sparky Paul

Sounds like your battery is knackered to me. 70mA drain is not a lot, in theory a fully charged 60Ah battery would take over a month to discharge at that rate. Fully charged should read 12.7V, anything below 12.5V is flat. One of the handiest things I ever bought was a small battery and alternator tester, with LEDs to indicate the battery status & charging state, it was only a few quid but has been worth it's weight in gold. Avoid bump starting it as you can damage the catalytic converter.

Off topic, but what do you pay for insurance sk? Mine was about £180 this year, was only £138 last year. Seems crazy for fully comp, protect ncb and business use! Oh, and the driveshaft came with a boot clamp bust, so they are sending new clamps out for delivery tomorrow. Hopefully. Brakes all done, but car immobile due to knackered inner driveshaft joint.

I'm just doing the back discs pads and replacing a leaking caliper, and the carrier bolts are the same - 18mm... ...only they're 17mm now due to the corrosion on the bolt head, and me filing them up square again. Much more sensible size. ;) Also waiting for a front n/s driveshaft to arrive, things are going wrong faster than I can repair them.

With the small torch, you shouldn't need it on the nipple long enough to boil the fluid - just use common sense. If anyone's interested what's inside the rear caliper, there's some very useful pics on this German web page here which shows a strip down and rebuild.

I've never bothered doing that, so long as you take care to seat the taper correctly it should be okay to tighten the balljoint jacked up. It's the bush pinch bolts where it is important that the full weight is on the suspension before doing the final tightening.

I knew it would one of those stupid sizes. :P

Well, all I can remember is that I had to take the carriers off, and I wouldn't have done if there was any other way. I think the carrier is too close to the disc to allow it out. As for size, I know BrianH guessed at 15mm, I might be wrong but I think they may be 16mm... everything suspension and hub related seems to be 16-18-21mm. Not 100% certain though, so you will have to check. The problem with this that there is a big shoulder and reduced head on these bolts, and a bit of corrosion causes some problems. I think I may have had to knock a 15mm socket onto the bad one to do it up. If the bolt heads look good, I can't see you having any problems. Ditto here.

Oh yes, and my 17 year old sills are completely un-squashed... which, looking around many of the Galaxys still on the road, is a rarity!

I'm hoping I don't have to remove the front calipers again. If I have to, I'll get them off okay. The discs are still pretty new, and the the back ones will be done when this shitty weather clears up - as well as a new rear caliper, as one has started weeping from the handbrake lever. For it's age, it still looks great - I did quite a bit of cosmetic work on it last year... usual spots, scabby sills, bottom of front wings, tailgate lock area. It's just the mechanicals that are getting old and crusty. There is also a horrible knock developing on the nearside front which is none of the usual problems, I'm starting to think it might be a faulty shocker.

If the discs were worn flat, I wouldn't be too worried about going a bit under 21mm. They aren't going to snap in two, and the MOT man won't get the caliper out if they look okay.

I would say quite possibly, and almost certainly. ;) A breaker bar and a full hex socket is the best way, or a ring spanner and a hammer if the bolts are good. And there's the rub... these stupid reduced head bolts are suffering at this age, I did my front discs last year I think, and I had to be very careful indeed with one of the bolts. If I had to take the carrier off again for any reason, I think it would be new bolts time. As for the last 2mm, if you can't be arsed to do the discs now, why not zip the edges off. If the discs are otherwise good and evenly worn, I might even go for a another set of pads on them at 21.5mm. How long has it got to last? Or are you looking to get another 17 years out of it? :rolleyes: 149K on mine now, and the back discs & pads are desperate. Bits are sat here, waiting for a dry day. Starting to get a stream of niggly problems now, but I've had it 13 years and bloody hell it's been a good car.

I agree, as BrianH said, and I said in post #2, you need to sort out the 'terminal 30' problem FIRST. This is a battery voltage problem. Even if the car is starting okay, the battery still needs to be checked out or substituted for a known good one, you may have a cell down. It's not uncommon to get other random faults popping up at the same time.

By the way, before doing any of this, make sure the car is well secured on axle stand/s, as the job does require a bit of welly undoing some of the nuts & bolts.

You shouldn't need to touch the track rod end. I replaced all the bushes in mine with genuine bushes, I didn't fancy doing it again for a while - it was a lot easier than expected. Undo the bottom ball joint nut, bar the wishbone down and whilst applying downward pressure give the side of the taper a couple of good whacks with a hammer to split the ball joint from the wishbone. Undo the (very tight) bolts into the subframe, and remove the wishbone. If you are simply replacing with new wishbones, reassemble, but leave the final torquing up of the subframe bolts until the car is back on it's wheels. If you are renewing the bushes in the old wishbones, a hydraulic or fly press with various bit of sockets and spacers is useful, but it can be done with a good sized bench vice. Make sure you mark the position of the rear bush on the wishbone and press the new ones on in exactly the same orientation. Take particular care pressing the rear bush in as the casings are soft white metal and are easily damaged or deformed. Press or burn the old front bush out and pull the new one in with a length of threaded bar, a couple of suitable sockets and a bit of fairy liquid for lube.

