sepulchrave

It's rubbish and a complete waste of

Look, all these parts are cheap compared to the fuel you're burning, replace the lot,

HT leads are the number one culprits of this kind of problem followed by the coil pack and the spark plugs themselves, ideally you should replace the lot, Iridium plugs are excellent and really do last much longer than the standard. If your fuel consumption is truly abysmal (i.e. 25 mpg is impossible to achieve) then look to replace the lambda probe, the MAF element and the blue temperature sensor on the thermostat housing.

Let the trolling commence! :huh:

Errr, what year is your car please, is it a 95-00 MkI or a 00-05 MkII and is it auto or manual? I thought the fan relays were simply for switching. maybe that your thermoswitch is a two stage switch and will switch fan one first and then fan two as well. I know that there are three temperature sensors on the thermostat housing on 95-00 cars, one for the temperature gauge (2-wire, possibly yellow), the blue one for the ECU and one for the aircon fan control I mentioned earlier (brown maybe?). Why are you asking for help if you have all the answers dude? I'm trying to help, you're just not listening and arguing with just about everything I try and tell you. I give up. Listen to the diesel catastrophists, change the engine, burn the bloody thing in the street outside your house if you like, I'm past caring. :25:

Thermoswitch is on the N/S rear of the radiator it will have been screwed into the new radiator which you say was fitted recently. Yes, the engine fans have only one speed and I believe only one will come on unless the aircon is on as well but I may be mistaken. You can simply check the operation of the fan(s) by connecting the two leads which run to the thermoswitch together. If the aircon is set to chill the air then both radiator fans should run constantly irrespective of engine temperature.

:D

Excellent result. Turned out to be a bargain after all then. :D

No. You can't tell by looking. Just replace it.

Good job, it's all about compromise, but your adding up sucks, I make that

Gregers,

Sorry but all the contaminated hoses will need replacing because they'll all burst. Oil fouled hoses feel soft and stretchy which is why they split, if all yours are damaged it will be cheaper for you to fit a set of performance silicon hoses than buy all new ones at dealer prices. As I previously stated the fans are working fine, they're either on or they're off. The fans will not cut in until the gauge is at about 3/4 deflection or touching the redline, if yours are coming on late then the thermoswitch may need replacing or the connections cleaning. You may not agree but I'm telling you there is nothing else wrong with your car, I know I've got one too, so please calm down. George, you cannot over advance the ignition due to the two knock sensors fitted to the VR lump, most remaps simply reprogram the fuelling away from lean burn/stoich where the map has been strangled for emissions/economy, factory ECU settings already run as much advance as possible for these very reasons. This is why the VR has a higher torque rating when running 99 octane fuel, the ECU is able to run more advance before the knock sensors say stop. BTW, OP mentions engine type here: http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?showtopic=19842 :D

Ok, time out, lets slow down and gather our senses :D First point, chipping does NOT affect a petrol engine in the same way as a diesel mr krashitt, FYI chipped N/A petrol engines actually run cooler due to running a richer mixture. Secondly, OP how many hoses have you blown? Hoses can be severely weakened by coming into contact with oil and other solvents, hoses are often badly damaged when the oil/water intercooler fails, could this have happened in your cars past? I've stated before that VR6 cylinder heads are extremely difficult to crack or warp, that doesn't rule it out but you'd really need to cook it up badly for this to be a possiblity, a blown head gasket or cracked head leading to cylinder pressure loss into the water jacket would definitely cause a noticeable misfire, particularly on tickover and as SK says the tank safety cap would definitely blow boiling coolant everywhere. The readings on your temperature gauge sound entirely normal, the responses of your electric cooling fans are completely normal, you have good cabin heat and the car warms up normally and drives normally, you have no unexplained coolant loss or steam from under the bonnet. The VR6 engine DOES run hot, it is designed that way and is completely happy doing so. My diagnosis is that your car is behaving normally other than that you have some rotten/damaged hoses which need replacing. Silly oil burner hysterics, take your pills and have a little lie down chaps. :D

All the engines are mechanically identical apart from the distributor fitted to OBD I engines. The engine mounts will swap over, there are no missing holes etc. The VR6 engine was designed for a transverse installation and AFAIK there are no exceptions. Your engine is a distributorless OBD II engine, for simplicity get another one, I have a complete spare car available with a good engine if you're interested, PM me if so.

