sparky Paul

Yes, they can soot up - I would flood with a bit of petrol, or carb cleaner if you have any, then agitate the plunger until it's free. Easy enough to replace, but access a bit fiddly - bolted to the top of the inlet manifold with two bolts, and there's a single connector.

The up/down movement is quite normal, the design relies on the weight of the car to keep everything in place. The top mount part above the suspension turret is only there to retain everything when the car is jacked up. I don't think it's unusual to see some ovalling of the centre of the top spring seat, but there is some significant damage and deformity to those pictured above - I would guess that's as a result of the faulty bearings. There should be no lateral movement normally as the bottom race of the bearing should sit snugly in a small recess in the spring seat, and obviously the top race is clamped to the shock absorber shaft. Replacement top spring seats are fairly cheap, about a tenner each IIRC.

If you have access to a decent bench vice and some sockets and spacers, it's not difficult (and much cheaper) to change the bushes for OEM parts - I fitted Lemforder parts to mine, the boxes contained all genuine VW bushes. Otherwise, as daddy says, any decent quality brand like Delphi, Motaquip or similar will do the job.

It might be useful if you could describe your alloys, and give the tyre size, so we can identify which rims they are.

All the 1995-2006 hub carriers are the same. Wheel spacers are almost certainly not original, something is up. The only differences are the brake discs and calipers - most, but not all, mk.2 cars were fitted with bigger discs. Alloys from mk.1 or early mk.2 cars will not fit on later mk.2 cars with the 300mm discs without fouling the brake calipers. The common arch-type mk.1 Zetec alloys were carried over to the early mk.2 cars, but were always fitted with the corresponding 288mm brake discs. All of the Golf/Bora/Galaxy have similar front strut arrangements, I have no idea if they would actually be interchangeable - it seems a bit far fetched to think that someone would fit struts from a different car, but I've seen some weird things done over the years. As for the ride height, are you sure it hasn't got lowering springs fitted, or does it look original?

Yes, the eccentric bushes give you the adjustment by rotating their position when pressed in. Normally you would carefully replace the bushes in the exact same orientation, as the geometry is fixed when the car is assembled. If it is a rear tracking geometry issue, I would examine all of these very carefully. Give the bushes a wetting so you can see the physical condition, and apply some pressure with a crowbar to check for movement, splits, wear, etc.. Otherwise, you may be looking at a bent suspension arm, probably as a result of kerb damage. If you are seeing camber wear on the insides of the tyres, as said previously this is not an uncommon Galaxy issue. It seems to affect certain tyres more than others, and can be as a result of tired rear springs, or simply because of the semi-trailing arm design - just running the car constantly with a heavy load in the rear. If the tread is 'scalloping' on the insides, i.e. wearing the insides but not evenly around the circumference of the tyre, check the condition of the rear shock absorbers by removing the lower bolt and compressing them, they should feel smooth and even throughout their full extent. That said, tired coilsprings or faulty shockers should not affect static geometry measurements. The rather cryptic analysis by the garage doing the tracking would make me think that the rear tracking was out, but more info would have been helpful. It should have been possible for them to tell you which side was out, and at least roughly, by how much.

Wishbone bushes, I think. Usually the back one which falls to bits.

Yes, that wasn't too painful in the end. Like Gregers, I also seem to rmember this has been covered here before... the only thing that I can remember is that when the cable comes to bits, the outer pushes on the mechanism to pop the latch open, rather than a pull on the centre.

It was always worth a try with a relay. The rapid flashing LED that is normally seen with a faulty relay 30 is a fault indication from the immobiliser, I think we have all learned something here that any apparent immobiliser related issue could point to relay 30. Inside the relays, it's the lead-free solder that causes the problems, particularly on the larger connections where plenty of heat is required for the solder to wet properly. Remove all the old stuff from the larger yoke connections using a sucker or desolder braid, and resolder using a good quality resin-cored lead solder.

Very fancy gadget! As we say, "you're short of nowt you've got!"

Can't help any further, but best wishes viper - glad to hear you're on the mend. B)

When my relay 30 failed, I could spin the engine over but it wouldn't start. An hour later, after towing it back home, it started first turn. :huh: Mine is a late mk.1 with the mk.2 electrics, my LED illuminates solid for a second or two when you turn the key in the ignition, then goes out. I presume this indicates all is well and that the key is recognised. If you see the LED flash every few seconds when the car is locked, but not when you insert the key and turn, that points to immobiliser - either some fault present, or it's not seeing the ignition on. As Brian says above, fuses or ignition switch are possibilities. It's a while since I looked at the start circuit diagram, but IIRC there is a immobiliser relay in the starter circuit which your RAC man may have bypassed. Whilst this would allow the starter to spin, the immobiliser is also tied into the car's ECU to prevent it firing up. At least you know the starter is good. If all fails, you may have to find someone with Ford IDS/WDS to see exactly what's going on with the immobiliser.

