sparky Paul

It is possible to fit the bearing to the strut upside down, but it 's very obvious that it's wrong when you put the bush and bearing together. Additionally, this would have caused a problem from day one, rather than 5 months later. Broken spring is certainly possible, the top coil snaps off leaving the rest of the spring sat on the suspension turret, rather than the strut top seat and bearing. This gives the exact symptom described, and any drop in ride height on one side tends to be levelled out by the antiroll bar, making it less obvious. Probably less likely, but maybe the bearings were dry when fitted and one's finally given up?

You should be okay, so long as it's a decent tool - the cheap ones can make irregular flares which can cause problems. Also make sure you use a copper pipe cutter, it's important that the the end of the pipe is cut clean and perfectly square, and a small pipe bender is useful, but not essential for copper. It's all pretty easy, just have a practise on a few bits of pipe if you're not sure. The biggest problems are usually undoing the crusty old unions on the calipers, and bleeding the thing after.

I make my own pipes, the Gal uses pretty standard fittings, M10X1 male unions and 3/16" pipe. As zorgman says, if you only want a couple of pipes, go to your local motor factor shop who should be able to make them up for you... most will use copper pipe as it's easier to work with. If you do decide to make your own, it's not difficult, but a decent pipe flaring tool is quite an expensive investment - the cheap flaring tool kits you see for sale are totally useless.

Even worse, some folk will have just bought a bulb from the service department of their main dealer and will think Halfords are cheap! :) Last generic H7 bulbs I bought were £8-odd for a box of 10 IIRC, and these cheap bulbs seem to last as well as any other.

Looks like fun, I like all these complications. A LPG conversion sounds better every day. :rolleyes:

Good news, another happy camper! :unsure:

The Peugeot/Citroen equivalent fluid is 'Eolys'. If the tank gets low, it puts the car in limp mode which can only be reset with the dealer diagnostic tool 'Lexia 3'.

All seem to be working for me using Firefox and XP... I do remember someone having this problem before, might be worth a search.

The new MOT RfRs don't apply until April 1st, do they? Only advisory until then...

Welcome to the forum! :) Does it look smokey when you rev it hard? Sounds like he's got a bit of a racket going to me. 'Anti-roll bar linkage' will be the drop link. Split balljoint rubbers seem to be a bit of a grey area with MOT testers - some fail them, some don't. According to my tester man, the joint only fails if it's seized or any play is detected - split rubbers are an advisory item.

+1 for clockspring being most likely candidate. As said above, invest in a VAG-COM lead and read the error codes.

The other warning lights, such as airbag, SRS, power steering, etc., are being added to the test this year. They are advisory items from 1st January 2012, and will be MOT failures from 1st April 2012. it's not unknown for sellers to remove or intentionally blow warning bulbs to mask indication of a system defect.

I can completely understand the frustration, but it would be sad to see folk drifting away and, perhaps ultimately, this forum closing due to lack of interest. This site hosts a wealth of information going back years, and I for one would like to say how grateful I am for the help I have found in members' previous contributions. It would be a great shame to see this encyclopedic resource of all things Galaxy to disappear for good. It sounds like there are members who would have been willing to take a more active roll in the upkeep of the site, but for whatever reason have been prevented from doing so?

Although yours is a mk.I, it has the later 3-tier fusebox like the mk.II... http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?s=&showtopic=8810&view=findpost&p=68423 ...the trim is slightly different, but the fusebox and relays are the same.

I'm not sure if the 2.3 gearbox can be physically fitted to the diesel, AFAIK the gearboxes are basically the same with the addition of an adapter plate on the diesel... however, the ratios on 4th and 5th are different on the diesel.

Oil generally gets thinner with age so doesn't affect the gearchange so much, but it could be that the oil level is low - this can give a stiff change. It's also possible that someone has previously changed the oil and refilled it with cheap EP80W/90 stuff - it makes a surprising amount of difference in the winter. The Galaxy gearbox requires a good quality 75W/90 oil to Ford spec. WSD-M2C200-C.

The drain plug is on the nearside end of the gearbox, the filler/level plug is on the front.

Sounds like very good news! :blink:

Yes, thats the one. You should be able to pick them up from a decent motor factor cheaper than that, or even fleabay for around

Best sticking to veg oil... obviously, the 2500L home produced biofuel concession only applies to oils of vegetable origin. HMRC take a very dim view of anyone caught with mineral oils such as transformer oil or kerosene mixes in the tank.

Welcome to the forum! :blink: I can't remember any major problems when I've changed mine, just dump it out of the bottom hose and refill steadily. If you are changing the type of coolant, for example from the old blue/green glycol based to the purple Ford Super Plus Premium stuff, you need to make sure you thoroughly flush the old coolant out, including the front and rear heater matrixes. Total coolant capacities for the 2.3 engine are 10.5L for models with a rear heater, 8.7L for models with only the front heater. I think most, if not all, UK cars have a rear heater matrix. One 5L bottle of antifreeze is sufficient.

If you can't see any movement at all when you rock it either way, I'd be surprised if it's water locked. If it is siezed, it's more likely to be bottom end. If you had it really scorching hot, you could even have a piston that's picked up and siezed in the bore.

I would think the driveshaft spline issue would be accompanied by some nasty noises. If you cannot feel the normal gearchange resistance or gates, my guess would be either a cable is broken or detached, or a problem with the gear selector mechanism on the gearbox. There is a bolt in the selector mechanism which shears or falls out into the gearbox, it's not an uncommon fault. This thread might help... http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?/topic/21541-gear-selector-gone-floppy/

I would get the plugs out as seatkid suggested, drop the auxiliary belt off, then get a spanner on the crank pulley and turn the crank back and forth. It should tell you a great deal. If it's hard to turn at the crank, and always feels stiff without any initial slackness, your problem is likely to be crank related, main bearings or big ends. If there's an initial looseness before locking up, then it could be head or balancer shafts.

Does it look and smell normal? Also, is it turning over but tight, or is it siezed up solid?