PembsPanther

I did have a quick look at the headlight and the drivers side is visibly higher than the passenger I can only think someone has had the headlight unit out at some stage and maybe disrupted the alignment somehow, there is an adjustment bolt according to ETIS so hopefully this will do the trick, I will have a go at adjusting that tonight. Off for tyres this morning :)

That is what I was thinking, going to have a play next weekend see if I can find a clever way of storing everything, there is loads of room behind those rear trim panels so am hopeful as long as no rattles, pet hate is rattles and at the moment this old girl has plenty of them to track down and sort out.

Nope Brian no sign of it anywhere just what seems like a plastic bracket that I am presuming should be holding the jack in place. I bought a new trolley jack as I was not happy with the lift on my old one for this Galaxy, fine for changing wheels but not really for crawling around underneath so I am going to put the old one in the boot along with a tool kit and some other handy things ready for Winter.

Oh yes there is a big bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates with her name on tomorrow :)

Well has it passed it's MOT? mmmmm nope! Me letting it down again not had time to do anything this week, the whole week went completely pear shaped by 8am last Monday! uhhhhhhhhh crazy day again today so still no time, got all the parts here just need a few hours to get it done, hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday, I have till Friday to get it back in for a re-test. Had a lesson in why it is not a good idea to put things off over the last 2 days, sods law springs to mind! The MOT mentioned needing 2 new front tyres due to wear on the inside edge so left the house Friday morning for the school run, got about 1 mile away from home when I hear a "tsssssssssssssssssssssssss" then the never nice to hear rumbling of a tyre destroying itself, pulled over flat front drivers side tyre, great! Crawled under the car as I knew I had a good spare, I checked it when I picked the car up but now that was flat as well and no jack! Friend came a rescued me took the wheel off went to ATS new tyre fitted away we go, was intending to go back to ATS to get the other side done and the spare but as usual the day went wrong and I had no time, no biggie I thought I will do it Monday......................... Yesterday afternoon left the house taking my eldest to a birthday party, same stretch of road "tssssssssssssssssssssss" OMG you have to be kidding, pulled over this time the passenger side uhhhhhhh after much head holding phoned same friend who very kindly came and rescued me again for the second day running, took the dam wheel off dropped daughter off and then went to get a new wheel, 3pm Saturday afternoon year 2015 of course ATS will be open, this is not 1975 why would they be shut on a Saturday afternoon, well they and every other tyre / garage in Pembrokeshire must all be trapped in a time warp because after touring round 7 places all were shut! Having no choice and needing to move the car from the side of the road I went to Halfords, who were open and bought some of the Holts tyre weld, as a side note they are currently selling off the big cans for a fiver! Anyway not having used this stuff before I was a bit sceptical, got back to the car the tyre that was on was shredded so dropped the spare after thinking where is my spare wheel carrier and why is there to threaded rods and 2 bots holding it on?? Put the spare on and inflated it using the tyre weld, it did a great job I was really impressed to be honest and very thankful! Got me home at least, car now on the drive for today but sadly me still working! Anyway I hope my mishaps over the last 2 days have provided you with a little light laughter :) Moral, well I do not need to say it do I really?Needless to say tomorrow there will be a brand new front tyre, brand new spare in the boot along with at least 2 bottles of tyre weld and tools required to change a dam wheel! ahhhh what a week.

These are now a permanent fixture in my tool box: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221789934068?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Thanks for that link. What stupid things they are!! Lol I can't believe you have to take all that off just to unplug the frigging mirror. Ha ha ha, I agree bit of a design "burp" for sure! It would not be a Ford though without a few little oddities :)

These are now a permanent fixture in my tool box: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221789934068?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I agree with Paul, in the long run I would use the "proper" boot however I do understand it takes a lot of confidence for a home "tinkering" mechanic to start taking out driveshafts, although not really complicated if you have never done it before then I can see why if there was a shortcut someone would want to take it. Have a watch of the video below it is from one of the youtube channels I watch all the time, Eric The Car Guy is his name and this video was done about 4 years ago he is now in a very plush shop thanks to his youtube efforts, anyway he stresses if the joint is clicking then you are wasting your time but goes on to show how to seperate the shaft and replace a boot, the driveshaft he is using is not from a galaxy but they are generally all similar in design, the video will give you an idea of not only how to do it but what to expect as well:

Yes and yes :) Never used them myself and to be honest do not really like the idea of them no particular reason why just seems like a bit of a hack however having said all that it will pass the MOT with it and as long as you do it with the knowledge that you "maybe" will have to re-do at some stage then they might be fine, the boot is only a grease holder really so............. They are here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SPLIT-CV-JOINT-DRIVESHAFT-DRIVE-SHAFT-BOOT-GAITER-KIT-EASY-FIT-/321492647966?fits=Car+Make%3AFord%7CModel%3AGalaxy&hash=item4ada74801e (above link chosen at random)

Thanks for the replies everyone :) Sounds a lot easier than I was imagining, I had visions of having to drop the rack t be able to do it, had that experience before! All in all really not a bad MOT for the pittance I paid for the car, quite pleased really, parts ordered but not coming till Tuesday! Will crack on with the other smaller things this weekend, tyres, bulbs, fog lamp mystery?? Ha ha it would not be a Ford without a few oddities :)

Morning All Well D-Day arrived today and the old Gal was in for it's MOT this morning, sadly (as expected) it failed, I will list all of the fail items for clarity but obviously some of them are 10 pence easy repairs, right here goes: 1/ Registration plate margin less than minimum requirement front 2/ Front position lamp not working nearside 3/ Headlamp aim to high offside 4/ Rear fog lamp not working offside 5/ Battery insecure 6/ Direction indicator wrong colour rear (both) 7/ Steering rack gaiter split offside 8/ 2 Front tyres 9/ Anti-roll bar linkage has excessive play in a ball joint nearside front lower. All in all not too bad I am reasonably pleased apart from the steering rack gaiter, I hate anything to do with steering rack so am really hoping this can be replaced somehow on the car, going to do some research now and see the best way of fixing it, any wisdom welcome :) Headlamp aim to high, not sure why this is any ideas? Rear fog lamp not working offside are there supposed to be 2? The other side works I thought one of them was a "blank" on some models? As said any advice / wisdom appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

Hi Brian I did have my doubts about the throttle cable, there seems to be a lot of it, more that needed anyway it kind of loops back on itself which seems bizarre but when I had it all apart it was really free moving with no problems, it returns fine as soon as the pedal is released. I will order a new idle control valve later and slap that on this weekend see if that helps. According to ETIS there should be an O ring between the throttle body and manifold however for the life of me I could not see one when I had it apart, so I have either completely missed it (would not surprise me!) or it was not so I am going to try and track down a new O ring and also replace / add this at the same time. The problem on the whole seems to be a little bit better, it does still stick but not quite as much as it was, either way it is a fault somewhere so I need to find it.

Thanks for the replies Brian, I appreciate it, apologies it has taken me a while to reply back been a bit pre occupied with some family visiting, back to normal now. I will investigate the plastics around that area thoroughly and see if I can figure it out, it only seems to happen in slow or stop traffic when moving it is fine, I really need to also get onto diagnosing this air con issue as well, the list is growing! Still it will keep me busy. Well now covered just under 3000 miles and so far the old girl has not put a foot wrong,, could be a little more fuel efficient ideally but I can live with what she is returning, not worked out an actual MPG yet but £80 worth of super unleaded is returning around 450 miles (ish maybe a wee bit more), wondering if there might be a more efficient ECU map out there? No proper histopry so no idea if the ECU has ever been flashed or updated. It will be going in for an MOT over the next week, that should be fun! I know it needs new droplinks, might do that this weekend get it out of the way apart from that though the only other thing I have noticed is a scabby cat but "seems" to be working and the rear suspension arms look a bit rough as well but apart from that it all, to the untrained eye of course, looks fine so we shall see. I was hoping to get the scabby rear arch done before the MOT but just not had the weather, I need 2 dry days to do the repair I want to do and so far it has not stopped raining!

