sparky Paul

Yes, as Mirez says, RF and XL mean the same thing - most manufacturers are gradually moving over to the XL or 'eXtra Load' terminology to save confusion with RSW (reinforced sidewall) tyres popular in the US. My handbook definitely states 215/55R16 95H - which of course must be reinforced or 'extra load', as the standard tyre in this size is 93 rated. I don't think the very early handbooks stated load index or reinforced, but it's on the sticker on the car. In the OP, you said that the tyres were 93 rated, and were not reinforced or extra load, so I'm a bit lost now... :lol: 215/55R16 93 rated is not reinforced or extra load. RF or XL tyres in this size will always be LI rated 95 or higher, usually 95 or 97.

I 'm certainly no expert on auto gearboxes. All I know is that the VW unit fitted to the Galaxy is prone to failure, and there are people who will question your sanity in buying a car with a known dud 'box - a good secondhand or exchange unit for these is never cheap. However, £550 is not a lot of money to risk, and in any case, you would probably realise much of that back by selling a few items from it and scrapping the remains. As Chris suggests, you're not going to know what state the gearbox is in without putting some oil in it, but with an obvious leak, there is a chance that the problems are down to fluid loss. As for whether any subsequent damage has been done to the gearbox, from what others have said, it seems like these units soon become undriveable when problems start to manifest themselves. At the end of the day, it depends whether you want to risk throwing money at it, it can sometimes be easy to get carried away spending when the car really does not warrant it. Personally, I would have a go... but I would minimise the cash spent, at least until a fix was looking likely, and I wouldn't be paying a garage. I would remove the cracked plate, make a temporary repair, refit and refill with oil... not sure how about the refilling procedure, but if it could be done, this could prove whether the gearbox is viable or not. I would forget buying the part from the dealer, look for a scrap auto unit from which you can rob the part - there must be plenty of scrap units about.

Scrubbing or 'feathering' of the tread indicates that a wheel is out of track, possible causes are mentioned above. If there is any suspicion of incorrect alignment, the best way forward is to get the alignment professionally checked, both track and camber. If you are simply seeing excessive wear on the insides, rather than scrubbing of the tread, faulty or worn rear shockers is also a possibilty. Wear from faulty shockers is sometimes also accompanied by uneven wear of the inside edge of the tyres, or 'scalloping'. It's not easy to tell the condition of the shockers on a big car like the Galaxy, apart from the instability of the rear in corners. The best diagnosis is made by unbolting the shocker from the trailing arm and checking them by feel.

Mine has random strips working this year, I think it's kaput.:blink:

As Mirez says, the TIS diagram above is certainly wrong for the early 2.3. Not 100% sure about the mk.2, but I wouldn't have thought it would have changed. In the diagram, the belt is the wrong side of the PS pump and the idler pulley. The belt will fit as above, but power steering will give trouble and running the wrong side of the pulleys will damage the belt. You can work out where the belt goes, easily enough. Just put the inside of the belt around any pulley with grooves, and the outside of the belt around any smooth pulleys.

Chapter 7A in the Haynes manual covers the manual gearbox, and the gearchange mechanism and adjustment. You need to make sure both cables are actually operating the selector shaft into the gearbox. Even if the ends are connected to the balljoints, the cable sheaths must be correctly located in the brackets on the linkage assembly for it all to function correctly. Once you have observed that the cables are operating the selector shaft correctly, I'm afraid the next thing is a fault inside the gearbox. Your initial problem of a stiff change could just be low oil level or a dragging clutch, or it could have been the start of something more sinister inside the gearbox.

Smashing! Thanks for the info! :P

I've got one of these to change too cyborg, from same seller too. :18: Don't you have to pop the bottom ball joint to get the driveshaft out?

Well, a belt is

Well, there'll be a charge for the recovery as well as labour and parts... it depends on the the garage really, but I would brace yourself. It also depends which pulley has collapsed. Is yours a petrol or a diesel? If it's a petrol, then the idler pulley or tensioner pulley is favourite - for parts,

Looking under the bonnet from the front of the car, the power steering fluid reservoir is in front of the battery, just to the left of the washer fluid bottle. If you unscrew the lid, there is a dipstick attached to the underside of it. One side is marked 'hot' and the other 'cool', each with a small hatched area marked, the fluid should be up to the level marked - use the 'cool' side if the car has been stood, 'hot' if the car has been driven. You should be able to see the level of the fluid on the dipstick, if not you can wipe with a clean tissue or cloth, re-insert it and read it again. Checking the fluid may help diagnose an issue with the power steering, but the loose/dismounted auxiliary belt will have to be attended to... and unfortunately that means removing the engine undertray for access.

