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Worth adding that it should be a calcium/lead (CA) not a lead/antimony battery(SB).

Any probably more oversea's. They dont call them Bombay Telecom for nothing. :rolleyes: Seriously though, without getting into this broadband argument, BT have the worst customer service out of any company I have ever dealt with.

Hopefully they've just pinched it to re-upholster those awful seats! Seriously though, bastards. Hope it turns up.

Drop link creaking Found it! I thought it was me who started this one but it turns out I only contributed. All the same it makes interesting reading, theres a couple of us who had this issue very soon after fitting new links.

I changed my drop links and within 2 weeks I had a horrible creaking so i changed the shocks and top mounts (pig of a job) and still had the creaking. Second set of droplinks and hey presto silence! It seems some of the none OE drop links are of dubious quality, in response to one of my posts on the subject there were a few others on the forum that had the same issue. Your description of a creaky door is absolutely spot on for this problem. Why dont you try unbolting the link at one end (2 min job) and rocking the car to see if you still have the problem? Ive been trying to use the search function to find my earlier post, but without much luck, if you have more time on your hands than I have at the moment you could try it. Hope the above helps

Anti roll bar link arms very commonly cause creaking noises.

A complete mirror assembly from ford is around

So what your saying is that when you quoted 5-6mpg more then it was nothing to do with the auto transmission but in fact the cruise control and your now more relaxed driving manner. Surely then the implication is that cars with cruise control should qualify for a lower tax band? :o Note that I said properly driven manual, for comparisons sake you must take out the individuals driving style, I doubt that you or I could get the same MPG constantly in identical vehicles. Just as important is the driving enviroment, I dont doubt that on a 100 mile motorway trip an auto could provide higher mpg than an equivalent manual if the gear and diff ratios dictated but the fact is that these figures show the best available from each vehicle when driven correctly and the auto in those condtions provides lower MPG and higher CO2 emmisions. I strongly suspect the reason auto Galaxy's have a higher tax band is actually to cover the recycling costs of all those knackered auto boxes! ;) ;) :o :22: :22:

A properly driven manual is more efficient than an auto, gears can be changed when the driver wants not when the ECU decides, this has been thrashed out before and im ready for the flaming from the auto camp but even the manufacturers figures show that manuals are the more fuel efficient. In the case of a 115 TDi MkII the combined cycle figures show a 6mpg saving for the manual over the auto and 33g/km less CO2.

Has anybody considered the throttle potentiometer? I wouldn't of thought the MAF would give an intermittent fault. I personally think that a diagnostic check is in order, either a member with Vag-com(anyone local), or ring round reputable independent garages, there's one in Carlisle I use called Auto-tech who specialise in engine management issues a diagnostic from them is around

Lol, back when this post was started it was probably CG Ford (its a bit of an old one!) Agree with you on GK though, their paintshops even worse than their service side and if anyone from GK is reading there welcome to come and look at my mondeo bumper.

I would suspect a faulty brake light switch is at the root of your problem, do a search, theres plenty of posts on the subject.

Its possible you could have two seperate problems here, I too was plagued by a constant creaking in the front suspension. It turned out to be the front anti-roll bar drop links. Although they had been replaced just a short time earlier, the ones I bought were very of poor quality (ebay) and from about 2 weeks after fitting I had trouble with the noise they were making. A few other forum members had the same trouble with droplinks and at least one of them bought them from the same ebay seller that I did, heres a link to the original post on the subject. Click here If you do buy them, try pricing main dealers (Ford & VW) as some members have had competitive prices from them, although my local ford quoted me somewhere around

On the Golf, TD with a red i, was the way they badged the 115, T with a red Di was the 130, and an all red TDi was a 150. Perhaps that carries on over other VAG models.

Do a forum search for MOT failures, there loads of posts covering issues with the secondary airpump causing emission related failures on 2.0 petrols. IIRC there is a problem if your pump isnt working with the ECU overfuelling and thereby causing higher emissions. Someone even replaced the pump with a bulb to fool the ecu into thinking the pump was ok. Heres a link to what is probably the most helpful thread.Emissions MOT Fail

I'm sorry but your post lost all credibility when you mentioned a Scot's man paying fo beer! :P :P :) :D :)