Evening All :) Paul thanks for the heads up on those products, sound ideal I will keep a look out for them. Brian no problem I will try and have a proper look this weekend and report back. Well busy day today, 13 hours solid driving, should have been more like 9! Anyway the old Gal? Apart from a couple of annoyances didn't put a foot wrong, very impressed at last a decent mile muncher! Although at one point munching miles was not happening due to an incident on the M56, not sure what it was after we had sat there for 3 hours when we finally arrived at the bottle neck where they we merging 3 lanes of traffic into one as all that could be seen was 2 lanes of cones! I won't rant about it just in case something terrible happened that I do not know about but lets say it was no fun! What made the situation even less fun was the cabin temperature (air con not working currently undiagnosed) it was sweltering, I was literally melting must be at least 3 stone lighter now :) The heat setting was turned down to cold but there was still very very warm air coming out of the vents, we had all the windows down and it was still roasting got moving again and the air coming out was still warm but with airflow thorough the windows it was nowhere near as noticeable, what could this be? It was as though the blower was sucking air directly from the engine bay, could that happen? Where does the air supply originate from? I did top up the coolant to max the other day as well but this should have no affect on the cold setting? Any input / ideas welcome. Could someone tell me where the metal retainer that goes around the accelerator cable should be located? I think I disturbed it when I did the wiper linkages but cannot locate where it should live, the photo below should explain. http://i61.tinypic.com/1hnwk.jpg Thanks

Evening All :) What a day! I will go into more about that in my other thread, right took the throttle body off yesterday afternoon, nice place they chose to put it! Got it off and it was quite dirty: http://i62.tinypic.com/1zezevc.jpg http://i59.tinypic.com/2uyj4af.jpg So we give it a good scrubbing and clean it up as best and as gently as I can: http://i61.tinypic.com/28hpze0.jpg http://i62.tinypic.com/2hec7bb.jpg Good result really quite pleased with that, took a whole can of throttle body cleaner to do it but we got there with a little persuasion, whilst drying it off having quick clean up of the outside I notice a big yellow sticker, no idea how I missed it saying the following: http://i57.tinypic.com/bjddkw.jpg mmmmmmmmm :32: well done me! After much excitement I resound myself to the fact that if it now fails I will have to replace it lesson learned move on, however it has not cured the fault in fact it is now a bit worst than it was to begin with so this now brings me back to the idle control valve and I am thinking this is mainly what will cause this "sticking"? So might just order a new one and see if that cures it, I do not usually like buying a new part to basically test a theory I like to try and be a bit more definitive about it but I "think" it is logical to now suspect this is bad? No obvious leaks anywhere checked everything literally.

Thanks i will check all that at the same time, I will report back later...........

Hi Paul Yes loads of carbon build up was moving lovely when cleaned, I have a bit of running about to do until after lunch think I will take tge air box off and have a good look this afternoon. Thanks

Forgot to add to last post when I was fiddling about with the back door I decided to investigate why the speaker in this door was not working, traced it back to broken wires through the door so fixed that as well.

Hi Paul The one I got was: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191563446821?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Cheapo Chinese stuff so wondering if I should pay a few quid more and get a decent one although it does connect and offer data I was just under whelmed at what was on offer to see but I really need to find an hour or so to sit there with it and have a good play. Well got a couple of things done yesterday, passenger side rear door has some accident damage and when they took the door card off to inspect it they just seemed to have ripped it off breaking every clip in the process! I ordered some new clips that turned up yesterday so decided to strip it back and have a look at the damage from inside myself, got the old tin hammers out and give it a beating into submission, nowhere near how it should be but enough to persuade me to repair it rather than replacing the door, so going to order some paint, 2k lacquer, bog etc etc etc and hopefully it will all show up before weekend and then I will have a weekend on bodywork, I, for the moment am going to repair the rust over the wheel arch and the rear panel where the bumper meets at the same time, I really want to cut the rust out as as soon as I put the sander on it I am expecting to lose about 2-3 inches off the bottom of the panel but sadly no welding skills Which does not bother me I am sure I could do a rough and dirty job and then clean it up with the grinder but more importantly no welder! So the "gorilla" in me has come out and I am going to order a fibre glass kit and do a bodge repair for the moment, I will take a load of photos so you can see my handy work :) Once we get into October my life will start to quieten down until March so over Winter I will buy a welder and learn how to do it and the re-do the job properly, for the moment though I just want to tidy it up, the passenger side really really lets this car down. I also had a look at the drivers side rear quarter panel window clip, it has snapped at the base that attaches to the car, I am going to order a new one but here is a funniosity for you, the base is in the shape of a triangle and has 3 holes for 3 bolts yet one of the holes on the car to line up with the bolt hole has no thread and had no bolt fitted! Obviously when it snapped the backing plate it was this unbolted bit that fell away from the car and was causing all the trouble, the metal oh my I could have fashioned the backing plate better myself at home with a tin of beans and a pair of pliers! I did try and glue it with some Gorilla super glue but it snapped again so for the moment I have driven a big bolt through the un-threaded hole to hold it in place, I could do with a slightly bigger bolt but for the moment the window is locked and secure rather than flapping about in the wind! Taking it on a 300 mile trip to Manchester and back tomorrow so hoping to find time to do the oil and filter today, all in all moving in the right direction :)

