johnb80

I never had a problem with my Rangie and that was 2 years ago. Most Motorway services have LPG as well as many of the larger stations, the uptake seems to be declining now though. It was good on the Range Rover, 4.2 V8 and heavy car = huge thirst, generally about 14 mpg, the gas made it comparable to a 28mpg car which was bearable. The things that put me off are that you have to modify the car and it does reduce it's value for sure when you come to sell, LPG produces an awful smell from the exhaust, the bomb underneath was always a concern, if the ignition circuit falters in any way it's very likelt that you will get a backfire and it's like a canon going off, my Rangie did it a couple of times in all the time I had it and it was scary. Regards - JB

If LPG is so much better, why are there not more LPG vehicles on the road? Why do manufacturers not offer them as standard? { Just curious :( } Most car makers now do offer a dual fuel version of their mainstream cars. I still don't feel it's worth the extra money and hassle though. It was interesting when the fuel protests were on, I could happily fill my Range Rover and drive around blissfully when everyone else was queued up at the pumps and paid a fortune :lol: I do however still feel that LPG is more dangerous (hence the chunnel situation) and is less convenient. Cars adapted usually lose their spare wheel or some bootspace. Regards - JB

And you still didn't admit to not being allowed through the chunnel, I wonder why that is.... maybe it's a safety issue !!!! Wait for the first time it backfires, you'll soon change your mind, and the though of a car fire with that bomb underneath or even worse inside with you.... been there, done that, no thanks. Go for diesel it's the only economic way to go long term. Regards - JB

I personally think you're making the right decision, I've had a full range of vehicles from a 4.2 litre V8 engined Range Rover (converted to LPG) down to an MCC Smart Cabrio. I currently have a 115TDi Ghia Auto and it's superb. You will be very suprised at the amount of go the diesel has, it may be down on BHP but this engine develops more torque than the ST220 mondeo !! The autobox is very, very smooth and always drops into top a.s.a.p. when driven gently. MPG's are always in the high 40's low 50's even when doing short trips. Go for it with confidence you will not regret it. Regards - John P.S. The MAF is a device that measures the mass or weight of the air going into the engine.

My Gal came with one REMOTE key one NON REMOTE key and a plastic template, all the keys do however have the chip inside to enable them to be used. The GAL not starting with a key proble is the responsibilty of the supplying dealer because clearly it was 'not of merchantable quality' obviously you would expect the vehicle to be serviceable for longer than one day. Go back to the garage and ask them what they intend to do about it, if they're not willing, phone call to tading standards followed by Ford Dealer, get it sorted, send them the bill followed by small claims court if need be (dead easy, don't worry about it, it's a very simple process). Regards - JB

Hi Fredt, I wouldn't have thought it mattered to the alternator at all nor the ability to start the car over time. The battery is just like a fuel tank (no I know the battery case is plastic and much smaller, it's at the front not the back etc etc) in that an amount of fuel is given out i.e. starting then when the engine has started the battery is then refuelled. It doesn't matter how big the battery is so long as it has enough capacity to start the engine. The alternator will continue to charge (fill up the tank) until it is full. If indeed the journey is too short and the battery ie not fully charged provided more has been put in than has been taken out the battery will eventually fully charge. If on the other hand the journey is too short and the initial start took out more than is put back in by the journey eventually the battery will go flat (reminds me of my bank account :D ) This will occur no matter what battery is fitted. The above of course is only my humble opinion. Regards - John

My best guess would be that for the hazard flashers you're squeezing the key during starting which operates remote lock / unlock hence the flash. The light out bulb I think you're refering to maybe the brake light bulb check which goes out when you first touch the brakes, not on a timer. Regards - John

Nope, no emails.... can you resend it please. Regards - JB

Where do you buy these from and what sort of price are they? It sounds like an excellent solution, keep us informed how you get on with it. Regards - John

jealousy can be soooooooo cruel :(

Until this Galaxy (which was brand new) I have always bought young high mileage vehicles. The upside of this is that usually they're company cars, most miles done on the motorway which means little wear, serviced with no expense spared. The only downside is that they usually need smartening up but thats no big deal. I bought a 2litre Granda Scorpio Estate with 105,000 miles on it at 13 months old. I had a small rip in the leather repaired and the whole car valeted. The car was used first by me, then by my wife and then moved onto one of my engineers. The total mileage when it was sold was 418,000 miles. The total cost of running it came to less than