Pretty sure carrier has to come off SK. Bolt remover worth a try, but these are tight. If you can do it, quick dirty way is to weld a nut on the bolt, the heat also expands the bolt length a bit and loosens it while it's hot.

Depends how bad they are, once I cleaned all the crap off mine they were surprisingly good and only needed a small patch at the front offside, before stonechip and painting. You can't see the repair. Repairing the front wings was the worst bit, had to make new bottoms. The biggest cause of problems with the sills is damage from jacking, and the subsequent rot. It's amazing how many Galaxys you see with crushed sills at the front. I'm sure you could get sills, I think they are the same on the mk.2 - some of the mk.1 bits are getting harder to find now. You need to find a local body panel & paint supplier, that's where you will get the cheapest panels.

Here's the thread PP http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?/topic/27313-rear-break-pistion-would-not-depress/ Ideal thing for bleed nipples is one of those small high temperature gas torches. Get the nipple hot, let it cool for a few seconds then have a go at it with a hex socket. Take care to apply pressure squarely, so you don't snap it off. The heat expands the nipple and cracks the corrosion in the thread.

Bear in mind it's the rubber below the suspension turret that does all the work, you can just see them poking out through the hole. They can gradually collapse, and can be replaced without actually removing the strut, you still have to undo the top mounts though. Yours do look a bit tired, the suspension tops are protruding a bit - but I would be very surprised if that's the source of the knocking... unless something is loose, which is rare as they are usually rusted solid. Source of suspension knocking is more likely to be roll bar related, links or bushes as BrianH says above, or bottom ball joint. There's a few threads on here about removing the struts, when they're that rusty it's not a job for the faint hearted.The top mounts can be cut off if they are rotten, but if they are salvageable I might be tempted to resort to the old mole grip trick on the top of the shocker shaft and plenty of penetrating oil. Heat is the best tool, but it will melt the rubbers. Watch out for the pinch bolt on the hub carrier, they have a nasty habit of snapping where they corrode in the gap. Again, plenty of heat is the best tool, and a new bolt on reassembly.

The terminal 30 - 002 lower limit exceeded is often triggered by low battery voltage, either been flat or battery has had it. Other random fault codes with this not uncommon. Clear the faults and see what comes back. If you can clear the terminal 30 - 002 lower limit code and the multiple faults around the heater controls come back, you have to check fuses and for possible earthing faults behind the dash. Not sure about the aux heater, my petrol doesn't have one, but could also be connected to low voltage issue.

Are they that bad? The outers only usually go at the front near the wing, and perhaps at the ends in the back wheearch. If it's only small areas, I would cut out and patch. If it's really bad, you have to consider whether the car's worth the effort or not... If the sills are shot, you need to have a good look underneath at all the other favourite rot spots.

What attracted you to that cable? It has support for the later canbus cars, but for you it's no better than the £5 cable which is dedicated to your vehicle.

The brake fluid reservoir is behind the air flow sensor (MAF) and pipe to the inlet manifold. It's the most stupid thing on the car, why they didn't fit a remote reservoir I do not know. Easiest way to access is to unclip and remove the air filter box lid. Then unplug the two connectors from the sensors, undo the jubilee clip on the manifold end of the pipe and remove the inlet pipe complete with the MAF. It's still awkward to get to, but you can get to it.

If the pads and discs are really worn, the piston can disengage from the handbrake adjuster screw. Because the piston is at it's fullest extent, it can then cock slightly and jam in the bore. Try rotating the piston in the opposite direction to free it, then ensure that the piston is square in the caliper before applying the wind back tool. Failing that, you will have to take the caliper off so you can take out the piston and see what's going on in there. Also bear in mind that the piston can be quite stiff to turn when extended, particularly on old calipers.

Good news, at least it was worth the effort. I'm with you on avoiding flushing, especially engines with a few miles on them.

I'm not sure what he means by 'mega serious', but a significant amount of oil in the intercooler usually means that the turbo seals have gone. If the oil can be traced back to the turbo, a new or exchange turbo should fix it, and you can be glad that you have caught it before the engine has had chance to runaway on the engine oil. The leaks are because the pressure in the pipework causes the oil to find the tiniest leaks.