Steve P

Ok - I'll rephrase it. Does anybody know how the immobilser works? or Does anybody know how to deactivate the immobiliser? or Does anybody know how I might find out. If I take it to Iveco they will just keep throwing new parts at it. It might not be the immobilser! If I can find out the things works I can circumvent it (!!) to confirm that is the fault! Cheers Steve

Anybody out there know how to hotwire an Iveco Daily (2001 model). Mines been playing up lately and I think that it's the immobilser - it cranks over but won't start. Eventually if you try it enough times it goes. This happens even if you only turned it off a few moments ago. I think that when this happens the little key symbol on the dash flashes - which indicates that the immobiliser is active. The immobiliser is one of those types whereby the key has something built into it but does not require batteries. I'm getting rid soon and I don't want to waste money having Iveco sort this out - the van's not worth much. Have had a look at the diesel pump - was hoping to spot the stop solenoid. I was then just going to add some relays or a live feed (whatever is required dependant upon how it works) to get round the immobiliser. But the pump has more wires going to it than I expected (although this is not HPI engine with electric injectors or anything fancy) and the one solenoid I can see doesn't seem to move at all between running and stopped. Can anybody help?

That's no good for a gal - most people won't be able to see it! I wonder if he has thought of doing a propped up version so that it looks like you have a sunroof AND it looks as though it's open. That would look even cooler! In fact I would be able to have twin sunroofs without worrying about loss of strength to the roof!

Did mine few weeks ago. Remove the indicators - there are screws inside there that hold the ends of it on. Along the bottom it clips into place. You need to sort of bend the top it toward you and the bottom away from you in a twistin motion. This causes the clips to move to the top of thier slots so that they will disengage. If you have careful look you should be able to see the clips / lugs - I worked this out without a manual or advice so I must have been able to see how to do it! Cheers Steve

Hi Sher - I would add that single tank means that you keep your original fuel tank - in case any of our readers thought this mean't they would need to add another single fuel tank to their vehicle. I don't want to go down the road trailer route - extra cost of purchase - fetching the fuel and time. It all starts to eat into the benefits of doing this - plus a trailer sould take up a lot more room in the garage. A 1000 litre tank is only a 1 metre cube!! If I can get somebody to deliver 1000 litres in a tanker to the house - and as long as we don't end up with veg oil dripped all over the drive - then I will be giving this some serious thought. At least with LPG on the galaxy there are loads of filling stations - we hardly ever get caught short.

Sorry big kev - that's illegal - Customs & Excise will come down on you like a ton of bricks if they catch you. Red diesel is reserved for strictly non road use - farm vehicles and plant. Cheers Steve PS the price of red has rocketed - it's gone in the last few years from about 17 pence to 35 pence. Might seem like peanuts to us, but I have a farmer in the family and he was saying it's the difference between "ploughing" a field or not (he used some other term which mean dragging something behind a tractor across the field - but not a plough)

I'll be honest - I'm not sure. I have assumed that SVO and PPO are virtually the same thing. From the quick bit of reading I did on another website after seeing gio's post I think that PPO is at least as processed as SVO. My next task is to find out if I can get get reasonable quantities of PPO (or SVO) - say 500 litres, delivered to home at 52p per litre. A 500 litre tank (or even a 1000 litre tank ) isn't actually that big and could easily be stored in the garage (as long as you don't keep a car in there!!). I'm sure that SVO / PPO would not be classed as a fuel so I don't think there would be any problems with having to have the tank bunded etc. I'll need to check. Cheers Steve

Hi Sher - you forgot about the litres to gallons calculation! 425x38x4.54 =

Cor sepulchrave- who rattled your cage! I think that was a very useful post. Thanks gio. We have a 2.3 gal which is as thirsty as a bus (I think that the 2.3 is the WORST galaxy to have if fuel consumption matters) But we like it - so we had it converted to LPG years ago and so the running costs are now better than a lot of small cars. I also have a Ford Ranger 4x4 - diesel. It does about 28 mpg. It looks like I have to give up self employment and get a job which will mean a commute to work. It was therefore looking like the ranger had to go, but as we bought it from brand new, it's only got 11k miles on it in two and a half years I was not happy - somebody would be getting a bargain. Previously I had looked into bio- diesel. Too much faffing around to make it at home so never took it any further. I knew about running diesels on Straight Veg Oil (SVO) but the tax position made it more expensive than diesel. I'm all for doing my bit for the environment but I am not paying extra compared to everybody else driving a car. This latest news means I might get to keep the Ranger. Cease grizzling and pay the price for luxury. Cobblers to that. Get off your backside - put a little bit of effort in then have the luxury without the price!! Nice one gio - cheers

