MadBaz

Sounds like they're using Iveco gearboxes http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gifhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif, welcome to the wonderful world of automated manualshttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/wub.gifhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif also known as Marmite boxes, you love em or hate em. The only experience I've had with similar gearboxes are on trucks (Powershift has 2 clutches though), and what you describe is similar to the poorer gearboxes used by manufacturers. Busy roundabouts with a full load on are a bloody nightmare, set off, box changes to 2nd, loses momentum, revs & turbo when changing to 3rd, drops back to 2nd cue the flashing lights and Gareth Hunt hand signals. The interesting thing is that same box that is fitted in Ivecos is also fitted in some DAF's which have a cleverer box of electrickery and you don't quite get the same 'lag' as the engine speed is automatically matched to the input shaft speed, without going into over-run. Trucks also have a turtle mode for manoeuvring, which basically slips the clutchhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gifhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif and that is no fun at all when things are a bit tight. I've found that giving slight revs when almost ready to go helps with the lag, when idling the clutch is depressed fully and the electrickery takes a while to catch up, whereas when giving a tiny bit on the loud pedal gets the gearbox ready without it riding/slipping the clutch, a really really bad thing when loaded. When I get going I keep the revs constant, then the engine speed is easily matched to the gearbox and the next gear. Using semi-auto mode is very useful when you need more control, going up/down hill, slow moving traffic, etc. You do have to change your style of driving to how the computer likes it, not something I am comfortable with. I find it ironic that the best truck 'auto' by a country mile is Volvo's I-shift, you'd have thought Ford would've asked their sister company for some advice.

If you search through my posts I fitted one a while back when I had a MK1, bought off fleabay for less than £30. Found it CLICKY

I believe, as above it's for the aircon, probably the expansion valve/muffler on the low pressure side, return to compressor.

Check the wiring's intact first, you could end up with same problem on a 'new' cluster. Check doors & tailgate, I vaguely recall a member had a chafed loom behind the cluster.

Handbook page 234 states 4.5L with filter & 3.8L without filter. But don't stick it in, all in one go.

If it's a PATS issue, you'll get a flashing door LED, and you'd still be able to crank the engine on the starter, it just won't fire up. Have you got 2 keys? Lazy followed by non-starting could be, in the order I'd check... Will the car bump start? assuming it's not auto. Will it jump start? Then check.. Battery & cables including battery junction box. Starter motor, solenoid & cables. Alternator, make sure it's charging, obviously you''d need to get started first. All the above can be easily checked with a multimeter very easily. Then I'd check the ign barrel & induction loop I'm personally suspicious of mechanic friends that don't check the easiest options first. Like the one up the road that changed most of his A6 n/s/f suspension inc c/v & shaft, till I noticed one of his 'new' alloys wasn't quite round. I don't know your mechanic friend or his competency but I'd be checking the above before fiddling & hoping with the PATS and possibly turning the original problem into a £££dealer£££ only problem.

If the key in the drivers door is not locking the car then there are 3 possibilities: Wires in the door gaitor broken. The key barrel 'cam' is u/s, replacements are available at dealers or the well known auction site, here's a handy link CLICKY The door lock motor assy is u/s, available at VW stealers.

I've never done one but from what I gather the tensioners are just as important, not sure if it's applicable to the MK1 but I've seen several people suggest getting the water pump done at the same time.

Definitely due to bad crimps, I did some testing with a multimeter a while back, and although the resistance was small, across the crimps when warm the resistance was twice the amount than cold.

I've neber wired up a 12s socket so I don't know about what is required, I guess you need a fused battery live and a d+, to get them from the engine bay can be done under the car or inside the car, I've routed cables through a handy grommet behind the coolant bottle which leads to the passenger footwell (just pull back the carpet) to get to the rear just tuck under the trims that run down the side and tuck under the nsr stowage compartment. The fog light feed should be a grey wire in the o/s compartment, 3 choices here, 1, you can run the blue wire from the feed straight to pin 2 on the socket. This will activate fogs on car AND trailer and isn't recommended firstly because of the glare, especially with a wobble box, and secondly the car wiring isn't really up to the job especially with 2 fogs on the trailer (7 amps). 2. split the wire, you'll need 8 core cablehttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif, from the switch side of the wire run the blue wire to the pin 2 on the socket, and from the fog light side you need to run the black/red to pin 8 on the socket. The only problem is that the socket, especially the fog cut-off contact, is prone to corrosion and in time you may find your cars fogs won't work, usually on a foggy dayhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif. 3 Use a relay, there are various options available. Then there is a fourth option, you could get a local friendly auto electrician to do it all of it for you, for a fee of course and it'll give you peace of mind.