I fitted a Towsure bracket to my Gal and initially had the odd blip from the parking sensors. Slightly offsetting the electrics bracket back a little (about 5 mm) cured the problem completely. I am upgrading this kit to removeable towball at a cost of

My 2003 TDi always starts straight away key in key out etc, dunno about the earlier ones but I would assume that it should. There was a thread about heater plugs being switched on when the key goes in the doorlock, maybe it's missing that bit of extra time to get the glow plugs up to temp? Regards - JB

When you say breather pipe do you mean a metal pipe that goes from the exhaust manifold to the inlet manifold via a valve ? If so my guess would be that this is the EGR system and the pipe has been blown off with excessive back pressure in the exhaust which *COULD* be caused by a blocked CAT. Regards - JB

I had this once on a Cosworth Granada, it had odd sized tyres fitted ! The TC system looks at the speed of all of the wheels, if they differ by more than a pre-set margin then TC comes into operation because it thinks a wheel is spinning. The other possibility is the sensors / sensor ring on the front wheels. If theyre dirty or not set correctly or faulty the system won't be picking up all of the pulses from that particular wheel. Regards - JB

If the only fault people can find with the Galaxy is the Oval clock and it's position it must be a good car! I like the clock, I like where it is, I can't fault it at all. Regards - John

Xenons do auto adjust for level (assuming they're original equipment) but they are bright some other drivers do get annoyed by them and think you have main beam on. The only time I've had a problem is is heavy falling snow and they were horrendous, I needed sun glasses to drive at night. Regards - John

I've had an Espace in the past (MKIII) and would never, ever have another Renault vehicle period. Spares are: a) Difficult to obtain and B) Even more difficult to afford. For example Headlamp unit (Glass smashed)

Not so, SatNav units have internal gyro's and compass's and use the speed signal to calculate where the vehicle is. This information is then sync'd with the signal from the sats to keep resetting the vehicle position. Most of the operation is done onboard the vehicle using the internal sensors. Regards - JB

I drive a lot of miles and use SatNav everyday. My concerns with factory fit is that it's too low down i.e. your eye's are well off the road if you need to look at the screen. I'm not familiar with the Mondeo dash, on my Galaxy I have a Clarion SatNav unit screen mounted in the centre cubby hole on top of the dash, it's nice because when I'm parked, I close the lid and this avoids the lowlife's thinking they should break my window and look after the screen for me (this has happened 3 times on other vehicles of mine so be warned). I personally would seriously consider HP IPAQ PDA with TOMTOM III Navigator, it works very well, almost as good as the built in units and costs only about one third of a half decent built in system. If I get chance I'll have a look at a Mondeo dash and comment further. One thing for sure, once you've had SatNav you won't drive without it. Regards - John

The most important thing when fitting new discs is to check the runout of the new disc. Hold a pencil near the disc and spin the disc, move the pencil closer and it should touch all the way round eventually. If it touches in one area and not another then you have runout which will cause premature failure of the disc and vibration / wheel wobble when braking. This happens because of uneven wear taking place due to the runout (it also causes very rapid wear of pads, calipers and gives more pedal travel). The usual cause of runout is that the mating surface between the hub and the disk is not clean e.g. rust / brake dust etc. Clean the surface well with a wire brush in a drill (safety goggles and a mask please) followed by lightly cleaning with emery cloth. Regards - JB

I had a similar situation on another vehicle I had, changing the PADS to better quality ones made a dramatic improvement. Are you using good quality pads ? Regards - JB

If the thermostat was sticking the heater would get very hot indeed. An airlock or other circulation problems I feel would be most likely. Regards - JB

When it's cold it's been stood longer and hence more air into the pipes which gives a longer misfire. Regards - JB

If it's at light throttle openings and not under acceleration that would rule out H.T. and most of the ignition, it would however point to EGR system. Try disconnecting the EGR valve and see if it improves.