the past couple of sets. Seatkid WGA is the type code of the model we use when ordering spares, its a 2005 galaxy in a lhd but last of the ones before the new model came along. I havent changed the drop links, as I'm only just at the changing everything until it goes away stage having lost what little confidence I had in the main dealers. Thats what I meant by pendulum links in my original post, sorry if Ive used the wrong term for them. I will order a set and just replace them as a matter of course if theres no way to reliably test their condition. Clive we reused the outer (stub axle end) track rods on the new rack, but the inner (rack end) came with the exchange rack so theyre new. My friend is quite handy with vans and heavier stuff besides cars and he pronounced the outer track rod -> upright ball joints good after testing them with a large bar both loaded and unloaded. It doesnt do it hard on the brakes either, only when very very gently touching the pedal. Its like something harmonic in nature thats set up then amplifies, but when you get stuck into the accelerator or brakes it settles down and behaves itself. It also explains why my wife suffers with it much more severely as we have different driving styles, maybe even the wet weather difference, since you naturally are being more gentle with the controls. Has anyone got any ideas on the diff being stiff?, ie if I jack up the front wheels, and turn the left wheel with the steering straight ahead, should I be expecting the right wheel to contra rotate, or both to rotate in the same direction? that could be a seperate problem but I'd still like to get forearmed if possible. Another thing I forgot to mention, a couple of years back it suffered damage to one of the front wings (a cow sat on it when in a country lane and creased the wing in) and it was repaired by our unfriendly main dealer, could this have knocked the strut tower out of alignment or maybe damaged the bearing in the strut top area? Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Hi all, 130bhp phase 2 wga 2005 galaxy here, and I'm at my wits end. We've had the car from almost new (6 months old with 10k on the clock when we bought it), its got 130,000 on the odo now and being a pain. The car has been making a knocking sensation through the steering for well over a year now, its had 3 sets of tyres, new halfshafts, a new steering rack and pump, new balljoints in the suspension etc. Its been into the main dealer 3 times at vast cost, and some small independants have looked over it, and Ive even been under it on a friends ramp myself while he went over all the bushes looking for the issue and all he could find to comment on is the diff feels stiff, when you rotate one wheel the opposing wheel doesn't contra rotate, it rolls round the same direction , pointing to stiffness or stiction in the planetary gears in the diff to me and him but its possible there is a viscous coupling element inside there, we dont know for sure not having a second one nearby to confirm against. Plus a diff problem should manifest itself only when cornering as otherwise its not moving internally I would think? We checked the roll restrictor and all seems fine with that too. Symptoms are it has a slight vibration through the wheel that doesnt occur at any set speed and generally doesnt feel "right", and at very low speeds (20-30mph) it feels much much worse, the sensation at low speed when driving straight or turning is exactly to me like the inner joints on the half shafts are gone. That wobble through the drivers chair/footwell area. Its worse in wet weather too for some reason. When Ive pushed the car really hard in corners testing it myself alone it goes into bush squidgy feeling understeer mid corner, but that might be the way it should be, it wasn't family estate cornering speeds which trigger it, at normal cornering speeds its fine, well behaved in fact. Its much worse when my wife is driving (and its her car), which I attribute to a different style of driving. Last month it went the ford main dealers for their latest comedy attempt at fixing with a note we'd found the diff stiff and could they confirm it was ok. They said the diff had a viscous coupling element which caused this stiffness and it was a non issue, fair enough theyre the experts and thats why we took it for confirmation. They said it was a ball joint and we needed front discs and pads so it was booked in for two appointments, first they changed the ball joint and when we picked it up, it was pishing power steering fluid from the end of the rack all over the road, my wife rang me from a car park up the road terrified at the lines of oil everywhere she had been, and I had to drive out and driven it back the dealership and they denied touching it and quoted £2k for a new rack and pump citing that as the culprit all along and refused to guarantee that would fix it and to be frank, their whole attitude was downright rude and unprofessional and left my wife in tears. So I changed the rack and pump for exchange units myself for considerably less. Ive checked the front discs also and runout is 0.01mm and thickness 23.76mm (done with dti and micrometer, hobby is building full on turbo nitrous dragbikes) and the pads have about 10mm of friction material left on them so think they were wrong on that score too. So theres the background, now to the ideas as to where to go next. The usual things we havent changed so far and as far as I know, they've never been changed:- The pendulum bushes How do you test these? we checked for excess movement by prying them round and they felt ok, is it worth changing these pre-emptively just to be sure? Is there any hard numbers about how much they should move with x kg of force applied to them or something we can quantify how knackered they are? The Lower control arms Again as above, the rear bush as it attaches the chassis has a bit of compliance but nothing excessive looking. The Bearing/bush at the top of the macpherson strut. I don't know how to feel for excess in this, as I read it should have play in when the weight is off the floor, is it worth changing them anyway just to be sure? Also it looks like is a fairly regular flat area on the outwards facing part of the strut where the brake support is, is this a facet of the manufacturing process? Track rod ends feel ok, and everyone else in the chain has checked them and passed them too. Its also been for geometric checking, as I had it in my head the castor was wrong, and it was causing that tea trolley feeling to the wheels, but the report just came back with "ok" written on it. Not even which angles they had checked, so I guess they could have checked toe in and called it good. What else have I missed? need to knock this one on the head regardless or its new car time and the poverty and lack of money to spend on my hobby that will bring...