Either the belt has come off, or it has snapped... not sure why your battery light hasn't come on, but not to worry. At this point, there's not really a lot else you can do unless someone with a socket set is prepared to get their hands dirty - it will have to go to a garage, one way or the other. It might just be a case of fitting a new auxiliary belt if nothing else untoward is going on. It could be that the belt itself may have simply failed, or that a faulty belt tensioner, power steering pump, aircon pump, alternator or water pump could have thrown it off - this will need to be investigated and fixed if necessary. Whatever the cause of this, it's a straightforward repair and shouldn't take too long to get you back on the road. It's not really relevant in this case, but it can sometimes help if you mention the age and engine type of the Galaxy you have - you will see that some members put their car details into their signature.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! :)

It sounds like you have lost all power assistance to the steering. The steering will work once you get the car on the move, but it will be very heavy, particularly at low speeds - not really safe to drive, but you might be able to get someone with a bit of brawn to carefully drive it to a garage nearby. Otherwise, you will have to get the car recovered to a garage. When you heard the squealing, the belt on the engine which drives the power steering pump (and other stuff) was siezed - this belt also drives the alternator, which charges the battery, hence the battery warning light coming on. As the battery light is now okay, that would indicate that the belt is now running... however, it appears that you still do not have power steering. That could point towards a failed power steering pump, but this should be easy enough to diagnose by the garage. A new or service exchange pump will be an expensive repair, but it should be possible for them to find a good secondhand unit from a breaker, if required. Hope this helps. :)

There isn't a Haynes manual for the mk.II model, but the book for the mk.I model covers most of the mechanicals, there are no major differences. No adjustment of the clutch pedal is possible, it's a hydraulic system which automatically compensates for wear in the clutch. It might be worth bleeding the clutch hydraulics to make sure there's no air in the system, but you you would probably be having problems with the clutch action if this was the problem. A low pedal is more likely to be a faulty clutch pressure plate, wear in the master cylinder linkage or pedal pivot, or less likely a faulty slave or master cylinder.

I've just had a quick glance in the mk.III section, and there's a thread from someone else with an issue similar to yours. http://www.fordgalax...showtopic=21376 It might be worth a search to see if there are any other similar threads. Hope this helps! :)

I'm not sure towing hitch cover causes the same problems in the mark III model, and I'm not sure that a worn belt would be likely after only two years. It's certainly not impossible, but I would be looking for the cause if I found a belt worn out after such a short time. Is the car not covered by the 3 year Ford warranty? You might get more specific help for your problem in the mk.III section rather than here, where mostly mkI/II owners loiter... the 2006-on mk.III cars are very different to the earlier VW-derived mk.I/II models.

Even better still, you can buy the ABS ring separately from the CV joint. If you are careful, you can replace it by undoing the driveshaft end bolt and bottom ball joint and removing the driveshaft from the hub end only. Renew the driveshaft end bolt on reassembly. Check out fleabay for a few sellers of these ABS rings.

D

Wobble through the steering wheel under braking is usually warped front disc/s. Replace front brake discs and pads.

195/65R15 need to be reinforced, reinforced are 95 load index, while standard tyres are only 91. As far as I know, the 6Jx15 rims are the same for all 15" sizes, so I reckon you should be able to fit any of these. There are very few manufacturers of reinforced 215/60R15, and standard tyres are a mixture of mostly 94, and some 95 rated - you must make sure you fit 95 rated as specified by Ford on your filler flap, or reinforced (98 rated) if you can find them.

The tyre info should be listed in the handbook, in mine there is no mention of RF or XL, but IIRC the load index is stated - and that is the critical factor. Glad to hear you got sorted out, I couldn't really see any other option for KwikFit but to replace the tyres.

...and after reading your post again, I would whizz the car back to Kwik Fit and complain that they have specified and fitted the wrong tyres. Out of interest, I just put my reg into the Kwik Fit website... it came up with a completely wrong tyre size, and all 91 rated to boot. Very poor.:rolleyes: I notice the website says They obviously didn't do the the 'visual inspection and confirmation' in your case. These registration based part locators are not always accurate, and I suppose that is forgiveable. However, if they have actually gone ahead and fitted these tyres to the car, that is a far more serious matter.

I'm afraid RF or XL tyres are not just recommended, they are mandatory for your tyre size. Ford specify a minimum of 95 load index in any size, and your insurance company would take a very dim view of any deviation if you had any kind of accident. An astute MOT tester is also likely to fail the tyres as not up to spec. It's not simply a case of taking the GVW and dividing by four, the weight is rarely evenly distributed between the two axles. The specified tyre allows for worse possible bias towards the back tyres when carrying 7 adults and luggage.

If you have anything that still resembles an allen key hole, the strut tops are in pretty good nick... mine just had rusty, vaguely circular holes. Good tip about packing the top mounts with grease, but be careful what you use - the rubber bumpers around the edge of the mounts seem to be adversely affected by some mineral oils/greases. I moulded a bit of nice greasy denso tape around the nut and thread, keeping it away from the rubbers. It's also worth making sure you fit the plastic bulkhead panel back correctly, it's very easy to miss the metal clips at the back - it should be a tight fit to minimise any leakage into the top mount cups. If the panel fits back in easily, it is possible for the panel to ride over the clips, leaving a gap at the back edge.