Scorpiorefugee

Thanks Dave. The added hard ride seems to be due to the 17" wheels and run flat tyres. It seems to give a smooth ride on a smooth surface but give it a few bumps and it bounces around like rolling a ping pong ball down a gravel path. better in the Summer when the rubber is soft but I am dreading winter and poor road conditions. Your comments are interesting since I looked at one or 2 older models before buying my 12 reg pretty well unseen and I am finding it hard to adjust after the comfort of my old MKII Ghia. Chris, I had a look at the site you suggested and it does seem that there is an update to fix the problem as you said but I may have to wait for the next service (8k miles or 5 months) I think it'll be 5 months. One more thought on the same theme. Has the fuel consumption improved at all? Ron.

Try Halfords, they'll do it for free. But it might be a good idea to watch to check that they know what they're doing. :43:

Nice one Chris. I'll give it a go. Many thanks - and apologies to davewill for the distraction.

Found the make - Pierburg. At the time this was claimed to be more efficient and reliable than the Bosch and seemed to uphold that as it outlived the car. Sorry, not found one on Ebay yet but it was a bit like http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOLKSWAGEN-SHARAN-1-9-TDI-1995-TO-2010-AIR-MASS-FLOW-SENSOR-WITHOUT-HOUSING-MAF-/350882553442?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Car+Make%3AVW%7CModel%3ASharan&hash=item51b23ade62 Sorry, not very good at this. :)

I got one from Ebay which was not a Bosch one but it was a recognised make using different technology and did 100K until the engine died at about 250K. About

Some years ago I swapped the MAFs between my MKI and MKII to prove a fault. The faulty MAF left the MKI quite drivable but on the MKII it produced the same effect as reported here. Other than that I believe they are interchangeable. I got the replacement from Ebay for about

"have only ever stalled mine a handful of times,i put it down to being well run in." We've been here before Gregers. I think it would be interesting to see how DaveWill gets on and I hope he gets back. I have eventually stopped (almost) stalling the bl00dy thing but, having driven my old MKII Ghia the other day, I am now even more convinced that the only thing the MKIII has as an improvement is the 12K miles instead of 160K. Everything else is a backward step. Not only that, every time I take it out, which is not very often, someone takes another chunk out of it. :angry: :angry: :angry:

You mentioned lag. My 140bhp manual has the same problem and it seems to be normal. Symptoms are repeated stalling on take off and an annoying habit of deciding to accelerate after levelling out at 30mph after take off. It also makes smooth changing from 1st to second difficult unless you pull away quickly. I shall be interested in your findings.

What about year, spec and engine?

Seatkid is right on this. I had the same problem. In my case it was partly caused by parking on a steep drive and the rain accumulated in the tray under the wiper motor. I drilled a couple of drain holes and the problem went away completely. Just hope that the damage is not permanent and the problem goes away as the motor warms up and dries.

Great relief all round :D :D It's still worth getting a VAG com and playing with it. It may tell you why you had the problem and you're probably going to need it again. Mine's paid for itself 100 times over

Yes, it is possible and I've had the same problem. They went round the glass trim until the side window shattered but wrecked the trim in the process. Apparently it's quieter than heaving a brick through which is what they did a year previously. Thankfully, glass insurance covered the door glass but they had jammed a screwdriver blade into the lock. It is possible to use the lock to fill the passenger door lock hole and leave it to be locked/unlocked from the inside. It is a bit of a fiddle reconnecting the interior lock links but it's not too bad if you can wait until it stops raining - fat chance! I found the instructions on the site, probably in the FAQ section. The worst bit is getting the door trim off. I found it difficult to suppress an urge to run down any hoodies for a while but it passes. Do you realise that by unlocking and locking quickly activates the deadlocking so that they cannot open the door without a key.

It sounds like at least 2 separate problems. The turbo alone would not cause that degree of power loss. First question - does it tick over OK and at 35mph is it running smoothly or unevenly? Personally, I haven't had anything like this but more information along those lines may give an idea of where to start. Other things to look for include smoking, overheating, heavy oil consumption.... A bit more information and someone may recognise the symptoms.

That's why I have never complained about the MOT system. Just so long as you can trust the garage.

I think that is coming round to my habit of using it as a builder's van. Back in history I had a series of Granadas and a Granada Scorpio and I frequently loaded them down the the rubber stops and never had a problem but they were a different class of vehicle. The last 3 all went well over the 200K mark and I never had any problems with tyre wear, front or back. They also used trailing arm suspension. I can never understand how anyone can claim that the Mondeo is a suitable replacement for the discontinued Granada. They don't even come close.