Can we start again with this - I really don't fully understand the symptoms. Forget the clutch - that's a total red herring. Your first report suggests that the engine would rev up on it's own to 3500 rpm. I really can't see this happening unless someone is pressing the throttle. Perhaps somebody else with a bit more knowledge than me can advise - does the idle speed control valve (or whatever it's called) have enough authority to rev the engine up to 3500 rpm? When the lpg system on our 2.3 misbehaved it caused a backfire in the inlet manifold and blew a vac hose off. The engine ran very lumpy on petrol or gas. The cat got very hot - which gives off a smell which may be what you are describing. Tickover was all over the place (tended to stall rather than race high) and it took lots of throttle to drive the car - gutless. Is it possible that you have picked up bad fuel - remember the Tesco saga a few months back? Have you used up the fuel that you bought from just before this all started and have you filled up again - prefererably from somewhere else? Have you asked the garage if anybody has had problems (although thy would probably say "no" regardless). Remove the MAF and air filter top box and rubber pipe down the the inlet manifold. I would also pull the tray off under the wiper mechanism. Then get a good torch and have a look round the back for something loose / hanging off / missing. Fault codes. What sort of reader did you use ( you don't need to answer that for me - I wouldn't know one from the other). But my question is "do you know that type of fault reader works on this car and also do you know that particular fault reader is actually working?". If there is a sensor that has packed up I really would have thought that it should show up. Beyond that it might be a case of getting a "hometune" chap in with his van full of gear to diagnose the problem. Cheers Steve PS. I have set of spark plug leads that I fit between the coil packs and spark plugs so that I can start the engine and then pull a lead off each spark plug in turn. This is very useful when trying to sort out a misfire at idle. I have had two or three coil packs fail in the years that we have had the car and I have found using these leads lets me see exactly which plug is misfiring and also shows if there is a weak spark so I know that the coil pack has failed.

Is there a vac pipe loose / missing to the inlet manifold? It's quite hard to see back there to know what you're looking for - especially when you're looking for something that's not there! When did this start, had some work been done on the car?

I agree with your comments about NCB seatkid. However if you have been involved in an accident your premium will still go up - although if you don't actually claim you will get your full NCB on the new higher premium.

Be careful that they don't write the car off! As well as losing your NCB the cost of the work may exceed a certain percentage of what the insurers value the car at (not what you think it is worth!!). They will make you a derisory offer for the car - nowhere near what it would cost you to replace with like for like and you will not be happy. On the other hand if you fix it yourself you've also got to pay for the other car to be fixed AND your insurance will still go up because you have been involved in an accident - sorry but you can't retract that fact. Not sure what I would do - depends how bad it is. Did you plan to keep the car till it drops to bits? If so I might be tempted to put a bit of time into fixing it myself and "making do!". Cheers Steve

Where's a good place to get the following parts from - online if possible. I have tried google, ebay and a search of this forum but am not making much progress. Really don't want to go to Frauds. Auxillary belt tensioner Lower engine antiroll bar. Cheers Steve

And to get back to the original question - are there any parts that would fail, pull the mpg down a bit but not make the car feel so bad that we would think it needs fixing - nor fail on emissions? Cheers Steve

I was being kind :rolleyes: :( :D LPG tends to be 45p round here - however our system was bust for nearly 2 years so have only just started looking around for it - don't think I'll get it for 33p. Our system is single point injection - I know that is not recommended for plastic inlet manifolds - but hey it works. What sort of mpg are you getting on LPG. Am holidaying in the Gower for the next two weeks so will get to sample some of your local LPG :) Cheers Steve

Well, from the replies so far it looks as though this is about as good as it gets. Good job that we had LPG fitted (and I've now mended it!!). With the price of LPG now genuinely less than half the price of petrol it brings our equivalent running cost to at least as good as a TDI (and we don't have to put up with the diesel clatter :rolleyes: ). We're about to go on hols (great weather!) - so I will monitor it closely to see what it does this time on a run. Whilst looking for a new MAF I did a google search and came across a site for Ford scorpio's - the 2.3 having the same engine. Anyway there was even scheduled maintenance for the MAF - cleaning and testing. Interesting that I've never seen that mentioned for the galaxy! Any how - will report back later. Cheers

