charles

It's a bit similar to the problem I had with my car. The Ford dealer could not find error codes, so it had no fault! But the engine ran terrible. It took me months but at the end I found the fault by myselves (thanks to internet and this excellent forum). The sensor wire loom was damaged, causing strange and intermittent behaviour, such a cutting out, loss of power. Some wires of the sensor loom shorted/disconnected so the ECM could not make anything of it. Although I already was thinking to exchange the car, It's no driving perfectly again. the lesson: don't give up.

BTW every garage can do the compression test, although the ford garage will have the special tool for your engine. The spark plug holes are very deep and narrow, a standard compression tester will probl. not fit.

approx. 1 hour labour

I think that most car makes have problems with there aircons. The trouble is that the engine is vibrating and in combination with corrosion the pressure pipes will leak in the long run. The dry running of the compressor may cause the compressor to break.

ask for a compression test . this is a simple test to investigate for broken piston ring or broken valve. it can be measured with removing spark plugs/pressure device but also with an electronic device that measures the difference between idle of each cylinder (spark plug stays in place). If pressure in each cylinder is OK there is still hope for less expensive repair.

This is near the part price of the MAF. This means they will exchange without labour costs. The exchange however is a piece of cake. It takes 1 minute.

I never use them only for parts. Have had many bad (and expensive) experiences. Stupid trainees (at senior rates) distroying your car. This is mine top 4: 1: overfilling the engine oil 2: wrong oil specification 2: faulty diagnosis 4: unneccesairy replacing the good or repairable parts

I agree that the secondary air pump has nothing to do with the stalling. Suggestions: Idle Control Valve (can be cleaned) Connectors or wiring (check carefully)

I have read in earlier subjects that the shalaxy must have reinforced tyres. Mine has none, the last time Kwik-fit fitted Pirellis P6000. In the drivers manual there is nothing about reinforced sidewalls, only about the sizes and pressure. what is true?

my kids have headphones for their DVD. My wife me wants silence and I'm driving and I want music! With headrest speaker at the drivers seat, I can listen to music at a low volume without disturbing the silence.

maybe a weird question. has someone experience with installing headrest speakers. normally they are fitted in spiders. But my wife complains about the music on long journeys, with headrest speakers a more private enviroment could be created.

no problems at all with my 97 2.3, maybe the quality of the ford compressor is better than VW?

At last I found the cause of the irritating problems I faced the last months :D ;) . My car hesistated and jumped randomly. The Ford dealer diagnosted it but could not find anything. Firstly I replaced the MAF that improved the drivebility greatly, but did not cure the problems. Than I suspected the EGR system because when I disconnected the EGR valve hose the problem seemed to go away. But I was wrong, the faults were only less appearent. After careful inspection I discovered corrored wires of the big wire loom just behind the battery. Acid of a previously leaking battery caused solving of isolation, moisture coming from the bulkhead further accelareted this. I ordered a new wire loom (from connector to several sensors, ignition coils and injection), this one costs EUR 144. The replacement took me several hours because some connectors are difficult to access behind the engine. the air intake section have to be removed and the car must be lifted to access it from under the car. The car is now running fine without faults. To my opinion it is stupid to route a massive wire loom just behind the battery. Maybe it is changed in the newer models. I re-engineered the design. I made a rubber protection flap above the new wire loom and connector, protecting it from incoming moisture and acid.

lot of problems to the galaxy are due to moisture ingress. Causes corrosion, leakage, electric shortage. If you look at the water flowin the wiper area i'm not suprised. This bay has to swallow a lot of water coming from the windscreen and was badly engineered.

I am really disappointed about the poor quality of the galaxy components/wiring and the high replacement prices of them. I seems that made the galaxy for an economical life of 6-8 years.

When inspecting the sparkplug area I discovered seriously cracked isolation of the wiring to the ignition coil, see picture. I repaired it by cutting it and soldered a new piece of wire, but the connector should be replaced too. Only a small air gap seperates each wire into the connector. I phoned my ford dealer, but the connector can not be ordered ! Instead a complete wire loom must be ordered costing hundreds of EUR. It is a standard connector the engine has many of them, f.e. the temp. sensors how can I get one?

It

they are special platium type spark plugs (motocraft) and cost appr. eur 34 total for the 4 ones. for changing you need a special pipewrench, because they are fitted very deep and very narrow into the cylinder head. see the haynes manual. misfiring could also be caused by a defective ignition coil. I heard from others than on 2.3l they can break because of the heat.

Is oil change not a normal maintenance procedure? - how about small metal parts (chipping) /aging of the oil.

the MAF comes complete with the aluminium housing. So no special tools are needed (maybe thats why is it so expensive!)

I want to change the gearoil of the manual gearbox. my car has done 100kmiles and changing gear is stiff in first gear. has anyone done this ?

before: engine vibration rough driving at low speeds (at high speeds it runs fine) more fuel consumption less power after replacement: less engine noise no vibration more power and more mpg smooth driving at low revs

I paid EUR 139 (incl VAT) in the netherlands for a MAF at the Ford dealer. this is the MAF of the 2.3l engine. I do not know if the diesel has the same.

Since a few months I have some irritating engine problems. I replaced the defective MAF, that improved the drivability strongly, but that did not solve the sudden cutting out - jumping at the mid speed range. As the dealer could not diagnose anything I had to solve it by myselves (also to save on expensive labour) I found some very good information on the site www.fordscorpio.co.uk. This car has the same 2.3 engine as the galaxy, and has excellent fault finding info. The EGR system is a very sensitive and complex thing and can cause severe drivabilityl problems when not operating. I disconnected the hose on the EGR valve and the problems were gone. Thus it had to be the EGR system, however you no never know sure, because the ECM can detect that and fall back in other safe program. I removed the EGR valve. This valve was heavenly coaled. I cleaned it with carb. cleaner and checked the operation, seemed to be fine. This did not solve the problem. Now I think I found the problem, the Pressure Diffential sensor. This sensor measures the flow in the EGR pipe from exhaust to EGR valve. If this sensor gives no or minimal signal, the ECM thinks that there is no flow to the EGR valve. Than the ECM opens the EGR valve to much, distroying the combusion and cutting out the engine. When I pulled the rubber hose the sensor it looked badly polluted. I do not think I can clean it. I will buy a replacing part.

correct grade of oil?