Richmond

How about a blocked fuel tank breather pipe? There was a thread on this ages ago; I seem to recall that the Galaxy has some incredibly complicated breather arrangement (naturally), instead of a little tube opening out of the filler tube cap. If the breather is blocked, the fuel pump draws a partial vacuum in the tank and eventually can draw no more fuel; engine stops. The tank then sucks fuel and air back along the fuel pipe and when the pressure is high enough in the tank (takes a few minutes), you can start again. Then the pressure in the tank drops ...

That 'someone else' was none other than Petra the Blue Peter dog. I believe that Christopher Trace was sacked because he divorced (ahh, the 1960s, things were so much better then) and is now, how can I put this without embarrassing the moderator, a bit thirsty a lot of the time. Shame, given the positive effect he apparently had on at least one young life.

Judging by his avatar, he's too busy being sick to use the site.

Maplins (the electrical component shop, not the fictional holiday camp) sell 12V DC to 240 V AC converters cheap (

I had an oil pressure transducer fail shortly after an oil change (not on the Galaxy). Maybe the increased oil pressure was the last straw for it. Your recent top up might have had the same effect; it's probably not the slight overfill but the increased pressure from fresh, less viscous, oil wot did it (although I suppose the overfill doesn't help).

There was a thread on that very question quite a while ago. I'm pretty sure that the answer was 'no steps available'. A search would presumably find the thread.

Is it really true that the car is supposed to lock itself when you leave it (presumably if you remove the keys from the ignition and open and shut a door?)? It sounds potentially extremely dangerous and almost inevitably exremely inconvenient; God knows how many times I'd lock myself out (I'd like to think that I'd learn after the first, but experience suggests otherwise :P ). I find it annoying enough that mine locks itself if I don't open a door within 30s of unlocking with the remote.

That's what I thought, about both for washer and the coils, following what I've read here. There certainly appears to be 1 coil/plug (why?). The 2nd mech seemed to be talking about the coil pack which Nimrod says is on older models; doesn't give one a lot of confidence, does it?

Turned out to be a coil problem. The mechanic who looked at it with me told me that there is one coil for each plug on the V6, which seems a bit excessive. The bloke who reported after running the diagnostics said that the 'coil pack' had failed, and that there is one per bank of cylinders, ie 2. The rear washer is working now, must have been frozen. The mech told me that on my Galaxy, the rear washer pipe runs through the roof lining, so leakage will not affect any electronics under the seats, which is apparently the locking/alarm unit only, the engine management kit is behind the dash area. It was fixed under warranty. I hope it's not going to be a regular occurence; if there are six coils, it probably will be. The dealer did not have a coil in, had to order one, which I think odd. Otherwise, the service was excellent (Dagenham Motors, Hounslow).

My handbook, and I expect MrT's, says that either super or regular can be used but that super will give best performance and economy. I'm not convinced. Even if super does give better performance, it would be wasted, and the economy would have to a hell of a lot better to offset the extra cost of super.

Sounds like the vindscreen vipers to me.

From a completely unscientific assessment, I think that the super gives if anything fewer mpg for no increase in performance (and is of course pricier). The performance with regular is fine anyway, too good for the suspension etc. With the amount of petrol the V6 gets through, the extra cost of super is psychologically impossible to cope with.

Bloody hell, if you think a Galaxy's sexy (even a black one with alloys), I wouldn't want to be sitting next to you when a Ford GT40 or a Ferrrari goes past :angry: .

The need to secure the rearmost seats is not incompatible with under floor storage of the spare, although it would require a slightly more complicated structure than usual. Several MPVs store the seats under the floor when they're not in use! (Where do they put the spare? On the roof?)

It is a completely crap way to store the spare. It sounds as if the cable may be partly wound the wrong way around the spindle (or whatever it winds onto); I seem to remember that if you keep winding it out, it starts to wind back in. Although that shouldn't matter, I imagine that the cable could get tangled around the spindle. Have you tried winding (try both directions) while pulling hard on the cable? (Get a friend to pull your wire while you twist your nut :o .) Although it's crap, it's better than on the Peugeot 306, in which the spare is held under the car in a cage which is lowered by turning a nut in the boot. You then struggle to undo a catch (by lifting the cage with the wheel in, under the car, at arm's length :o ) to open the cage, and drag the spare out. By then you're filthy and knackered. Putting it back's even worse. Why they don't put the thing in a well under the boot, God knows.

Moderator, please delete this post. It's a duplicate (triplicate actually). Sorry.

Moderator, please delete this post. It's a duplicate (triplicate actually). Sorry.

On Sat, driving through France, the engine warning light (the yellow picture of an engine on the speedo) came on :rolleyes: and has been on ever since. The handbook says to take the car in asap; it's only flashed briefly and occasionally (under acceleration), so I continued to drive it (the handbook says that if it flashes, you have to reduce speed and take it in immediately) :o . The engine sounds to be missing on one cylinder. It sounds much worse at low revs than at high. Acceleration is down and it pulls not at all. It motors along happily (if a bit roughly) at 80 once it's got there. The light came on just after I'd removed snow chains (Spider Spikes, which don't go round the 'back' of the wheels, not conventional chains), which cannot have anything to do with it (?) and the rear washer is being weedy (could a leak from the washer pipe have knackered some crucial bit of electronic control circuitry?). The car is off to the dealer asap for a bit of diagnostics, but any suggestions as to the cause of or solution to the problem gratefully received; I hate being wholly in the hands of a dealer.

My rear o/s door is exactly like that, has been from when I bought it at less than 1 year old.

I have a late 2001 Galaxy and the sweep of the windscreen wipers is fine; they sweep right up to the side edges of the screen. Unless your screen shape/size or the position of the wipers is different, you should be able to achieve the same result with the arms and blades fitted to mine.

Keep your hair on :( ; I'm not advising anything, just saying what I think would happen. If I drive my car when I can (or should) see that it is in a dangerous condition and as a result I cause damage, I'll get the blame and Ford won't. Rightly or wrongly, this is likely to be true even if the cause of the dangerous condition is not me but an inherent fault with the car. It's even more likely to be true if Ford could show that I was party to an internet discussion about the danger! That is not to say that I think that Ford should do nothing about the problem. It's all a bit academic as no-one is thinking of suing Ford because of the poor wiper coverage so far as I know. I like Ford's claim that they 'do not pay compensation.'; I bet they do if a court tells them to :blink: . You might want to say 'Pinto' to them.

10/10 for effort, Shazza, but I doubt that any one seeking compensation on the grounds that the wipers leave a blind spot would succeed :blink: . The driver can see the danger, that s/he can't see properly, and so must take steps to minimise the damage or potential damage, that is, slow down or stop. If s/he notices, or should have noticed, that visibilty is dangerously limited and continues to drive, any damage suffered is likely to be regarded as their fault, not Ford's, even if the design of wipers/screen is acknowledged to be poor and Ford knew of the problem.

It certainly should be. I was stuffed (puncture, middle of nowhere, no tool kit) once because some idiot had put on a locking wheel nut with a different size nut :rolleyes: :lol: (it was not a factory fit). Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

I've owned my Galaxy for about 15 m, about 8000 miles. Apart from a sticky electric window switch and a broken n/s wing mirror (not Ford's fault, although it would be handy if they automatically folded in when the igniton is switched off), no probs at all :rolleyes: . Aircon fine, washers fine, engine going fine, it's all fine. Now I've written this, the thing is going to start falling apart immediately, of course :lol: .

They usually come with a (small) range of sockets. You could always drive to Lidl and check it before you buy it. Check also that the locking wheel nut is the same size as the others; it should be, but it has been known ... :huh: