sparky Paul

Sounds like it could well be MAF sensor, or associated wiring as seatkid says. If you are buying a replacement, don't waste your money on a cheap MAF sensor off eBay, they are poor quality and can give all sorts of problems. If you want cheap, you are better off with a good secondhand unit.

If Fram pollen filters are okay, they're about 6 quid on ebay, delivered.

The problem with the top nuts is that theres usually so much rust up there, the hex in the end of the strut has had it, and because the nuts are oval locknuts, they rust up solid. The quickest way, if you have access to gas welding/burning bottles, is to get the nuts red and grip the shocker shafts from underneath. If you are replacing the shockers, it doesn't matter if you mark them up. My top mounts were so rotten, I just joined the holes and blew them through with a small torch. Cutting the lip from the top cups is another good option, as sambulance suggests above. The inner part of the cup will then drop through the turret. It might take a little longer, but is relatively straightforward. I removed the shocker from the hub, leaving the hub on the car, but it turned out to be very difficult. If I had to do one again, I would drop the complete hub assembly with the shocker, and split on the bench, rather than trying to remove the shocker from the hub on the car. Bear in mind that if you split the balljoint and take the hub off, you will need a new driveshaft bolt on reassembly. Another thing to watch out for when splitting the shocker from the hub carrier is the pinch bolt. The bolt corrodes in the gap, making it very prone to shearing, as a few members have found on here. I got mine out in one piece by heating the casting up. Good Luck!

Front strut removal has been discussed a number of times. The search tool can be a pain to use, but searching for "struts" or "front suspension" should bring up some useful threads. When searching from the box at the top of the page, make sure the grey box says 'Forums' and not 'This topic'.

Sounds like the heater blower resistor pack is kaput. It's behind the glovebox on my mk.I Galaxy, I would think it would be in the same location on yours... unless anyone with a mk.II knows otherwise.

My cable is just like this one and has been invaluable.

To read the codes, you need a laptop and a VAG-COM cable, about 7 quid off ebay from UK sellers, and the free VCDS-lite software from the RossTech website. Generic code readers won't see the SRS/Airbag system. Taking the bulb out is no good, as it lights during the start-up self test, and failure to illuminate and then go out is now a MOT fail. Most common failure with the Airbag system is the steering wheel airbag slip ring, or 'clockspring'. I'm not sure if replacing will put the fault light out, or whether you will have to reset it manually - but you could do with identifying where the fault lies first, in any case

The smaller retaining nut under the bush should be wound down fully against the bearing, which seats on the shoulder on the strut shaft, and the top spring seat is held below this by the coil spring. When assembling, you have to make sure the spring seat sits below the shoulder of the strut shaft, and does not get trapped between the shoulder and the top bearing. Not sure about torque, I just spanner-tighted them. If you have more thread showing on one side, it sounds like the nut was not fully against the shoulder before the top mount and nut was locked up against it. The one with the shorter thread has the problem. In any case, I would guess that your problem is not suspension related. It seems more likely to me to be some rotating component making the noise. In addition to the bits you have already checked, I would add discs/pads/shafts/etc. on the O/S, as well as the O/S intermediate shaft splines and bearing.

After all of the manifold leak suggestions above have been checked, the only other thing I can suggest is a weak ignition coil - reasonably common on these engines.

I've had a few different sorts of drop links. The best ones were Motaquip branded, but the boxes contained genuine VW droplinks... this was years ago, before non-OEM droplinks were common - I don't imagine they still supply VW parts. Currently have Delphi-Lockheed ones fitted, which were not the cheapest, but they seem to be lasting very well, despite the state of the roads round here. The worst ones were without doubt the cheap no-name ones off eBay, they were a complete disaster and didn't last 6 months. At least the droplinks you fitted are branded, in my experience that does seem to count for something. As for those top bushes, I'm sure that they must have been faulty in some way. The repacements I fitted were only cheap ones and they have been fine.

Looks very comprehensive, new suppliers are always handy. I hope you have better luck with the droplinks than I had with febi-bilstein top bushes/bearings. I fitted these when I replaced the front shocks/coils a few years back, and I don't think they covered 6000 miles before the bushes collapsed and had to be replaced again. The original ones had done 80-odd thousand miles and were still good... until I had to burn the top mounts off. :)

If you suspect a short somewhere, I'd go with chris's suggestion above, particularly the tailgate. That said, 12.0v on the battery should be flat. if it's still cranking, you could have a bad cell on the battery.

