johnb80

Yes it's safe to use BUT I don't think it will make any significant difference. Regards - John

And I wonder how many of the critics here have a copy of the TIS CD ??????? Regards - JB

That would rather depend on which one you have now !

If you'd care to let me know the sort of price my worst half is looking for another motor, email me john@lincit.com Regards - John

I personally don't think the age of a car matters at all, at the end of the day it's the condition and running order that matters. My Galaxy is now just over a year old and looks as good as the day it came out of the showroom, no scratches, dings, marks of any kind (why did you lot let me say that :rolleyes: ) There's one round the corner from me, only 3 months old, never washed or polished, wheels have been kerbed etc would I want his newer plate .... NO Regards - JB

People with private plates are just wasting money. Change your name to match your registration number, you can do that free of charge !! Regards - JB

How many people can do their daily job without ever making a mistake ? Yes the potential from this one was huge BUT in the event no-one was hurt thank god. One thing for sure is that this garage and the mechanic involved will be very vigilant on this sort of thing in the future. I run a business and my engineers do make mistakes from time to time, they know that I don't come down on them too hard if they're honest and up front. We always try to put the matter right to the customers satisfaction and a little more, one of our bigger customers (a multi-million pound global company) told me personally that things not working correctly didn't go against us too much but our response to the problems put us right to the top of their preffered suppliers list. Soooo, yes I would be happy to recommend them if treated correctly when a problem arose, I would also shout from the rooftops and take them to court if they didn't look after me when they'd made an error. Regards - John

There are also potential insurance issues eg the car is designed to have ABS and therefore the risks are assessed with this feature, remove the feature and the risks are higher. There are some modern cars (the MCC SMART is one of them) that rely on ABS information to work the stability program, the SMART for example needs this to stop it rolling during the EAK test (7 metre swerve at 60Kph, without the stability control it rolled everytime, with the stability control gearchanges and engine power are limited during certain manouvres. I have to say that the SMART is impressive in it's handling and not once have I coaxed mine into misbehaving so I can see a time, for very good reason, that all of these systems will need to be working correctly during the annual MOT test. Regards - JB

Does it by any chance only work when the lights are on.? Regards - JB

My 2003 115 TDi Ghia Auto has the lumbar support on the drivers seat, I agree on the remaining fuel facility, perhaps they couldn't get enough digits on the display for a full tank on the diesel or enough zero's after the decimal point for the V6 :huh:

Another thing to go wrong ? so is cruise control, fuel injection, auto gears, central locking, intermittent wipers, heated rear window, radio, cd multi-changer, sat nav, electric windows etc...... but I still want all of em ! :( Regards - JB

From an I.T. point of view I would have guessed that the number should have been 32,768 (because of binary etc etc). Regards - JB

I believe the rules are less than 11.5 deg outside air temp and less than 90 deg coolant temp. Occasionally mine hasn't come on usually caused by doing a short run i.e. quater of a mile, stopping and then restarting after a couple of minutes. At all other times it follows the above rules. It does make a tremendous difference, last winter I did a journey where it hadn't come on and after 20 miles it was still bloody cold inside and the engine never got to normal running temp (thats before I knbew about the aux heater). Regards - JB

The TDi engine is so efficient that it doesn't have sufficient waste heat to keep the occupants warm on cold days. An auxiliary heater is fitted underneath that comes on when the engine water temp is less than 90 deg C and the outside temp is less than 11.5deg C, it heats the coolant system directly hence helps the engine and cabin to warm up quicker. The heater uses diesel fuel and sounds like a Jet Turbine which does get some strange looks if you do a short journey because it continues to run for a while to cool down the heater when you switch off. You get some very strange looks from the basball hat clad teenagers with thier Corsa's. Regards - JB

The 2.3 petrol is one of the smoothest 4 cylinder engines you could ever have, we have one, not in a Galaxy but in a Scorpio. Never any trouble and soooooooo smooth. As chromedome said double check the aircon / cc they can give trouble (mines been fine) try and get a warranty if you can just in case. The passenger footwell and under the passenger seat is prone to flooding for various reasons (blocked drain pipes, rear screenwash pipe disconnected etc) make sure that area is dry. Don't expect super economy from a petrol, if you want cheap to run spend a little more and get diesel where 40 to 50mpg is the norm! Have fun, enjoy. Regards - John

If all of the refrigerant has escaped the compressor will not engage at all.

How many ladies hairdressers does it take to change a light bulb ?? Five....... One to change the bulb and four to say how nice it looks when it's done. :rolleyes:

A few years ago when a had a VW diesel they recommended adding petrol in winter time to avoid the diesel freezing and waxing up. They recommended upto 10% petrol to diesel mix. Just 2 years ago one of my drivers filled my personal Transit up (brand new) with petrol and drove it for around 150 miles coughing and spluttering, he hadn't noticed until I checked his fuel receipt. I filled it up with diesel and it ran ok but hesitated slightly at constant speeds. I ran the tankful through, the next time I refuelled it it ran perfectly ok. It continued all the way to 180,000 miles when we sold it so..... no I don't think you will have broken it. Regards - John

More likely to be the aux heater which is used to help the engine warm up when the temp is less than 12 deg C. Sound a little bit like a Jet Turbine running down. Regards - JB

Glad to hear you got it working, well done that man. Regards - JB

Must be faulty, take it back to a FMD and ask for it to be sorted under warranty..... I wonder what their reaction would be :D

I thought that was in the standard cabling because many if not all Ford radio's have the auto volume / speed facility. Regards - John

Yet another new feature, perhaps Ford will include it in their brochure next year :lol:

Hi, I have a 115 TDi Ghia Auto just coming up to one year old next month. To answer your points in turn:- 1) I don't find body roll excessive, I find the suspension a very good compromise and it can be driven in a spirited manner without alarming amounts of body roll (no my other car is not a 2cv !!!!) 2) The rear air con on my car has the high level vents that gives the required air temp in the rear. The rear temp is adjustable seperately to the front (there are limitations +/- 3 deg I think). 3) I can't fault the cruise control, it works very well with the shed loads of torque from the diesel. Have fun. Regards - John