turk90210

There are a few alternatives to the cause of this fault 1. Thermostat - not opening and allowing circulation 2. Waterpump - patic if a mk2 the plastic impellors break off the shaft and dont push the water around again giving poor circulation 3. Cooling Fans - not working for whatever reason 4. EGR Valve cooler - having an internal leak (Rare) 5. Head Gasket/Head - as already mentioned Reading your post I think you can eliminate the cooling fans as it has to get up to temp before they come on and you say yours blows out after 3-5 miles Commonly if it is 1 or 2 there can be other signs of poor circulation ie not all the hoses are of equal temperature ect 4 and 5 can be a little harder to diagnose as both give the same symptoms Depending on your skill level it might be best to get it diagnosed at a garage or if in the RAC/AA get them to come out and have a look at it to see if they can point you in the right direction. I DEFINATLY WOULD NOT keep driving it though because if you do I think we can all guarantee you will be taking the head off as prolonged use with faults 1 to 4 inevitably leads to fault 5

From reading your posts I assume you have access to a digital multimeter (DMM) if so you can follow the test sequence below to check your alternator Firstly check the batt warning light circuit (IND Wire) basically disconnect the small wiring plug to the alternator, identify the ind wire and with the ignition turned on (engine NOT running) use the DMM to see if you have battery voltage (IIrc the other wire is an output to the revcounter on the diesel models) if you have voltage earth the wire to the body of the alternator and see if the battery warning light comes on,if it does that circuit is ok if not check the wiring or dash bulb next, to check the output of the alternator you need to eliminate the earths first, this is quite simple with the DMM with the meter on dc volts place one probe onto the battery earth then with the other place it to the body of the alternator (make sure the engine is running and if poss put a load on to make the alternator work, ie turn head lights on). If the earth is good you should see a value of no more than 0.5volts. if you have a higher voltage you have a poor connection and it is just a case of following your earth back and keep checking with the meter when you suddenly come to a point where you jump from a high to low reading that is your bad connection and needs cleaning, once rectified re check to confirm next you can apply the same principle to the positive side, place one lead to the positive post on the battery and check the big lead on the alternator and work your way back along that lead, the same voltage rules apply big volts poor connection, low(0.5) good connections. If all that proves ok do a final check the normal way round with the DMM, black lead to neg(on battery or engine),red to positive and confirm voltage output at the battery,fuse box back of alternator and at the starter where the 2 leads meet, if it is still poor then it looks like a faulty alternator, Poor connections on any consumer unit can be checked this way BUT remember that the consumer unit HAS to be working/switched on or attempting to work As someone has mentioned the fuseboxes by the battery are common faults as well as the wire overheating and creating a high resistance, testing for continuity in itself is not a good indication I think the poster meant to say check the resistance but if the value cannot be checked against a known good one then this is a good confimation test Everyone has there own opinion on Eurocar parts good and bad with some of the parts they sell from experience mine is mixed, that said I do have a concern with yours re the first alternator creating the buzz behind the dash now the 2nd has been fitted the buzz has gone BUT the warning light stays on I hope its just co-incidence Also the warning light circuit is to excite the alternator to charge at a low revs so theoretically if the alternator is ok (but has a warning light fault) if you rev your engine to 2000-3000rpm briefly the alternator should self excite and start charging as normal Try the test above and post back your results, personally my money is on a faulty alternator still

I picked up this link a while back but have never actually used it but you can download manuals from here not sure if they will be relevent for your galaxy though but its worth a try http://fordfcsd.wunderman.be/UK/

If memory serves me the alternator fuse you are talking about is relevent for the mk2 galaxy only and i dont recall it having anything to do with the warning light. The mk1 doesnt have a fuse on the alternator!

I think your sending Ken down the wrong road re the key/immobilizer as the engine cranks and immidiatly cuts out if that is the fault does it not???? He said that it wont turn over not even a click so my best guess would be the starter circuit starting from the ignition switch, wiring, relays and the starter itself, nearly forgot if an auto it will have an inhibitor switch fitted aswell to stop it turning over unless in neutral or park. Dont forget the Battery either, just because the lights ect might work doesnt necessary mean there is enough power to turn the starter Do you have a multimeter, if so I'm sure we can guide you through basic checks

Hi Sven I think you might be a little confused re your ford galaxy compared to ours, I suspect from the year you are quoting it is the American Ford Galaxy. The Galaxy we are all talking about is a people carrier 6/7 seats and based on a VW Sharan. I do envy you though the old classics are nice, good look with your project

Forgot to say try the trick re measuring the volts across the battery after you rev it up (higher than 2000rpm) to see if the alternator charges ok turn it off count to 20 then start it up again and re do the test, if the voltage rises every time then i again would say your alternator is ok and confirms the warning light circuit is at fault. This if proves ok gives you a bit of breathing space to get the fault rectified as all you need to do is make sure you rev the engine up every time you use the car to make sure the alternator is charging

Hi francis Well where do I start! The diagnosis you have done so far and the way you have described it is excellent so I will try and answer your questions in the order of your paragraphs 1- This is a classic example of the charging circuit not working properly, while driving you find wipers becoming slow or lights getting dimmer , even warning lights like abs , air bags ect illuminating basically because the battery power is weakening and the thing that keeps the battery topped up is the "Alternator" 2 and 3 - I'm afraid I cant confirm if you have a bulb or led ( older cars usually have a bulb though) but you should as mentioned check the battery warning light circuit first ( the alternator recieves battery volts via this bulb to excite the alternator into charging at low rev's) so if you have no warning light on the dash with the ignition on locate the wire at the alternator disconnect it and see if you have battery voltage with the ignition turned on if you have the circuit is ok, but you mention you have no voltage here so this indicates this is where the fault lies you wont have any voltage when the engine is running either until you rev it up and get the alternator to start charging then you should see voltage This is also confirmed with your checks in paragraph 4 where you state voltage across the battery terminals was showing less than 12 volts until you revved the engine above 3000rpm then it jumped to 12.8 at the battery and 14.3 at the alternator terminal. so again this indicates a fault on the battery warning light circuit ( but possibly another unrelated faulty with the wiring back to the battery due to the voltage difference at the 2 places you have tested) What should happened here is that the battery voltage from the thin blue wire to the alternator excites the alternator to charge at low rev's if this voltage is missing for whatever reason the alternator wont charge until you rev it up to 2000rpm or more then the alternator self excites itself then starts to charge and will continue to charge until you turn the ignition off when obviously the circuit is broken and the only way to get it to charge again at low rev's without the blue wire voltage is to rev it up again to over 2000rpm ( hope you understand that) finally you mention if the battery and alternator are connected directly- simply put "no" on the mk 1 gal if memory serves me correctly you will find ( if you follow the wiring) that the alternator main feed wire connects to the starter then from the starter to the battery on the mk 2 gal it is connected to a maxi fuse in the fuse box next to the battery then from there to the battery ( I will of course accept to be corrected if anyone knows better) Now if you have access to a multimeter you can connect one of your probes to the positive side of the battery and connect the other to the output connection of the alternator and measure the voltage (DC volts on the multimeter) if you see a reading of more than 0.5volts you have a poor connection/high resistance on that wire and need to trace back to where it jumps to being nearer equal to find the bad connection or if it stays more than 0.5 volts along the complete length of wire you could have a high resistance and might need to replace the complete length of wire ( but more on that if it is needed)this by the way is to check for the volts difference you mentioned when checking at the alternator and battery So my conclusion from what you have said so far is that the problem lies in the battery warning light circuit and not the alternator so you would be wasting money on buying one at the moment until this fault is rectified or at the very least recheck this wiring NB DO NOT TRY THIS IF UNSURE I will accept no responsibility if you try this without knowing what you are doing as with all electronic devices on modern cars they can be very sensitive and if precautions are not taken you can damage them A little bi-pass you could try ( but dont do this on any car until you have properly identified the way it is wired up and how the alternator is controlled as some are classed as smart charging which basically means that the exciter wire is controlled via the ecu) but should work without any problems on the galaxy is as follows with a bulb type circuit tester (NOT LED ) place one end on the batt positive terminal or a constant live feed and with the other place it onto the battery warning light terminal on the alternator ( original wire disconnected) the bulb should light up, then start the engine and the bulb should go out and the alternator should start to charge if this works ok then it confirms that the alternator is ok and the fault again lies with the battery warning light circuit (a small watt bulb ie 1.2w should work aswell with wires if the relevant circuit tester is not available) Hope this helps Turk