Blimey (Thats old talk for Bl00dy hell) Gregers, Do you both spend all day driving around just to generate enough in taxes so that us decrepit pensioners can live in the style that we have to adjust to?

Well done! That is why I dug deeper and went for th later version. Sadly the lower emissions don't seem to give any better fuel economy as it still comes nowhere near my old MKII Ghia. There do seem to be some annoying little habits on the one I've got so it might be interesting to compare. Mine struggles to get over 40mpg compared to nearer 50 in the old Ghia and I and others seem to have trouble taking off smoothly without stalling. It also has a tendency to pick up power without warning after accelerating to 30ish and levelling out. Get as much info as you can and give it a good road test.

Paul, I wondered about that but on mine the problem came on quickly and then stabilised without any remedial action. It does seem very elusive and, as I think I have mentioned earlier, it may have been caused by a peculiar rear brake problem which caused a violent vibration due to the pads oscillating. Sadly, this sort of problem always seems way beyond the abilities of most. if not all, of the main dealers. For what it's worth, my opinion is that it is the rear suspension rubber bushes which are the problem. However, past experience with shockers strongly supports your comments. What worries me about the MKIII is that the bush assemblies cost hundreds of pounds just for the parts. More "Progress"? Ron.

Hi Barkster, I have a 12 reg Titanium 2.0L manual and that is also giving higher fuel consumption than either of my MKI or MKII which makes the emission ratings look a bit suspect. One or two points from me but I am sure you will get more feedback later. I can get 42mpg with great care but anything above 70 makes it plummet That's getting on for a 20% reduction on the earlier models. Tie that with the auto, larger engine and the fact that everything is still a bit tight and you may be able to see a bit of improvement. I also find that the set up of throttle and early turbo action can make economical driving in traffic very difficult. I shall watch to see how this develops.

Er... 400 house bricks or 500Kg sand. That sort of thing. Just a normal sort of load for a decent MPV really. Anything up to about half a ton. It didn't seem to cause any trouble when they were newer so it might be a symptom of abuse or just a softening with age. Couldn't do it in a MKIII though. :49: :43:

I've just found this and enjoyed a lot of interesting reading. I think I must have been very lucky with mine. Possibly because I diagnosed and usually fixed most of the problems myself with a lot of help from this site. The first bought at 140K was by far the best doing another 100K with very little expensive work. I inherited a few problems when I bought it, like wipers, temperature sensor, Maf and I had a full service and cambelt, all in the first few weeks. After that it went for the next few years with none of the problems listed above apart from one full set of brake disks and pads and a couple of minor issues usually cured by a squirt of oil. My attitude to servicing is to keep it away from Fords and have it serviced every 60K with the cambelt then oil changes every 15k or so. My MKII Ghia was bought 6 months after the other as a "going out/holiday" car but I always enjoyed driving the MKI best. This was used less and cost far more in maintenance but I always felt that this was down to poor maintenance when the previous owner trusted Ford. I can honestly say that I have never enjoyed driving any other vehicle as much. My son now has the MKII and, in spite of his very reluctant acceptance of it to get him out of trouble he now absolutely loves it and won't let me have it back even as a swap. Sadly, I now have a 12 reg MKIII Titanium. The MKI was comfortable, a delight to drive, economical and much loved by all who went in her. The MKIII is NONE of these. Even my 2 grandaughters aged 5 and 3 prefer the MKII. I think Ford have lost the plot completely, or possibly it's what the designers come up with just to prove that they can do it. Does anyone actually design cars to move people about reliably and economically at legal speeds and in comfort or do they go more for high tech. fashion accessories?

This just to possibly give an answer to this if anyone else has this problem. My son now has this car and has done 10k + miles. When he took it away (sob!) the NS rear was once again showing signs of scrubbing and I was concerned that it may be close to self destruct again. However, now after 6 months it still looks much the same as when he took it. My conclusion is that the problem is caused or initiated by the rear suspension not coping with heavy loads. This is based on the fact that prior to handing the car over I had been using it for moving a lot of heavy building materials and this also coincides with the the previous 3 occasions when I have had the same problem on my other (now dead) MKI galaxy and about a year earlier on this one. Both cars had high mileage at the time. It is interesting to note that these are the only occasions when I have had to replace rear tyres. I've never had to replace them because they had worn out.

"Those sedonas can welly up hills alright but use a gallon of fuel on the way" That's pretty much what I expected. It looks like the only sensible upgrade path is back to look for a decent MKI. I wonder how Seatkid's old tub is going...........

I put one on my MKII some years ago and it has gone from strength to strength with MPG regularly 50ish as opposed to 40 before. The improvement was progressive possibly as the EGR adjusted to it.