I made a custom bracket for the electric socket which moved the socket in towards the ball a couple of mm, as my p/s were going off when reverse selected. You could bend your bracket so the sockets are at an angle. P/s bypass is possible only when the trailer is connected and when using specific kit (or if your handy with electrickery, a relay). You could always press the p/s button just after selecting reverse.

If it's a mk1 iirc there were some bullet connectors with red and yellow wires that had to be swapped around.

You can scotchlok or use block connectors straight into the existing loom (specific kit & bypass relays are not required), tracing the relevant wires is fairly straight forward working back from the plug that goes into the back of the rear clusters. The fog light circuit is in the o/s compartment, i can't remember the wire colour but if you post year of car I'll look it up. Keep the o/s & n/s sidelight circuits separate (some peeps join them together). If you have parking sensors then a specific kit may disable the rear sensors (and fog lights) when trailer is connected (this is for those that are too lazy to press the p/s buttonhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif). I had to run a wire from the Westfalia wiring kit to the parking sensor module and dismantle a multi-plug to get mine to make this workhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif, also there is no indicator tell-tale (dash or buzzer) with the Westfalia kit, however it does make the cars indicators flash faster when a trailer indicator bulb is out.

If you get a beep from rear for 3 seconds and flashing switch when selecting reverse/or pushing button in, then there's a fault. Usually one of the sensors, do a search on here for "parking sensors" and there's lots of advice.

The yellow plug should have one purple wire (possibly more if wired up for phone) which is for the AVC, the faster the car goes the louder the volume. The green plug should be for the cd changer.

There might be a problem with the side airbags being in the wayhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif.

Here's a piccy N34-1337.bmp

I'm not familiar with the Ford system but on our trucks we have to keep the revs in the green band, 1500-2000 rpm, Block changing, timing lights/junctions/roundabouts to keep her rolling whenever possible, no harsh braking/acceleration, no excessive idling, all this data (& lots more) is reported back to depot and head office so they can generate a nice weekly report and work out our monthly bonus. I've found on the car (MK2) between 1500 and 2200 works best for MPG. I know the TDCi is a slightly different animal but as with all diesels the engine works best in a narrow band, don't let her labour (too high a gear at too low rpm) and don't let her rev too high before changing up. Depending on how the software has been set up, you may find that coming down through the box when slowing is penalising you, block change down, if coming to a stop stay in the gear your in and dip the clutch just before you stop/when the tachometer gets below 1000 rpm, then select your appropriate gear. Another tip is when going down hill don't coast, select an appropriate gear so the car will hold it's speed without needing to touch the pedals (max of 3500 rpm), when the engine is doing the braking it's not using any precious gogo juice. As a side note I don't know if you've seen the tv ad for the Mondeo, but the driver on that only had 2 petals for gears & speed! A problem with driving in eco mode is the DPF, it needs sustained high revs to self cleanhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif.

Never missed youhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gifhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif Seriously though, trolls like him soon get bored when you don't feed em. We get a few on another forum and they soon end up on pre-mod and subsequently their ip gets blocked.

Or 12http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif

I shouldn't worry about the diesel hunters, a hefty conical spring is usually stuck in the filler to prevent siphoning, it's much more efficient to stab a chisel into the tankhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif

I'm not familiar with the mk3 but I'm sure I read somewhere that on the mk1/2 you could get to the central locking actuator from the boot cover panel, I maybe talking utter b''''s thoughhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif (NIK this is one for the MK3 section)

I used thick tie wraps, they certainly lasted 3 months before I scrapped the car. I'll have a look for VW part numbers for you....back in a mo. I can't see anything for individual joints via VW. only arms or full linkages.

When the button is pressed/reverse selected, a flashing light and the rear speaker sounding for 3 seconds indicates a fault. It only takes one sensor or any of the sounders to be faulty for the whole system to be put into a fault state. The easiest way to diagnose is with VCDS Lite (Vagcom). There is no signal from the clutch switch to the parking module.

I had this when my booster was playing up, blower didn't always spin hence fumes coming back though inlet, it got quite scary once and we all bailed out, changed coolant run on pump and the blower seemed to 'dry out' and I've not had a problem since.