Sher

Does your Galaxy have Hydraulic Tappets I used to, and many other people also had a problem with the exhaust "Self" adjusting Hydraulic tappets on the Honda 2.7 V6 used by Rover in their 800 Stirling Model. I knew because you could hear them at low revs. As revs increased the hydraulic valve would eventually lock up and the noise would go away. You had to adjust the Valve clearances just a bit on the close side. Before I realised this I solved the problem by using Castrol RS 10W-60's oil which meant the oil stayed that little bit thicker and didn't leak away so quickly from the Hydraulic unit so fast. Previously I had used Mobil 1 0W-40's So a slightly thicker oil at the high temp side may help. I certainly would not use a 15W-50's unless I was burning lots of oil 1L/1000miles?

First of all you didn't say the Mileage on your 98 Gal and how much oil it may be using. No point in putting the thinnest most expensive oil in an engine which may then only use more because the oil is thinner. Its a cost/ benefit choice. FULLY synthetics ( 0W-40's) are the best oils in terms of wear and performance and can be used for extended service intervals provided they retain their lubrication and detergent properties. How do you find out? Send a sample for analysis(?) I suppose (unless you have a temperature controlled Viscometer when you can do it yourself). I think Mobil 1 is available now as (0w-30/40's) grade and on a previous Volvo, Micra and Rover(in its early days). I always used Mobil1 (5W-40's) but it is expensive. I always tried to buy enough when on hols in France. Be aware that the detergent properties of fully synthetcs are much superior to non synths and will "reportedly" shift residues ordinary oils will not reach. (Article I read by HonestJohn the telegraphs Motorscribe) he suggested that if you did change to Fully synthetics you must go to much shortened oil service intervals (1000miles) until the oil is no longer Black (How black I don't know but diesels always seem to be that colour). Far too cautious for me and very expensive. I would Flush with a standard non synthetic having run it for a few hundred miles and then change to the synthetic. If I started to worry halfway through to normal service interval then I would change the oil for synthetic again but without flushing this time. Of course this is not necessary with a fairly new engine (upto 20,000mls ?) But this depends upon the conditions of motoring ie Lots of stop start cold working conditions= Old engine . Lots of Motorway cruising= New engine. Semi synthetics seem to use a synthetic "Base" (whatever that means?) but also have superior detergent properties and as such are not to be dismissed. Only the comparative price does this for me.

Over last 13 years travelling to France 5 Time/year 600 miles each way to the South + travelling around = 7200/ Annum min = 99,000 miles min I think. The police have checked my car twice when I was the only English person around in Spring and Autumn (an odd time to be around at the time, but less now). They only want to be sure I had vehicle docs, insurance , licence etc and the last time was 8 years ago. Last 2 cars have adjustable levels so this gets over dipping problem and I would be quite prepared to argue this one with any French Traffic policeman if my Docs are OK. Only if I am going to be doing a lot of night driving do I apply tape :- Shiny sticky Aluminium Foil tape about 2" wide (the heat makes the reinforced tape come off after 4/5 weeks leaving a difficult to remove residue) I use scissors to cut it roughly to size with the headlights on main beam facing a wall. I lay it on the headlamp covers in strips, slightly overlapping, leaving one edge raised before applying next strip, removing the obviously left facing beam. The raised edge is useful in peeling back if it goes too far. If the first strip is folded over slightly with sticky sides together you can peal it off with ease later. Any residues of adhesive can be removed with a paper towel dipped in a small amount of white spirit followed by meths to clean afterwards. No problems yet.

Halfords used to sell a grey perforated thickish film which clung to the windows using static- even used it on opening windows and it did not come off for 18 months. I used it to great effect when the AC on my Rover 827 packed up due to an obscure electrical fault.

Mistake I meant 17699GBP Sorry!!!!! :lol:

Rayns of Leicester advertise at 16699GBP for a similar import. If Belge then 2 year Guarantee :lol:

I have the same prob on my Oct 02 Ghia. New door seals etc at second service 18800 miles seem NOT to have cured it. Also I still have a rattle from inside the drivers door. I will have to look at it myself!! :lol:

When I was looking for a Galaxy /Sharan last Autumn I had experience of a 2nd hand Sharan for 2 weeks. I needed a new seat belt and a jack, both items from Volks were about 30% more expensive than Ident parts from Ford and could be obtained faster. Seat belt is a special order since it is an explosive device!! Pre-tensioners act upon accident to hold U tight. I think this explained why the prices for 2/ 3 year old Sharans at auction were often lower than equivalent Galaxies. For other reasons the Sharan went back. Since I subsequently found one can get bigger discounst on Galaxies than Sharans (Volkswagen/Audi were asking a premium on right hand drive cars in Europe at one time ,perhaps they still do) With Ford they apply the same list price for Right or left hand drive for that country minus any discount of course. Explains why there are so many imported Galaxies driving the new price down. I bought a new Galaxy 1.9Tdi Ghia and it does everthing I want, with incredible fuel consumption for such a large vehicle. Well over 40 mpg on mixed driving, about the same as my 98 1.8TD Mondeo Ghia. It also tows a very large caravan with ridiculous ease in comparison to my previous vehicles (1) a 170bhp V6 Rover 15-18mpg when towing (2) the Mondeo 88bhp 25-29mpg max 60mph. The Galaxy manages similar consumption but journeys are much faster and safer(no sway when being overtaken) max 70+mph, :lol: in France of course.