A SQUIRRELS TALE REST OF THE WORLD VERSION: The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building and improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. THE END -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE U.K. VERSION: The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a press conference and demands to know why the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are cold and starving. The BBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food. The British press inform people that they should be ashamed that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so, while others have plenty. The Labour Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The Grasshopper Council of GB demonstrate in front of the squirrel's house. The BBC, interrupting a cultural festival special from Notting Hill with breaking news, broadcasts a multi cultural choir singing "We Shall Overcome". Ken Livingstone rants in an interview with Trevor McDonald that the squirrel got rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the squirrel to make him pay his "fair share" and increases the charge for squirrels to enter inner London. In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The squirrel's taxes are reassessed. He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as builders for the work he was doing on his home and an additional fine for contempt when he told the court the grasshopper did not want to work. The grasshopper is provided with a council house, financial aid to furnish it and an account with a local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile. The squirrel's food is seized and re distributed to the more needy members of society, in this case the grasshopper. Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, the squirrel has to downsize and start building a new home. The local authority takes over his old home and utilises it as a temporary home for asylum seeking cats who had hijacked a plane to get to Britain as they had to share their country of origin with mice. On arrival they tried to blow up the airport because of Britain's apparent love of dogs. The cats had been arrested for the international offence of hijacking and attempted bombing but were immediately released because the police fed them pilchards instead of salmon whilst in custody. Initial moves to then return them to their own country were abandoned because it was feared they would face death by the mice. The cats devise and start a scam to obtain money from people's credit cards. A Panorama special shows the grasshopper finishing up the last of the squirrel's food, though spring is still months away, while the council house he is in, crumbles around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain the house. He is shown to be taking drugs. Inadequate government funding is blamed for the grasshopper's drug 'illness'. The cats seek recompense in the British courts for their treatment since arrival in UK. The grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog during a burglary to get money for his drugs habit. He is imprisoned but released immediately because he has been in custody for a few weeks. He is placed in the care of the probation service to monitor and supervise him. Within a few weeks he has killed a guinea pig in a botched robbery. A commission of enquiry, that will eventually cost

So all those that replied before you are racist just because they do not want to subsidise those who want to migrate to the UK "en masse" and take advantage of heavily subsidised housing, monetary benefits from the government (tax payers) despite no previous financial input from themselves, free healthcare etc,etc. When we can not preach our religion in our own streets(read the news), when our language is not the first language of the majority of children in many of our schools, and when our council tax is paying for literature to be printed in 15 different languages, IS SOMETHING NOT VERY SADLY WRONG?? Racist BS? No just people sick of being taken for fools.

Fook the bird feeder, lets take down the goverment. Let our green and pleasant land be ours once more.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! "Anyway I hope you enjoy it, but no match for a shalaxy." Chalk and cheese mate, if I bought an 02 "Shalaxy" with 47k in the condition that this fiats in i'd be paying somewhere between 6-7k (going by the book), how about paying LESS than 1/3 of that for a more than capable alternative? And i'm saying alternative NOT equivalent, different horses for different courses. As far as reliability goes, speaking from experience the Galaxy doesn't set a very high benchmark! That is not a criticism, I think the Galaxy is a great car (im reluctant to say love Galaxy's after watching a rather disturbing programme on the telly the other night!) I would have another tomorrow if i thought they represented good value for money. I will probably spend as much time lying on my back under this car or banging my head against a wall as I did with the Gal' if I didn't want the frustrations that breakdowns and faults cause I would have bought a Toyota or Honda or other meticulously engineered Japanese car. At least when I am exhausting my encyclopedic knowledge of expletives next time something breaks, I'll know I didn't pay a premium price for the pleasure.

Cheers Gio, dont believe the belts have been done, and a major service will be performed this week so hopefully no worries! I got it through a contact in the trade but the car was a steal, without going into figures I couldn't have got a decent Mk1 tdi for the cash. My big worry was the annual trip to the airport (in 2 weeks) with Mrs & me, two kids and the inlaws plus 6 cases, buggy and hand luggage. The Gal was fine, with the 7th seat out and the cases stacked up in its place and behind the remaining rearmost seat. Looking into the back of "the frog" (thats what i was thinking too Gregers) I was worried about space so we have just performed a trial loading run, needn't have worried. The rearmost seats are a wierd set-up, the central one slides forward but the outer 2 have 2 sets of mountings, one being approximately 6" further forward than the others. So, with the rear seats in their most forward positions, I got 2 cases on the floor long ways on and the other 4 standing up sideways on with the buggy trapped between them and the seats. Neat but still with plenty room for another case if we needed to or all the hand luggage with space to spare! There was even room for me to sit comfortably in the 2 outer rear seats and im 6'6" and the wrong side of 18 stone! Admittedly the central rear seat has virtually no leg room just like the rearmost in the Gal' when they were slid forwards Anyhow, more than happy with the frog, looking forward to my holiday, but I have taken out breakdown cover just in case (Well it is a fiat after all!) ;)

For a few weeks now Ive been toying with the idea of getting rid of the Galaxy. It was getting rather long in the tooth and I was sick of

Mine did this last year, I had to replace the mechanism inside the door(the part that engages the striker and has the solenoid attached), cost about a tenner of ebay. some of the metal components inside the mech' rust causing this problem. It was the subject of a service bulletin early in production, and plastic guards were retro-fitted to problem cars. It may help if you take the door card off and give it a good dose of WD40 but if your going to the extent of removing the card, you may aswell just fit a replacement mech'. The replacement must be from a Mk1, the Mk2 is slightly different, it would fit but you would not be able to lock the door with a key as the part that mates with the door lock is a different shape. You dont need the solenoid, it detatches from the mechanism and may make the part cheaper from a breakers.

The 2.0 petrol is different though, 2 sensors on the bottom of the thermostat housing, the one nearest the front is the temp gauge sender.

Bye! Although we may bump into each other if I ever get back into DoD (more of a battlefield/CoD4 person myself).