An ELM327 based cable will only read data from the Ford engine. For most of the other electrical systems, including the auto gearbox, you will need a VAG-COM cable like this one and either VCDS or VAG-COM software.

Not sure about the gearbox, but don't waste your time with the cheapo droplinks, they're a false economy. Stick to a decent branded factor part if you don't want to go to Ford/VW. I've tried decent branded ones, cheap branded ones, and no-name ones of that well known auction site. The no-name ones were absolute junk, lasted around 6 months or less, IIRC. FAI branded were quite cheap, and faired a bit better, but the first and best ones I fitted were Motaquip - these droplinks were actually genuine VW parts in a Motaquip box, although that was years ago and there's no guarantee they will still be sourcing them from the same supplier. Currently fitted ones are Lockheed/Delphi, and they seem to be lasting well. They've been on a few years, still no sign of the dreaded clonk.

AFAIK mk.I and mk.II rear calipers are the same on most models, apart from some mk.II 2.8 V6 which had larger rear calipers. BTW, you can buy a new rear caliper from Brakeparts for £52.50+VAT.

Try the FAQ section, and in particular this bit.

Double check this - the Shalaxy design uses a floating upper strut mount. When the car is lifted off the ground and the wheels hang, the struts drop by several mm. This is often misdiagnosed as a worn mount.... seatkid gives spot on advice here, that's the biggest job on your list and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are perfectly okay. The strut top bearing arrangement on the Galaxy is very robust, and rarely gives any problems. Garages do sometimes misdiagnose the excessive movement in the strut top, possibly intentionally in some cases. Complete bottom arms are not cheap, but the problem is almost always deterioration of the rear bushes. I know most garages just want to swap the bottom arms for new ones, but a pair of genuine bushes are much cheaper and with modest garage facilities, it's not difficult or time consuming to replace them. 90% of the job is removing the arms and reassembly. Personally, I would rather have genuine bushes fitted than pattern complete arms, and a decent garage ought to oblige. Track rod ends are not that difficult a job on the Galaxy, on the other hand a garage shouldn't charge much, and the weather if far from ideal to spend more time than you have to under the car. Ideally, you would need to have the tracking checked afterwards anyway. I'm not familiar with the belt arrangements on the diesels, but seatkid is, so I would go with his advice again. :D

A 61AH battery sounds like a 075 (Varta D59) or similar, probably the minimum you want on a diesel galaxy. However, as acecard says above, if the battery is in good working order, it shouldn't go flat. Either something is draining it, or the battery is kaput... even if the battery is nearly new, I would always suspect battery first if the problem arises after the first really cold nights.

That's the climate control panel, underneath the radio. Aircon comes on automatically to maintain the set temperature, unless the ECON mode is selected, IIRC. Someone might be along soon who can explain what all the buttons do better than me.

Most likely problem is one of the anti-roll bar drop links, very common failure and usually more noticable when going over speed humps. The smallest bit of wear in the droplink joints will cause knocking. Replace with genuine Ford/VW parts or good quality branded factor parts - the cheap no-name replacements off that well known auction site don't last long.

T-cut will work on a surface scratch, but not a deep scratch as acecard describes. Anything that is down to primer will need to be prepared and painted, or you can hide it reasonably well with one of the colour waxes that comes with a solid wax filler stick. It will need reapplying regularly though. T-cut is most successful on a shallow scratch in solid paint. If it's a metallic colour, you need to take very great care not to cut through the lacquer as the colour coat is very thin, and you will very quickly go through to the primer. You may be able to remove overpaint with t-cut if it was done recently. If it's stubborn, careful application of a very fine grade of wet&dry, say 3000 grit, and lots of soapy water should remove it, followed by a polishing compound. Take care though, you will be removing surrounding paint too, and it's easy to make it look a pig's ear. Decent key scratches are not easy to repair properly without painting panels.

Check inlet manifold and all associated breather and vacuum pipework for leaks, give everything a good visual check while squeezing and bending.

7mm allen is a non-standard size you will find on many brake calipers, and other places too on the Gal. Most motor factors sell them.

Mines always done something similar too, a very occasional movement felt throught the steering wheel when putting lock on. I could never find any play in the column, and I reckon it's done it since I got the car nine years ago. It never got any worse, so I left it alone.

I think this has been an ongoing problem for the OP, IIRC. Most likely a linkage problem, as gregers and sk said above.