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My cruise control has broken again. I have checked for vacuum leaks and the pump runs fine too. The vacuum releases whenever the brake or clutch pedals are pressed and you can hear relay clicks when you switch on or off on the steering wheel stalk when driving if you listen carefully. Has anyone found any other common fault other than a knacked vacuum pipe? This one has got me beat so far. Rich

My criuse control broke for the same reason - cracked pipe at the pump. Fixed that and it worked fine for 3 to 4 months. Now it has broke again but the fault is elswhere. The pump and the pipe are OK this time. Anyone any suggestions? Rich

Greg. I would imagine that you would need to budget for around

Converted 4 weeks ago by AutoTech of Ripley in Derbyshire. My options were to sell and buy a derv or convert. It just brings a smile to my face when I pay for 62 litres of fuel and it costs me under

Just had the 2.3 gal converted. I've no regrets. All my worries have gone. You'll regret it if you don't do it! It really does seem to be quieter and cleaner, certainly cheaper than diesel. There is no loss of power or torque (this was my biggest worry). A bit scary when you realease the filler gun but you cant resist a smile when paying Rich Checker, in answer to your thread starter. Ive had a 77 litre tank in the spare wheel bay this fills with about 55 litre of lpg. The spare now fits nicely behind the rear seats.

Im really pleased with my Galaxy, it is a petrol, the only critisism I have because it is thirsty. Having now owned it for 45k, it has now done 100k, the only problems have been seized wiper spindles, a pipe that came off the cruise control vacuum pump and a leaky pipe on the thermostat housing; all easily fixed. Yes the aircon is working well. My outlay for repairs has been a total of

When I first had my gal I had the windscreen replaced. Chatting with the autowindscreen man at the time, I distinctly remember the three connections; 2 lives and a common return, it sounds like one of the +s is down. I agree with the comments, check the supply to the tails and check for good connections. Otherwise its a replacement screen or plenty of de icer Rich

Well I ve finally bit the bullet and splashed out on a conversion to dual fuel LPG; the Gal goes in 1st week in December. Its the 2.3. ltr. Please, all you converts, tell me Im going to be happy and Ive done the right thing. Is it going to be reliable and at least as cheap as a diesel to run? I ve spoken to several LPG drivers with other vehicle, but no one with a Galaxy, they're not dissapointed. Are there any 2.3 converts who can reassure me? Rich

You could try these but I think you might have to bite the bullet and fork out for one of Fords Rich

I dont think there self learning, it sounds as though you may be right on the trigger threshold. Mine go off when it rains and I also have a tow bar. I had a chance to play with a VAG COM cable a short while ago and you can adjust each sensors' individual sensitivity setting; which I thought was pretty cool. So you can almost set it how you wish. In fact , having not seen the VAG COM, or any other OBD system before, I was quite impressed with its power as a tool. I would express caution when using or altering things though. Rich

The easiest way on the 2000-2005 model is to take out the near side headlamp (passenger). Look up between the inner and outer wing above the wheel arch cover and you will see it. The rubber pipe is at the front and if it has split you can probably cut off the end and push it back on; job done if you're lucky. Took literally 15 min max. Rich

These kits are OK if you know exactly what you are doing. Take care to follow the instructions very carefully. Over charging can cause the system evaporator not to "evaporate" all the liquid refrigerant entering it, simply because there's too much circulating the system, especially if the regulator (TEV) is not at its best. The evaporator is the last major bit in the system; the component that gets cold in the heater box. A possible consequence of this is liquid getting back to the suction or low pressure side of the compressor. Any liquid entering a compressor can literally break it catastrophically. Another consideration when reapeatedly using these kits is, are you loosing any oil from the system? Continually topping up may replace the refrigerant but not the oil. If the system has a largish leak, low in the system, say at the base of the condenser then your guaranteed to loose oil. You could end up with none left circulating in the system. The consequence is like running a two stroke on just unleaded; sure disaster. In an ideal world air con should not leak. It should last the life of the vehicle with no other attention other than renewing or tightening of the drive belt and changing of the pollen filter. Some do, but a fair proportion have a what the manufactures say is an acceptable leak rate. Ford's is 100 gram per year I think. Some are just not put together very well from the day they were assembled. I always liken the situation to a car tyre, some never leak, some just need a bit of air every year and some you're down the forecourt every time you fill up with fuel. A good judge of whether you air con is working correctly is to CAREFULLY feel the aircon pipes in the engine bay. This has to be done with the engine running at idle, so if you do this be very careful of moving parts and the high voltage ignition wires if its petrol fuelled. Select neutral and start the engine. Switch on the air con and set it to full fan and cold. In the engine bay look at the rear bulk head and look for the two aluminium pipes that go from the engine bay through bulkhead to the cockpit. These are the feed and return pipes to the evaporator. If you look carefully at these one is thicker than the other. The thin one is the feed; this carries liquid at a low velocity at high pressure. Feeling this pipe when the aircon is running, it should be slightly warm, to hot. The gal tends to be quite hot, so BE CAREFUL, other manufactures' vehicles vary. The thick one is the return; this carries gas that has evaporated in the tubes of the evaporator. It travels along the pipe at a lower pressure some forty times faster than the velocity of the liquid in the feed pipe. This pipe should feel cold, almost icing up. On a damp day this return pipe would almost certainly have condensation forming on it; it would be wet to touch just like house windows when cooking Sunday lunch (same effect). The return pipe temperature along with what the compressor clutch is doing can give an idea as to how much gas is in the system. If the return pipe is an ambient temperature and the compressor is not running then it is likely there is no gas or very little gas in the system. This check is not conclusive as there could be other faults that cause this. If the return pipe is cool but not cold, definitley less than ambient, and the compressor is running occasionally but fast cycling, then there could be a shortage of gas in the system. My definition of cool in this context is cooler than the surrounding metal but not colder than a bottle of beer out the fridge. My definition of cold is colder than a bottle of beer out of the fridge. The amount of refrigerant in a system is not directly proportional to its performance. If a fully and correctly serviceable charged system has a slow leak it will work perfectly well until a fixed amount of gas has leaked away. It will then stop working quite quickly as a certain level has been passed. The Mondeo for example takes around 740 grams of gas/liquid refrigerant. The later model about 820 gram. Both these cars' aircon work perfectly well with 560 grams of gas. However with 470 grams they struggle to work. So dont try to get more performance from your already serviceable system by adding more gas in the hope that it will get cooler, it doesn't work like that. So, take care with these kits you need to really know what you're doing. One last point. Don't use these kits to fill a system that is completely empty. The chances with an empty system are that air or some moisture has found its way in. This must be removed with a vacuum pump before introducing any gas. Rich

Same symptons, a little belt dressing did the world of good for several weeks Rich

I've got a laptop and a Galaxy and need to connect the two. What can I expect to pay for the vag com lead and software? Where is the best place to purchase this kit? Do I need anything else; hardware or software? Rich

Hi all Same problem, happend in France at the start in May, seemed to clear up then came back big style last week. I removed the whole wiper assembly. The wiper spindles were well and truly seized; both spindles. I felt I wasn't far from destoying them trying to drift them out. Nevertheless they came out. I spent a while cleaning them and greasing before reassembly. Once re-fitted they worked absolutley fine for about 2 minutes. then stopped again, quite abruptly. This time I found that one of the connecting rods had bent slightly during my efforts to free up the mechanism. It had jammed on the the centre nut of the motor crank as it passed over it. This meant removing the unit again to straighten it. The message hear is dont give up. I was in two minds as to start phoning the dealers and scrape yard after this second set back but was really pleased when I spoted the second problem. Rich

Vr6, Mark 2 (lastest shape one without the chrome bits) BTW before finding this leak I'd taken out a good proportion of the dash to get to the brake and clutch switches and valves. Very interesting how they got everything to fit behind that part of the dash. Rich

