xavier

Richy, I have a towbar and a towbar mounted bike rack, one of the platform ones that the bike wheels sit on rather than those arm things, an altera one, they're brilliant.

Hello all, Quick update from me in the hopes this helps someone out. To recap, as per my last post, the noises had returned and I was concerned. I then experienced a momentary loss of power steering a few days later. I read that the problems are due to the seals in the steering rack breaking down and clogging the filter in the power steering fluid header tank. Figuring I'd try and get a few extra miles out the pump, and more for the experiment to be honest, I bought another power steering fluid bottle and changed this new one in for the old one on the car. Expecting not much difference I was rewarded with no grindy noises, and no power steering issues for around 1000 miles when the grindy noises came back. Queue another power steering bottle, and again, no sign of any issues for another 1000 or so miles. Now until recently, 1000 miles would take me around 6 months to do so shelling out £40 on flea-bay for a genuine ford part wouldn't have bothered me, but recently I find myself doing 2000 miles a month so buying 2 a month seems rather wasteful. So I tried cleaning the three or four I had by that point. And it worked! I now rotate the power steering bottles every 2 weeks, thoroughly cleaning and rinsing the old one and fitting a cleaned, reused one. So far, I've done 6000 miles following this technique and have had no pump failure as yet. I understand that the proper way to fix the issue involves replacing the steering rack, but at 2K for a replacement people might be interested in a possible cheaper alternative, at least in the short term. I'll post instructions on changing and cleaning the bottles over the weekend.

Three months down the line all the old noises are back, pump still working for now but I think it's on borrowed time.

Car has been in to a Ford dealer who said the pump was gone. New (or maybe refurb - not sure) pump fitted, MOT'd for another year so we'll see how that goes. I'll post back if there are any further developments, but for now all seems to be working.

The only code logged is U3000, had her booked in to ford last week but they cancelled on me. Hopefully get her in soon.

After getting the "immobilizer active" message today in my Galaxy I can confirm the car won't turn over if it's still active. You get nothing / nada / zilch!

I went out to try forscan again on it to see if there were any codes registered but she's been sitting for so long the battery was flat and needed charged. From memory there wasn't anything useful either logged, or that the code reader could access.

Good to see the forum's back up and running again. I'm still no further forward with this. Tried changing the header tank and fluid but no dice. Next on the list is to get a garage to replace the rack with a refurbished one to see if that helps, though part of me wonders if I should just put it into the dealer and let them deal with it, no matter the cost.

Woohoo! Just need an answer to my mk3 post now.... ... tumbleweed.... .... .....

On the subject of inlet and outlet temps, when my unit was working correctly there was a 20 or so degree change between inlet and outlet temps IIRC.

I'm sure I posted some details when I repaired the aux pump in my old gal. I used some brushes bought from ebay, cost about 4 pounds I think, but I did get 5 sets! Quite useful actually as the first time I tried to cut them to size I messed up. The old pump can be repaired cheaply if you just spend some time on it. I recommend using cocktail sticks rather than thread to keep the springs out the way when re-assembling the unit. One advantage you will find from doing the pump is your cabin will heat up a lot quicker, even without the aux heater working. An hour will reduce to 10 mins or so. When removing the pump, a tool to remove the spring clips is of great benefit. Also you will find the hoses tight on it. Try not to spay coolant in your eyes as I did when it finally came loose! To me it sounds as if your aux heater is working, and may be similar to mine. First up, they don't like getting switched on for short bursts, ideally you want it on for 20-30 minutes at a time. Second issue I had is I found the heater worked perfectly when the car was full to half full of diesel. When the level went below half-way I found the heater performed poorly, and I believed the smoke was caused by fuel starvation rather than due to an issue with the glowplug.

Could also be the immobiliser is still active as the key chip hasn't been detected. I believe engine will turn over but not fire but not 100% sure.

Do you mean the high-level brake light? I noticed the rubber/foam padding around mine was coming adrift recently and managed to push it back into place. Perhaps yours has gone? If you mean the main lights (brake, reverse, fog etc) then I thought they were sealed units, certainly last time I changed the brake bulb I've no idea how water would get in there. Have you tried removing the units, and drying them out properly.

brianh is spot on. look in the Mk2 forum, LOTS of info in there!

Howdy all, been a while since I've been around, I suppose that could be testament to the better reliability with the MK3? Should be in my sig, but it's a Mk3 2008 2.0tdci galaxy. Anyway, driving into work the other day and power steering fault popped up. Thankfully I'd had my wheetabix and managed to make it the rest of the way and back home, but it's not a pleasurable experience and I was looking for some pointers for a fix. I've checked the fluid levels and that all looks ok. Fluid is clear in colour and up to the correct level. Things I've read so-far that it could be : - blocked filter in the power steering header tank - faulty pump - knackered steering rack As a start I thought I'd clean out the header tank and replace the pump - then saw the price of a pump. So think new header tank could be first up as a starter, I figure it's worth a try. I've also read that even if I do get a new pump, it needs coded to the car. Is this something DIY'able? Anyone done this before? Thanks in advance all, one disadvantage of the car's being more reliable I guess is less people to share their experiences!