Yes, tis just screwed into the end of the rack, fairly tight. You will have to apply some right lock so that you can get an implement on it, you'll see when the boot is removed. Also check the boot for any splits or damage before tackling the job, you can replace this at the same time if necessary.

Yes, inner track rod joint. Straightforward job, and you can buy the inner and outer track rod parts for about a tenner each. You will need some big spanners, I think the original joint is a 35mm spanner, or use a small pair of stillsons to remove. The replacement track rod was a bit smaller across the flats, 30 or 32mm IIRC, use a spanner or big adjustable if you have one. Threadlock the stud when you fit the new track rod, and the boot clamps can be re-used if removed carefully. Even with significant movement at the wheel, you will probably be unable to feel any play in the joint once you have taken the track rod off - don't let that put you off.

Personally, I would only replace as necessary. The Galaxy suspension is relatively easy to dismantle, and everything except the anti-roll bar drop links are pretty robust. Droplinks and inner track rods are easy jobs to do in isolation, both jobs take no more than 10-15 minutes a side. The prices sound reasonable, as BrianH says, but it often surprises me how many bits garages find to change on MOTs. We all know that drop links are an ongoing problem, but some of the other suspension stuff should only fail at big mileages... I've replaced springs, shockers, drop links, track rod ends, anti-roll bar bushes, wishbone bushes and one (n/s) inner track rod - the track rod only very recently. That said, mine has now done over 150K miles, and is still on the original balljoints, wheel bearings, driveshafts and CV boots, and the rural roads around here are diabolical. In my experience, ball joint rubbers rarely fail unless they are very old or have been damaged by some someone being less than careful whilst splitting or checking for play. My MOT tester man seems to have managed for 13 years without poking holes in mine. As for the droplinks, I found the answer to that - Delphi heavy duty ones last for years - part no. TC1901.

The Ford ones are definitely engine specific, and as the VW/Seat models are fitted with a VW 2.0, I am going to guess that they will be different too - someone else might know for sure though. It's not so easy to find mk.1 parts now as a lot of the scrappers of that age end up squashed and put through the fragger. Even ebay is getting thin on the ground for breaking mk.1s.

Steering wheel vibration will be the front axle. Usually down to discs, you can feel the slightest warp on the Galaxy, also make sure the hub face is spotless and corrosion free before fitting new discs. Also check tyres are correctly rated as Brian says, the wishbone bushes, particularly the rear ones, inner and outer track rod ends, and wheel bearings.

Brian is correct I'm afraid, your 02 Galaxy doesn't have a plug in relay for the indicators. Wiring problems are the most common problem here. However, if it does turn out to be the relay, the only answer is to replace the complete MFU, take it apart and solder in a new relay, or do the mod shown in the other thread.

Brakes should be good a few years, anyway! Glad you got this sorted, I know how soul destroying it can be when you can't bottom it. Sometimes, the only answer is to start replacing stuff, starting with the most likely... just like most garages do.

Az2102 is right, condensor is the favourite leak point on mk2 cars. There's a thread about this here, with pics on page 2... http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?/topic/13221-aircon-leaking-gas-difficult-to-locate-fault-found/?hl=%2Baircon+%2Bleak+%2Bcondensor

The spigots that the pipes are pushed onto are barbed so the they go on easy, but don't want to come off. Sometimes the easiest way is to carefully pare the old bit of pipe off with a Stanley knife, cutting with the blade flat to the pipe and towards the end, if you get my drift.

Your car is correct for a RHD car, they're all like that. The picture on the website is a LHD car, and the picture has been reversed. As Brian says, the ignition is on the wrong side of the column, and look at the dashboard dials and the pedals - the accelerator is on the left! Not keen on the stick on stuff, looks nasty. What about finding trim parts from a scrapper? Some Ghia models had wood/ish trim, or the carbon fibre effect, like mine.

I'm still using an old version of VAG-COM, but VCDS-Lite will do the important stuff including clear codes, and is the best tool to use. Latest version is 1.2, available from the Ross-Tech site, there's more info there about the few restrictions on the shareware Lite version.

Have you had the gas checked recently? Most Galaxy aircon issues are down to low gas. There are a few common leak points on the Galaxy, but it's not unusual to need a regas every few years - especially if the aircon is not used over the winter. It's a good idea to run the aircon once a week to keep all the seals oiled to slow the loss of gas. Clutch won't pull in if the combined pressure switch is showing low pressure.

Most likely culprit is low pressure, the combined pressure switch will indeed stop the clutch pulling in. If it's been intermittant, you may get away with a regas, but if it's gone altogether you may have a leak. Part of the regas procedure is a vacuum test for leaks, so it should fail at that point if you do have a leak... or small leaks can be identified with a marker dye in the gas. The main source of leak problems on the mk.2 is on the condensor, there's a thread about it on here somewhere... http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?/topic/13221-aircon-leaking-gas-difficult-to-locate-fault-found/?hl=%2Baircon+%2Bleak+%2Bcondensor