From the sounds of it i think the alternator or fuse box will be the likley culprit but further investigation by yourself can be done, dont rely on how things look as i have had what look like tight connections on wires but when checked with a multimeter found they were infact poor connections, reading the posts it sounds like you have access to a multi-meter or some form of volt measuring device if so then this check will work on "most" charging circuits. If you use this check on other cars identify how the ind circuit works first, if it is controlled via a relay or ECU it will not work when checking the ind circuit but the second part testing the main charge lead should. On the mk1-2 galaxy, sharan or alhambra this test should be fine Firstly check the batt warning light circuit (IND Wire) basically disconnect the small wiring plug to the alternator, identify the ind wire and with the ignition turned on (engine NOT running) use the MM (multimeter) to see if you have battery voltage (some cars might only have 1 small wire going to the alternator depending on trim level) if you have voltage earth the wire to the body of the alternator and see if the battery warning light comes on,if it does that circuit is ok if not check the wiring or dash bulb next, to check the output of the alternator you need to eliminate the earths first, this is quite simple with the MM with the meter on dc volts place one probe onto the battery earth then with the other place it to the body of the alternator (make sure the engine is running and if poss put a load on to make the alternator work, ie turn head lights on). If the earth is good you should see a value of no more than 0.5volts. if you have a higher voltage you have a poor connection and it is just a case of following your earths back and keep checking with the meter when you suddenly come to a point where you jump from a high to low reading that is your bad connection and needs cleaning, once rectified re check to confirm next you can apply the same principle to the positive side, place one lead to the positive post on the battery and check the big lead on the alternator and work your way back along that lead, the same voltage rules apply big volts poor connection, low(0.5) good connections. If all that proves ok do a final check the normal way round with the MM, black lead to neg(on battery or engine),red to positive and confirm voltage output at the battery, back of alternator and at the starter where the 2 leads meet or fuse box on mk2 gal, if it is still poor then it looks like a faulty alternator, but as someone mentioned earlier the regulator could be the fault and if it is an external one on a Bosch alternator then chances are you can just replace this as they are usually available Please remember that any poor connections on any consumer unit can be checked this way BUT remember that the consumer unit HAS to be working/switched on or attempting to work Re checking the voltage on your battery when you leave it for a while you will probably find it will drop to around 12.2-12.5ish volts which is fine on a good battery this is the reading you should see on a fully charged battery any lower then the battery is on its way out, also a quick test ( but not fully conclusive) is when reconnected to the car check the voltage across the battery when it is cranking (the engine needs to be disabled to check properly) it should ideally not drop below 9-volts on a diesel engine and 10-volts on a petrol engine when cranked for 10 seconds sorry but got to go now as its party time " HAPPY NEW YEAR" to you all see you in 2009

well for what it is worth last time i had a problem with my parking sensors i did a lot of searching to no avail and not wanting to pay stealer prices i purchased off ebay some sensors for a rover (75 I think) a deal not to turn your nose up at I think it was 3 sensors for

the answer to this question is called global closing/opening Most galaxy's with electric windows have it enabled, basically if you open the door with the keys and hold the key in the unlock position the electric windows come down, the opposite happens if you hold the key in the locked position

I agreed with SK re the bearings you mention that you have had a new pully and fan belt, was this an attempt to cure said noise or has the noise only developed since these parts were replace! something else you can try if confident enough when cold remove the fanbelt and turn by hand all the pully's that the fanbelt spins and see how they feel (should be smooth if the bearings are ok might feel rough if they are going) also while the belt is off start the engine up and see if the noise is still there, if it is you know that the ancilleries are all ok(alternator power steering ect) and the fault lies on the engine if there is no noise with the belt off you can then try (with the belt back on) placing a long screwdriver or bar on the components (alternator tensioner ect) and placing the other end next to your ear and note the noises you can hear when the engine is running. This isn't an exact science but might help you in pinpointing where the noise is coming from BUT BE CAREFUL of moving objects You also say the noise sounds like metal on metal and the alt light flickers, have a close inspection around the pullys to see if there are any metal filings especially around the alternator pully and the internal fan on the alternator

sorry westie can't lay my hands on a wiring diagram but you have the haynes to use as a reference You could be right about the glow plug relay the 109 relay I refer to is another main power relay which has been a pain in the past, the early relays used a printed circuit and sometimes the soldered joints got too hot and broke the connection resoldering the joint was usually sufficient Is everything working now ???? if so why not disconnect the glow plug relay (or some of the others) and see if that mimics your fault, if its still not running it looks like the multimeter needs to come out

might be worth a look at the bottom pully for the 00550 code this usually means that the timing is altering for some reason and iirc the bottom pully is a good starting culprit after that check the other pully's that the timing belt touches

Hi Westie sounds like you have a phantom gremlin at work here but from what you are saying I would say 1- The vag-com is probably not working (assuming you have a fliebay lead and vag-com version 409) due to an issue with the com ports which has been well documented if you do a search 2- if the car started with the glow plug light coming on and now when it doesnt come on it refuses to start to me indicates an electrical fault with possibly the 109 relay or similar 3- The CPS only communicates with the ECU(Brain) when it is actually turning over to basically say HEY the engine is turning and this is the position of number 1 cylinder and has no control on the glow plug light Im just going on shift so might not get chance to look for a wiring diagram but no doubt someone might be able to help One final thing though westie looking at the time of your post ( 4.41am) hope your not having sleepless nights over the old gal

wow sepulchrave bit harsh arn't we with the reply. Think you need to come back down to earth a mo and read my post slowly. I was not attacking you i was mearly trying to point out that there are a number of things that can stop a modern diesel engine not just a cps. Dont worry westie I try not to fall out with anyone, and I think everyone is entitled to an opinion Well sepulchrave seen as you like unhelpful remarks made at your expense here are a few more