We've had our gal from 9 months old in 2000, about 7 years. It's always been thirsty - averages about 20mpg knocking about. I think that this is a bit thirsty and 23/24 mpg would be better. On a run it does shoot up to about 30 mpg. It seems to run OK - although the idle looks a bit high if the rev counter is anything to go by - its about 950/975 rpm. What faults could cause low mpg but you not really notice? I have just changed the thermostat as it has run cold for as long as I can remember. This has worked a treat and the temperature comes up to the middle of normal very quickly and stays there. This will have improved the mpg - but my initial testing is that the change has not been much. What about the MAF? I see on the TDI's you can really notice when this is failed but not so much on the petrols. Is there anyway of testing it? Has anybody any experience with the flyweel speed / TDC sensor on these engines? Years ago we had a montego that seemed to run fine but it turned out that the ignition timing was all over the shop. This was a faulty speed / TDC sensor. The gal must have one. Anybody had one fail! Any other ideas? Cheers Steve PS. Yes we do service it. PPS. Have done a search - couldn't really find much but did get the impression that 20 mpg is just a little bit too low. PPPS. When running on LPG the mpg falls to 18, which is about right for a petrol mpg of 20. PPPPS. Have already changed Lambda probe.

Are there two types of key - infra red and radio? Is the procedure different between the two? My 99 Galaxy is definitely radio because there is no Led on the key nor any receiver near the rear view mirror. Cheers Steve

If the price were right I would buy some and chop them about to make them fit a Mk1 (that's assuming they're GRP, chances are that they are actually ABS which is a pig to work with).

Attached link is to one of the few sites that sell kits for the Mk1. http://www.body-kit.co.uk/acatalog/ford_ga..._body_kits.html To be honest these parts (those shown on the Mk1 Sharan) look like the plastic parts that would have been strapped on the front of capri or a marina in the 80's (how would I know that :16: ) No disrespect if you have these on your car but they are not quite my cup of tea - too much "style" if you get my drift. However for the Mk2 galaxy there is generally a much wider range including spoilers and skirts that are more subtle but still very effective. I again did a google but didn't come up with much. So yes ther are some parts available but the choice seems to be limited. If anybody would like to disagree and put me straight - please do - I don't mind being wrong

Very nice - what about parts for a Mark 1 Galaxy? I have spent hours trawling the net without much luck. I'm after some subtle extras to make the old gal look as though it's worth more than it is so we can get a few more years out of her. There is very little available for the Mark 1 and these parts shown above are too expensive to start cutting up. There is a place on ebay that does a rear roof spoiler / lip. They also do a front spoiler and side skirts but you can't get a good view of the side skirts and the front spoiler is "not nice" IMO. If I could get my hands on a Si front spoiler that would be a start. Cheers

This could be interesting - the first garage will blame Ford for the faulty parts supplied! So who picks up the bill. Can't remember - did you have both driveshafts done originally? If not you'll be picking up the bill for one of them as it's just worn out through wear and tear ( so now you see the decision to replace the second shaft will cost you money !!). Good luck!! But obviously above all that I hope that your wobble is now gone.

What sort of temperature should be seen on the top hose and how does this relate to what the gauge reads? For example if the top hose is at 80 deg should the gauge be on normal? Reason for asking is that our 2.3 has always run cold - and we've owned it for 7 years. It might just be the gauge? However I have a digital thermometer with a remote probe that I can easily install at the top hose - so I could actually find out if it's the gauge or thermostat. Not bad eh - only 7 years before i get round to thinking about it :rolleyes: . Anyway - jimjamjo - what happens if you turn the air con on? That switches the fans on as well. It will atleast tell you if the fans work. Cheers

Are you sure the new drive shaft is not duff? It won't be the first time in history that new parts are found to be faulty or don't last very long. Even more possible if it was a recon unit rather than new. Many years ago I had a front wheel drive citroen that started to wobble quite violently under hard acceleration. This was a worn drive shaft. There was nothing to see but a replacment driveshaft fixed it. Cheers