The ross-tech pages also has French and German pages and as usual the Prices for the complete Package are cheaper than that quoted in dollars. Even though it only comes in an English Version!

On my May98 1.8td Ghia its supposed to be 80,000 miles but I have my friendly Ford Mechanic do it at 60,000miles just to be safe. You seem to have lots of miles b4 yyou need to cahnge it.

It may be that. I would presume that it runs at constant speed. But I wonder if the actual pump mechanism takes lubrication from the crankcase? Will try and locate and view. Noise continues to happen in a sporadic manner, however, 2 days ago 250 yds with light throttle.Stopped at lights and I could here it as the noise level rose with lack of lub. Not able to raise bonnet at that moment as I drove away noise level went down and never came back. At agent at service over a week ago they must have left it running for nearly 2 hrs but could not hear it. Only from cold. They also changed the 5w-30's oil for my own 5W-40's fully synthetic Shell Super Helix (28 Euro's)

Used Galaxy prices are high. Last September at ADT auctions I regularly saw 6 month old, ex Motability Low miles (9000?) 1.9Tdi Zetec being Knocked down at 15300 or more which meant with Buyers premium about 300 on top at least. 2 year old 110Td Zetec 10500 to 11500 + Buyer's premium. After one sad episode, with a 3 year old Motability Volks Sharan 110Td with goodies and body panels FSH (printout from servicing garage ) at 9500 from Northern Ireland , it turned out not that the engine Number was not the original. That was difficult for me to find at that time. I returned it, threw in the Towel, bit the bullet and Bought new at 17950 for pre imported( Belge sourced Antwerp) 1.9TDi Gal Ghia. Only 4 alloy wheels though and 1 Power socket in the rear. Mind you I find Alloys more of a pain than Steelies. My G reg 89 Rover 827 Sterling (150,000 miles over 10 years) had them and they were very heavy anyway and needed maintenance far more than steel.

Fordbrugge are no longer as competitive as they once seemed to be. They may be making more money in their tie up with their UK deliverer of Cars. We bought a Puma some 4 years ago cheaper than Tradesales at Slough and Motorpoint Derby could do then . Last Sept Motorpoint were over 1000PSt cheaper than Fordbrugge and I would have had to wait. One point though, do GB supplied 1.9TDi Gal Ghia's all come with Multifunction steering wheels and some other goodies I can't remember? I remember trying out Ford's own web site with a special offer at 19600PSt and when I had finished adding in what was standard on the imported car, the price was over 21000BPs. Second point no problem with 2 year warranties from Belgium (std on all Fords in Belge) The VIN number seems to be used in conjuction with Some Oasis(?) software on the TIS CDRom. 18000 miles in and still having it fixed in UK under warranty. You might search for a car importer/ supplier Called CPC somewhere south of London I apparently caused, so Ford's of Windsor , Cheshire them some embarrassment when I found the British source of a Galaxy on their Patch. CPC seemed happy to comm with me provided I didn't 'mess' him about. They may have one to hand. Tonneau cover worked out fitted at 180PSt I have a friend who is a Ford UK mechanic. He's called Ford too!!!

As regards Oils I can see this is going to get technical. (Viscous=thicker?) All oils get thinner as they get hotter, even multigrades. They were introduced to prevent the oil from becoming too thin at higher temperatures and to maintain at least Boundary layer lubrication between sliding metal parts under more extreme conditions. A straight 5's oil will get thinner as the temp rises.(Maybe too thin when hot.) A straight 30's oil will get thinner as the temp rises. A straight 40's oil will get thinner as the temp rises.(Too thick when cold) But the 40's will always be slightly thicker at higher temps. The problem with the straight 40's oil is that is also thicker when cold and lubrication is a problem when starting. Intro Multigrade 5W-30's. Thin in (Winter) or when oil is cold. When hot(100C ?) has better lube properties of the 30's oil. 5W-40's Thin when cold has even better lube properties of the 40's oil when hot. Mineral oils achieve this by better refining and use of additives but degrade with use. Fully synthetic oils are synthesised from a purer material posssibly Natural Gas to give a controlled base oil which resists degradation better and should be able to be left in the car for extended miles ( + additives of course) I swear by straight synthetics.

Can't be secondary heater, as bad luck would have it, it started the noise again today on my street when it was 15C. Does this air pump run at Constant speed? Do you know if raising the engine revs does away with the need for this air pump? Local Ford Dealer wants to keep it overnight. I am not so happy with them at the moment. At 2 nd service inside warranty they used 5W-30's oil. Book says min 5W-40's. I'm going to get them to change it next week when it goes back to replace a noisy driver's door seal. Would normally have done it myself but inside Warranty feel nervous about it at Moment. I prefer fully synthetic 5W-40's. I've done 18000 miles in 9 months pulling a Caravan 5000miles and in some low(-2C) and high temps(39C) This car has to last me!! Milage averagig 25000/year but is reducing now. I expect only 4000 in the next 3 months.