I will/might poss get shot down for this but here goes anyway ""It is just about the only thing which will completely stop a modern ECU controlled engine dead, and is 99% likely to be your problem"" Dont think so there are a few things that will stop a diesel engine this is just one of them, (relays,air in fuel lines,timing belt ect ect ect) some of the modern engines will now start without this sensor working as it takes its position from the camshaft sensor instead. A crankshaft sensor is just an inductive pulse sensor which can be easily checked out using a multimeter ( a nominal resistance and a rising AC voltage when the engine is turning) if it has these then it should be doing its job, I would be more inclined to check via this sort of diagnostics first especially if,as someone has mentioned they are around

Think you will find the PD oil is 505.01 spec or higher (the oil you have shown is for the early non PD engines) and ranges from

oops your right i need to read and digest properly but same rules apply fords might not have done the cover on the earlier ones but then started doing them for whatever reason

Do you know for a fact they should have an engine cover on as alot of the early ones i have worked on dont. It looks like there might have been a cover there as it has everything needed but have delt with alot of these where the plug holes get full of water and corrode the plugs where the centre ceramic has blown out even had some where the metal has corroded away have sent some back to the dealers as the plugs are covered for 18000 miles and double checked with them that they would honor the warranty and do for free which they did sounds like maybe fords have done a mod and actually put a cover on now to stop the problems and save them some money on warranty work. Reminds me of the mk3 escorts where rain water running off the screen use to fill up the battery causing it to over flow, battery acid would spill onto the carrier and corrode it, had a few batterys end up on the passengers feet. Fords mod was to place a plastic cover over the top of the battery, simple but effective

not sure about the cheaper ones but i have a 18v dewalt one which is the dogs kahoonas usually use it to remove wheel nuts or the alternator pull nuts, I can hold the pully in my hand (with gloves on incase) and use the gun on the nut quite easily. If the funds will allow get a decent one as it will always come in handy for the bike or the car

Highly unlikly you need a new rack or pump as neil says, these items usually need replacing when leaking or worn (ie bearings collapse or fail mot for excess play). if non of them are leaking get the belt taken off and try to turn the pump by hand and see if there are any really tight points (its rarer than hens teeth but pumps occasionally seem to sieze) I would look at what drives the pump and anything assosiated with it as it sounds asif the belt is not turning the pump properly, ie worn belt, tensioner, has the alternator got one of the clutch pullys and is it siezed (not sure if it was on this site but recall reading that this has been known to cause similar problems and people have had racks ,pumps, tensioners replaced at great expense by garages but not cured the fault) Also check all the other pullys for free movement that the belt goes around incase they are stiffening up regards turk

The thin red/black wire at the starter motor should become live when you turn the key to the starter position so if it is not then that is the fault that you need to trouble shoot. Theoretically that wire comes from the back of the ignition switch so that is where i would check next to see if the ignition switch is working properly ( as previously mentioned the switches do cause problems). There can however be relays in the circuit but i'm not sure on your model and i wont be able to check till saturday night, hopefully someone might be able to jump in and confirm before then for you Just realizes that you dont mention if it is an auto-box or a manual, if it is an auto it will have an inhibitor switch fitted which kills the starter circuit so it cannot be started in gear Let us know which box you have and we might be able to help more

well not sure on the petrol version but the diesel will still crank and run for 2 seconds if the immobilizer is faulty The reset button you might be refering too I think is the fuel cut of so again shouldn't be related to your problem I would investigate the wiring at the starter motor, and also the wiring from the ignition switch as I think (but correct me if Im wrong) the switches are the vw ones which are known for going and it is usually the starter which is affected first, nearly forgot but make sure the earth to the engine is good aswell (usually bolted near the gearbox area) as that would stop it from turning if it was poor or broken

well eddy1(the cheapskate) at least you admit it but might have been better to ask first before you did that, personally i would have bought the ones with sensors on if my car had them on as they help to monitor the wear. However that said your lucky as yes you can get away with it but you will need to keep an eye on the pad wear now including the inner ones which are harder to see and as mentioned check the fronts aswell To turn off the light again as someone has said you need to cut off the old wire on the original pads, bare and join the 2 wires together and insulate, when you refit the wire to the connector on the car the ecu will now see a complete circuit so should turn the light off, i have done it a few times before on cars i have done until i have been able to get new sensors as some are sold seperatly from the pads (aaaahhhhh) but thats just another money making scheme