sparky Paul

It's not going to be easy to guess between clutch or gearbox without actually splitting the gearbox off and investigating, but I would be a bit worried if the car bounced out of gear when the bang occured. Fortunately, the manual gearbox is a generally pretty robust, and that means there are plenty of reasonable secondhand units about. if the car is otherwise good, it's certainly worth a go at that price.

Change the ARB drop links before you do anything else, it's the cause of most of the suspension knocks and rattles on Galaxys and it's a cheap fix. As for the feeling of deflated tyres, I'm not exactly sure what you mean... is the steering sluggish, suspension wallowy, car wandering, or something else?

It is only a recommendation, but the DMF is unreliable - most mk2 tdi clutch kits come with the DMF. There are, however, a few options... 1. You could fit a new clutch and DMF, cost for factor parts is around

This will give you a long pedal travel, rather than a 'soft' pedal, but it's not always easy to tell the difference. You should make sure the handbrake is completely released by loosening the cable adjusters, or better still disconnecting the cables, after any work on the back calipers. You should then push the brake pedal down firmly to set the auto adjusters in the calipers, before re-attaching and adjusting the handbrake cables. You can correct it by slackening the handbrake cables off, making sure the levers on the calipers are fully retracted, then pushing the brake pedal firmly to set the caliper auto adjusters.Then re-attach the cables and adjust as necessary.

Brakes won't fail Maz, clutch will go first as you suspect. If the the slave cylinder goes kaput completely and the the clutch fluid is lost, enough fluid remains in the reservoir to stop air getting into the brakes. Slave cylinder is mounted inside the gearbox bellhousing and is concentric type - it fits over the gearbox output shaft, which is bad news... the gearbox has to come off to change it. You can't change the seals, it's a throw-away job. Around

Have you bled all four brake lines? If the brakes have always been a bit iffy, you don't know if there has been previous work on the hydraulics which could have introduced air. According to Ford TIS, the correct sequence is NSF - OSF - OSR - NSR. Also, make sure you aren't introducing bubbles with the pressure bleeder by working on too high a pressure. One other thing that comes to mind, have you checked all the flexible hoses?

If it's in a clean line straight down, the paint could have been stripped by leakage from the front seal of the master cylinder at some time. You could remove the master cylinder and find the front seal is wet, or equally the master cylinder could have failed in the past and been replaced. Even if you don't change the master cylinder, I might be inclined to unbolt it from the servo just to have a feel to see if the front seal is okay. To be honest, your problem sounds more like air in the system somewhere. Galaxy hydraulics can be a pain to bleed properly, and as the problem has appeared since changing the caliper, I would get some more fluid and make absolutely sure that the brake lines are clear. I had a similar problem when I replaced the pipes at the back, despite seeing clear fluid at each nipple, the pedal felt very soft with servo assistance. I ended up bleeding the brakes several times over a period of a few weeks before I was happy with the pedal, I was also starting to think something else was wrong. Fortunately, you don't have ABS, as air in the ABS modulator can be virtually impossible to push out without diagnostic equipment.

Main dealer part numbers for the blanking plugs are Ford part no. 1106343 - Plug - Blanking - Threaded VW part no. 443 611 190 - Sealing plug M10X1

I've found some more info, have a read of this thread... http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?showtopic=15813 It seems that the master cylinder fitted to yours is obsolete, and is indeed replaced by the 4-port master cylinder and two blanking plugs. Hope this helps! :)

Sorry about that, I got distracted and cross posted with you. It sounds like you have the arrangement I described above with the 'brake line distributor' blocks (tee pieces). I would stick with the arrangement you have, first of all I would try to obtain an exact replacement MC with two M10 ports. If they are not available, there's no reason why you cannot plug two unused ports (one front, one back) on the new master cylinder if that's what you have to do, providing of course that the other two ports line up. A 2-port ABS type MC will be no good because the ports are M12. What's the new master cylinder like, compared to the old one? Where are the ports?

Right, scratch that last bit... I've been looking on VW ETKA this morning, as well as the more usual non-ABS 4-port master cylinder arrangement with separate brake lines, there is indeed a drawing on there of a non-ABS system with a 2-port master cylinder. The master cylinder feeds two 'brake line distributor' blocks which split the circuit between front and rear corners. They should be mounted on a bracket which is attached to the master cylinder mounting. It's worth noting that the 2-port ABS master cylinders certainly won't fit, the ports are M12. VW list a couple of master cylinders for non-ABS models, looking at the limited info shown they seen to be different bores - 23mm (most common) or 25.4mm. However, they also list M10 sealing plugs for the ports, which makes me wonder if they supply a 4-port master cylinder, and for your arrangement you have to plug two of the ports. This is all a bit of a guess, but do two of the ports line up with your existing pipework, or is the new master cylinder completely different?

4 port master cylinder is for non-ABS cars - the four brake units connect directly to the two circuits of the master cylinder. If yours has only two pipes coming from it, I would have thought it would have ABS... Where do the two pipes go? If they go to a large lump to the rear of the battery, you must have ABS. The only other option is that the two brake circuits are split externally, but I would think that very unlikely indeed.