Finally got to work on the cruise control this weekend. SORTED. VR6, you were correct, the problem was a vacuum leak in the hose that leaves the vacuum pump. Simply perished; just cut off the bad end and pushed it back on. The location of the pump on the 2000.75 model is behind the N/S headlamp assm, up in between the inner and outer wings, above the plastic wheel arch cover. Without prior knowledge even customs and excise would struggle to find it. It appears to be located differently on all the different models. Pleased to sort it anyway, thanks Rich

Just a follow on from a post some time ago. Incredibily I got 80.51 litres of fuel in the tank today at Tescos. Not bad for a 70 litre tank. Suprisingly also this was refuelled only just after the "please refuel" sign came. Not a drop spilled and no leaks underneath. Has anyone ever bettered this? Next door neighbour says the breather valve may be stuck open allowing all the breather and pipes to fill up with fuel rather than contain air/vapour. Rich

I had a windscreen replaced and the replacer man said i'll put a couple of blobs of sealant behind this panel when I put the thing back together, he said that their prone to rattling at speed. At the time I thought nothing of it but there you go tips from the trades that know. Rich

I have a slow coolant leak on my 2.3 petrol. I have had the leak for about six months and it is in the thermostat housing. I have a new one but havent got round to replacing it yet. My heater goes cold as the level drops below minimum but only when idling. Topping up cures the problem and I have never needed to bleed the system. From your symptoms I suspect there may be a small head gasket breach forcing gas into the coolant and causing an overpressure which may be blowing off the coolant and leaving a vapour lock. I hope you problem is not this drastic but it sounds suspicious. The coolant smell could be from when the filler is venting at overpressure and infiltrating into the air inlet; they are very close to each other. Rich

It is manual. The problem happened again today Sunday. Foolishy I switched of the engine while waiting at some temporary traffic lights. It wouldnt turn over until I tried several times. Yes it nearly became embarassing As a footnote the starter sounds fine when OK and when the problem occurs there is no indication there is a problem with a sticking solenoid. When turning the key to operate the starter there is absolutley nothing; no relay clicks, no load on the system, no dimming of the lights, nothing. Then on the Xth try it will go, just as normal. I did drop the keys in some water several months ago but the key worked fine long after theyed dried out. The light still works so I assumed no damage. Would this affect the transponder though? Rich

Good point, there are lots and there is one for another Ford that has the same sort of key authentication system. I'll have a look at that one, cheers. Rich

Anyone experienced this? Sometimes I insert the key in the ignition and try to start and the starter does not operate. This has only happened three times in the same number of months. My wife uses the car much more than me and the problem has never occured with her, but she uses her own key ( the remote one, what a suprise!). Removing the key and re inserting seems to help but im not sure. My delemma is, is this a key authentication, starter motor or immobliser problem? Are things like this logged as fault codes? Has anyone eelse had this problem. Rich

.An old timer, who had worked on diesels-mainly vans and wagons- all his working life said to me some 16 years ago when I had one of the first Ford Orion. "If there's no S**T comes out the the back and it starts ok then you have a perfectly serviceable donk". This car had done something like 160K and drove ok but I doubted his advice and took the car to a "diesel specialist". They said that they would remove and check the injector spray pattern and leakage test them under pressure on a test rig and call me if they thought there was a problem. I got a call to say there was a problem and they wanted to charge about

The CC on my petrol Gal is doing strange things. Firstly it seems less sensitive and slower to respond. For a couple of years it has always been precise and responsive to a fall in speed, latley however the speed has to drop quite a way below the set value before it responds. It does eventually respond and eventually holds what is set. Another problem that has appeared at the same time is when the cruise is engaged and you request an increase in speed by using the stalk, ie moving it out, the engine responds and increases but when released the cruise drops out whereas before it would maintain the new speed. This doesnt always happen. Has anyone experienced these symptoms, or has any idea what might be the problem? Rich