Morning All :) Love love love my new Galaxy :) Making may way through a list of jobs to be done and doing really well, since I picked it up I noticed that sometimes when driving, say you have been stuck at around 3000 revs for a while, when I dip the clutch to change gear the rev-down is so so so slow, this does not happen all the time but often enough to notice it. Not sure if I misunderstood but I did take off the idle control valve and cleaned all the gunks out of it but it has made no difference, any suggestions? I was thinking maybe throttle body needs cleaning but thought I would ask you guys first. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the replies everyone :) Miserable weekend has not stopped raining! I have also been chained to my desk working all weekend which always cheers me up (not) so not had any time to do anything else to Galaxy so far, hoping to do something today, not sure what yet though. I do have a bluetooth Elm thingy me jig that does connect and work great for engine codes etc and also a bit of live data using OBD Auto Doctor for Windows Phone, will have to have a practice with VCDS lite see what it can communicate with and what it cannot. Car is running great, got to take it on a trip to Manchester on Thursday so going to change the oil, filter before then, air filter looks brand new as does pollen filter so going to leave them for the moment, do these have a fuel filter on them? Where will I find it?

NOT throttle position sensor! I cleaned the idle control valve :)

Hi Brian, yep lead came today I got this one from ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191563446821?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Bit of a faff installing the drivers on Windows 10 but it did connect with VCDS lite but I could only really see maybe 5 controlllers in all and none of them were engine! So is there one cable for ABS etc etc and then another for engine stuff? Not had much time today but did take a proper look at the wipers, although crapped up they were in really really good condition and seemed really goo quality so I gave the rubber a good cleaning, first sprayed them with WD to losen the dried crap and then cleaned the completely with diluted windscreen washer fluid, came up really well so I then give the windscreen a really good clean, applied some rain stop stuff I got from Halfords ages ago and filled the washer fluid bottle with some decent fluid I picked up from Halfords this morning and it all works great, I can see! I also took the throttle position sensor off (is it a sensor?) and cleaned that out with some carb cleaner and cotton buds, lots of crap out of there and symptoms now gone. I also treated it to a full tank of super unleaded and a full bottle of injector cleaner treatment. Finally I also took a look at that window catch on the rear window, the actual plate that bolts it to the car has broken, it looks like really really crappy metal as well so do not this welding will be an option, I have noticed though that the catch assembly seem to be made of 2 parts, the part that bolts tot he car and then the part that attaches to the window I wonder if they can be separated and bought individually? If not how much of a pain is it to get the catch off the window glass?

Ah you see, I knew there would be a secret, I did look at removing the whole light but could not quickly locate how the heck it was held in there, I shall do some research ready for next time :) What was the final nail in the coffin of the day is the wife could see me starting to get a bit excited about it and she came over to see if she could help out, as they do, by this stage I had managed to get the bulbs seated and the retainer clip on the bulb along with the wire I could just not get enough leverage to get that ruddy clip back over the cover, anyway she takes a look, I see it hold on I'll have a go, within a minute I kid you not PING! Wife very kindly then proceeded to do the other side as well :)

Forgot to mention my USB cable Elm should arrive today so hoping to be able to be do some diagnosing with VCDS / VAG-COM lite just not sure yet what features are available in the lite version.