I been away caravaning for some months since obtaining my new 1.9 TDi 115 Ghia last October. One morning starting from cold 2C I trundled through the campsite at tickover and just as I reached the exit I started to hear a noise I was familiar with in my early 20's, or so I thought, dry alternator bearings. I revved the engine slightly but the sqeal did not rise in frequency or go away. I proceeded to drive away briskly, it did not rise in frequency, so it wasn't a wheel bearing and the noise disappeared after some seconds more as obviously lube arrived somewhere. Disconcerting on a new car. This happened a couple of times more before I realised that idling the vehicle along the roadways through the campsite was the cause and since then I have always blipped the accelerator to raise engine revs after starting up in the morning. The noise came from the front right hand side when facing the open bonnet. Perhaps behind the engine itself. I have suspisions that it may have been a slow running turbo as another camper speculated to me but have had no luck with the local Ford dealer. Anyone anything similar?

The bending of the holder frame towards the bumper on both sides for the electrical connectors was the exact info given me by Towsure of Sheffield when I fitted a tow bar to my new Galaxy last Oct. I have also fitted a backplate from them, their cheapest of course ,which did for a short time cause me some problems. Since the system works on Reflection of Ultrasound waves I decided to fit some antislip sponge material with perforations I had around to act as an anti-reflective medium to the backsurface of the plate using superglue. It worked. I do have problems when it rains sometimes but this is uasually when the sensors/ car are rather dirty. Note 1. I have a suspision that the system also has an element of self programming about it. When I first fitted the towbar+ electrics it sounded consistently. When I switched off and restarted it was as normal. This prompted me to go to the limit and fit a backplate to protect the bumper. Note 2. If I nudge the backplate when hitching up to the caravan it sometimes moves it closer to the bumper (it was a cheapy after all). When unhitched the sounder beeps all the time the solution is to pull the backplate out away from the bumper some extra few millimetres.

All this talk about oil takes me back to my years at Leeds when I did a first year course about Lubrication Oils. Anyway I am pretty sure that anyone using a fully synthetic oil specifically for Diesel with a viscosity grading of 5W-40 or 0W-30/40 will have no problems at all. I usually buy my oils in France where they are significantly cheaper and have been using Shell super Helix fully synthetic 5W-40 at around 28Euros or18 Pounds sterling for some years in my 98R Mondeo (100,000 miles) which my daughter now uses. Some Supermarket Branded fully synthetic 5W-40's oils retail at about 20 Euros (13 pounds) and I will be thinking about using these in future. Remember more than 50% of New French cars are Diesel not the 20% or so as in the UK. Injectors, Heaters etc look cheaper also but I've not had to replace one yet, I knew about the bulk purchase of lube oils by main agents from my experience with a Volvo 240 Estate I bought in 86. I always supplied them with Mobil 1 Oil 5W-50( cost 15 Pounds) for which they Knocked off 30 Pounds for the Valvoline they would have used. My 18000 mile from new 115TDi Galaxy Ghia is doing all I expect from it and tows like a dream a 1600kg Hobby from Germany to S Spain and back again. From the info in the Car which I bought new last Oct 02 the car was built in Germany Sourced in Belgium and imported to the UK in August of last year. Belgium sourced cars have a 2 year warranty as opposed to a British 3 year ( I think)

All this talk about oil takes me back to my years at Leeds when I did a first year course about Lubrication Oils. Anyway I am pretty sure that anyone using a fully synthetic oil specifically for Diesel with a viscosity grading of 5W-40 or 0W-30/40 will have no problems at all. I usully buy my oils in France where they are significantly cheaper and have been using Shell super Helix fully synthetic 5W-40 at around 28Euros or18 Pounds sterling for some years in my 98R Mondeo (100,000 miles) which my daughter now uses. Some Supermarket Branded fully synthetic 5W-40's oils retail at about 20 Euros (13 pounds) and I will be thinking about using these in future. Remember morethan 50% of New French cars are Diesel not the 20% or so as in the UK. Injectors, Heaters etc look cheaper also but I,ve not had to replace one yet, I new about the bulk purchase of lube oils by main agents from my experience with a Volvo 240 Estate I bought in 86. I always supplied them with Mobil 1 Oil 5W-50 for which they Knocked off 30 Pounds for the Valvoline they woild have used. My 18000mile from new 115TDi Galaxy Ghia is doing all I expect from it and tows like a dream a 1600kg Hobby from Germany to S Spain and back again. From the info in the Car which I bought new last Oct02 the car was built in Germany Sourced in Belgium and imported to the UK in August of last year. Belgium sourced cars have a 2 year warranty as opposed to a British 3 year ( I think)