Agreed. Have a read around the interweb, it's full of stories about this set up. Their aim is to get you and your car down to a buying dealer so they can pressure you to sell for peanuts. I'm with zorgman... it's clear the droplinks are tatered, it's a cheap fix, so change them first and see where you go from there.

Sadly, your mechanic may be right. Thermostats are sometimes removed by the unscrupulous to mask a problem with the cooling system, often a failing headgasket or heater matrix. It sounds like the coolant system is gradually pressurising with combustion gases, you should be able to get a sniffer test done to check for combustion gases in the coolant. This would confirm head gasket failure, note that oil/coolant cross contamination is not always evident. Replacing the thermostat would increase pressure in the system and may well make the problem worse. Are you actually loosing coolant, particularly on/after long runs? Welcome to the forum, by the way.:)

It can be quite difficult to see that the spring is actually sat in the top shock absorber seat, and not resting on the inside of the suspension turret - you have to feel up into the turret to make sure the spring is where it should be. It's the "twang" you mentioned that worries me, I don't think that's likely to be droplink related... although it could possibly be a top bearing. Anyway, when I attacked mine, I changed the whole lot - springs, struts, bearings, bushes and top covers, so the whole strut came out - but it was one pig of a job. I remember someone on here (sorry, can't remember who) managed to replace the top bearings and bushes with the struts in situ, you have to remove the strut top cover and bar down the bottom arm to give you enough access to the top of the strut. Fiddly, but I believe it is possible. The biggest difficultly is removing the strut top cover. They are often badly corroded and the thread rusted solid, and it can be difficult to remove them without damaging the shock absorber. Hope you don't mind my two penn'orth here... If it's knocking badly, particularly over minor potholes on level roads, 9 times out of 10 changing the droplinks effects a total cure. The tiniest bit of play can sound like someone under the car with a hammer, but if they are really bad you can hear them clicking when you rock the car with the roof rails. It helps if you have an assistant do this, while you reach to feel each joint - holding a joint tight, or simply pulling tension on the droplink will silence the clicking of a faulty joint. The bottom joint onto the anti-roll bar is the one which fails. To be honest, if you have any doubts about the droplinks, particularly if they haven't been changed for 30,000 miles or so, it's worth changing them anyway as they are not that expensive. Buy from a VW dealer or GSF, or alternatively get good quality factor parts such as Delphi-Lockheed or Motaquip.

I'm with seatkid on this one, I've always fitted branded factor joints and never had any problems... and you won't go far wrong with GSF. Some of the unbranded stuff on fleabay is total carp, and there are even fake branded parts being sold which are often very poor quality.

It takes many times the rated current of a fuse to blow it quickly. Even if it is giving way after a minute or two, the circuit is taking over the rated current and it would be wise to determine the cause before any damage occurs to the wiring loom. It's possible that the fan motor winding insulation is failing, or the fan itself is seizing up... the increased load on the motor will increase the current draw from the supply.

A common cause of unexplained and intermittant starting is failure of the main power boot relay... http://www.fordgalax...indpost&p=68423 It might not be your problem, but that's where I would start.

Nice link, very comprehensive range of seal kits! :lol:

Check front springs, make sure they are not broken and complete - pay particular attention to the very top coil which can snap off leaving the rest of the spring resting on the chassis leg. If all looks okay, could be a seized strut top bearing.

billywizzo's right, it's almost certainly the ARB droplinks - the rest of the front suspension is pretty robust. You may as well change both sides, if one is shot, the other is usually not far behind. Avoid the the really cheap ones off eBay, buy from GSF, or use some of the better quality factor parts such as Delphi or Motaquip. The first set I fitted years ago were Motaquip, and I was very surprised to find that the boxes contained genuine VW drop links, complete with the VW part numbers moulded onto the back of the ball joints. However, as with all factor parts, manufacturers will vary and it's impossible to guarantee they will still be the same parts now.

The highest load index available in 225/40R18 reinforced/extra load tyres is 92, so definitely not suitable for the Galaxy. 235/40R18 RF/XL are available with a 95 LI, so just high enough. They do sound a bit skinny for a bus though!

As Mirez says, the top cup is a dealer only part, but they're not expensive, about

You'll not regret that purchase, best

The rear wheels do tend to lean in a little when heavily loaded, this is one of the characteristics of semi-trailing arm suspension and not due to shock absorbers. Running the suspension like this for long periods may well cause uneven tyre wear, but for the occasional times that the car is so heavily loaded it should not be significant. When unloaded, the wheels on this type of suspension should appear to lean out slightly, and overall the wear should even itself out. That said, the lean on the tyres should not be immediately obvious, unless the rear suspension is compressed more than it should be. Are you sure you are not overloading the car? When under heavy load, how far up into the wheelarches are the wheels? If the suspension seems to be deflecting excessively under the load, it might be worth getting the rear springs checked - in particular, look at the bottom ends of the springs, they have a habit of snapping the ends off, and this is not always obvious at first glance.