BrianH

you might have better luck with vcds if you have a laptop you can connect up? only other thing i can think of is if the idle control valve (assuming the sharan has one) isn't working as well as it should be - easiest way to rule this out is to try starting with your foot slightly down on the acclerator. If it starts and stays running like that try cleaning the icv first it may be sticking. Though no reason running out of fuel should be casuing that (could be a coincidence though)

That sounds normal with the led behaveour i think, fairly sure it flashes rapidly if it isn't seeing the key which would indicate the relay 30 issue. The hissing is a vaccum leak. May or may not be the cause of it. If you can gain access to it find the leak and plug it in someway (pulling the hose off and putting your finger over it will do initally) and see if the problem persists. If it stops you've found the cause (and even if it doesn't stop fixing it would be a good idea). May have just got worse with time. Only other thing i can think of is if the idle control valve is sticking?

Actually one other thought is there any odd hissing sounds round the pedals (vaccum leak from the servo) or under the bonnet (leak from the line that feeds the servo)

If that isn't showing anything out of the ordinary then it might be worth a scan with vcds if your able to do so just in case it is detecting something wrong (probabbly a long shot but worth a try. Does the starter sound to turn over normally or does it struggle? if its struggling it may be a battery issue or worn starter. Very few people on here with the petrol sharan models (not many more with the petrol galaxy models either) though that may just suggest they either go wrong in more obvious to fix ways than the diesel varients. Relay 30 certainly worth a look as chris has mentioned. Only other thing that comes to mind is the fuel pump, though its unlikly to do any damage to it running dry for a few seconds till the car would have died anyway as it had run out of fuel, it seems too consistant to be down to picking up debris on the pickup from the tank.

There is a good set of a instructions in the Faq section on doing it.

Try to make it the same thickness as the existing. They vary in thickness so you may need a few options to pick from. The thinner ones can be replaced with lighting board or trailer wire. As long as what you get is stranded wire it should be ok. Don't use the solid stuff like twin + earth wire it won't bend easily enough. And unless you want to do it again soon replace the lenghth that bends - cut it inside the car and boot lid so your joins aren't being bent on opening the boot.

Burning smell if its a mk2 I'd start looking at the fusebox in the engine bay just in case it's started melting.

it won't make any difference to the part you receive if you get it from either of them or ford for that matter. Might be a different price though so if you have access to both give them a call and ask?

Not had the problem, but would sound to me like the return line or one of the rollover valve bits on the top of the tank has come off its housing or connector. Or maybe the return line has a hole in it? It should be fairly easy to find the source of the leak with someone to help you (they fill the tank while you locate where its coming from). Is it anywhere near the booster heater area?

They pop up on ebay at fairly cheap prices.......

The keys don't normally fail unless the chip has fallen out. The common cause of problems with them besides the chip going walkies is the relay that drives it fails. not sure if this is the same as the fuel pump relay on the diesels, its commonly referred to as relay 30 on the petrol models (the relay in question supplies the power to the immobiliser and fails due to dry joints on the relay). Hopefully someone can provide the right one to look at for your model. If the key works intermittently start looking at the relay. Possibly unrelated, possibly its been dodgy for a while and the attention given to the fusebox so far has been enough to make it play up more.

Nope. Which makes it a pain hence why i didn't change it at the time (its only possible to change if you cut the wires that run though it). Theres a couple of plugs on the loom but most of them are too big to fit through the boot, and they only connect bits of the loom anyway. Of course it wouldn't have needed changing if he hadn't melted it in the first place so its not a problem thats going to come up often.

From another car yes. Both ends unclip from the body/boot. No idea if they are purchasable (given that the local ford dealer couldn't get bolts for the con rods on a newer car or the gasket for the oil pickup i'd doubt it would be easy to find). Does mean you need the wires out of the boot to install it though, hence why its had to be stuck back in again.

Not sure what was worse the earth sleeving over the several broken wires, the melted boot where he had tried to use heatshrink (or maybe tried to shrink the earth sleeving) or the bathroom silicone he'd tried to use to stick the melted boot back in place! Thats all gone now except for the boot - had I realised how bad it was before starting I'd have changed it as well.

If you can get hold of some trailer board lighting wiring that makes the job a lot easier. use that to replace all the smaller wires then. This is what faced me when i decided to investigate mine. It probabbly would have worked better if the previous person to meddle with it had left it alone!

Theres a lot of that colour wire used in the door locking circuits, specifically the haynes manual shows a 0.35 one running to the tailgate lock though it shows this connects to a green 0.5 wire somewhere along its length. I seem to remember when i had issues with it that that particular wire on mine was very broken (same thing couldn't immediately find the end of it). If it does go to the tailgate lock your should find that either you have to use the key to open it all the time, or it will always open when you pull the handle if its the same one i had issues with. It took around 5 minutes to remove the panel on the door to check though theres just a few screws holding it in place.

the ends of the vaccum hoses in the engine bay can and do split without a noticable effect on the braking assistance, its possible sometimes to hear this from the cabin. Its also possible to have a leak in the seal round the brake pedal where it moves the piston inside the servo (you can see this if you put your head in the footwell). If its definitely coming from the console i can only see it being whats highlighted above.

I would suspect you need to clear it before it will fire up. Either way if there is another problem with it the same lead will assist you. You need a vcds lead and laptop and copy of vcds lite Also the booster will only come on when its cold enough to trigger it.

have a look at http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?/topic/7510-diesel-run-on-water-pump/&do=findComment&comment=54739 and http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?/topic/11814-run-on-pump/&do=findComment&comment=97935

That suggests to me that the run on pump needs attention (possibly brushes, maybe more) following that I'd recommend you get hold of a vcds lead and scan and see what errors come up (cheaper and more effective than guessing at stuff and needed to reset some faults anyway once youve fixed them).

Are they 15" or 16" wheels? and MK1 or MK2?

Does the normal gauge work as expected?

I think you will find its the air temp outside the car that matters if memory serves me correctly from reading here it has to be below 5 degress. Give it a try now its showing 3.4 here!

End of the day its easy to change the sensor, not so easy to change the ring (if you can get the wheel off and see what your doing the abs sensor shouldn't cause you too many problems to change if required again)

Which engine and which mk Galaxy makes a difference