Unfortunately you are rebooting the ECU each time you allow the battery to die, therefore the ECU has to start completely from scratch with all the settings which will be unique to your engine. Sometimes a flat battery will 'glitch' the ECU when you try to start the car due to the sudden drop in voltage as the starter solenoid engages which then rises back high enough to repower the ECU when you release the key. This can scramble the settings in the ECU, but not the default map because that is in firmware. Your car should idle on the default map, generally it will idle fast until the ECU resets the settings after which it should drop back to a rock steady 750 rpm. Have you checked the throttle body, it could be sticking, therefore the stepper cannot adjust the idle. When you took it for a drive the throttle possibly freed off through use but has now stuck again.

Diddums, Happy Christmas. :) Bad luck SK, console yourself with the knowledge that if the wife had done the dirty deed it would still be your fault! Oh, and I agree with Chromedome, a tracking check is free and so what if something is slightly bent, who cares if you can longer roll your track rod along a sheet of glass, it doesn't matter. :P Scorpio the doom-monger! :o

Bully for you, I'm sure the OP is massively reassured and enlightened by that contribution. :lol: OP et al: It definitely sounds as though your clutch/clutch mechanism is not disengaging properly. sidcos, it sounds like your garage hasn't done the job you've paid them for, if you've had the whole lot replaced how can you still have the same problem? BigDog, I'd be very surprised if the flexi has a blockage, have you checked the engine roll restrictor and gearbox mount for movement?

In fairness it makes little or no difference to engine power except on very high performance petrol engines and it actually helps warm your engine quicker, reduces bore wash, plug, turbo and chamber fouling and heats your Cat quicker. The benefits are really all on cold start cycle, once warmed and running it does little or nothing. Dickheads delete them from their hot hatches for no real reason other than they are running such a poor AFR to try and gain top end power by using 'THE WORLD FAMOUS RESISTOR OF POWER' cheat or somesuch. I call such lamebrain tuners 'Tesco Tuners' because they believe every little helps. :lol: Like planet huggers they also subscribe to the precautionary principle, i.e. 'It doesn't do any harm and it might do some good'. All excuses for bad and very expensive Science. I don't guess when it comes to Engineering and I'm only playing with a few million quids worth at a time. I'd wake up sweating and screaming if there were Billions of pounds at stake and no-one really knew if it was going to make any difference or not. Now there's a decision I'd really want to base on known facts! Anything else smells like religion, look where the last crusade got us.

Greatly reduced emissions on startup is the answer you seek. Once running normally at operating temperature the EGR contributes little or nothing to emissions regulation. Lots of stop/start, slow traffic type driving clogs it and everything else up, i.e. the school run.

It should clear them, but the battery itself may be low on charge, I have had problems communicating with my ECU in the past and topping up and charging the battery solved it for me.

I should expect any decent motor factors will be able to get one. It's where I got mine from, it was an Intermotor branded pattern CPS.

Hmm, it should idle nonetheless. Maybe your throttle body stepper has seized up through lack of use, try good ol' WD40 on the motor spindle and throttle spindles.

..and I would try the Vredsteins and give us some feedback on this forum if they're any good. Goodyears are usually pants anyway, the consensus here is that the best tyre for this car is the top of the range Continental but they ain't cheap. It's your money, but I strongly advise ignoring the tartan blanket/scatter cushion brigade and exercising some common sense. I run budget tyres (Nankang) of the correct load rating and they're absolutely fine, they don't last as long as the Contis but they are about one third the price and my Sharan is now our third choice car these days since the kids started driving, I really only do a few thousand miles a year in it.

fatblokes, the rad should come with a plastic blanking plug and a rubber O ring to suit, as frogeye says some cars come with a sensor fitted there. My VR6 is the same as frogeyes and I didn't need the plug although I kept it for ages, I threw it away in a shed clear out a couple of months ago, sorry.