Seatdriver

Hi My 06 130 TDi Alhambra has developed a very very faint whine when decelerating between 40-35mph. As the vehicle has only done 24,000 miles I just wanted any one elses views on what could be the cause. The only work recently carried out is: 1. adjust the tracking - Dealer said its ok even though the front tyres were scrubbed down to the cords on the inner edge. Very helpful tyre dealer in Morecambe said who were they kidding tracking set towing out by over 2 degrees, should be towing in. 2. Fitted new KHUMO tyres to the front. Existing Dunlops on the rear. Once the tracking was adjusted the car became far more stable on the road, used to wander all over the place and felt very unsafe. As both the front and rear tyres were worn down on their inner edges I suspected the car had done over 23,000 miles with the tracking way out! Penny for anyones thoughts.

I drive a Seat Alhambra 130 stylance 23,000 miles which comes with wide low profile tyres Dunlop 225/45/17. Two questions 1. Should there be any free movement in the steering wheel (engine running) as there is a slight bit on mine. 2. The vehicle steering appears to have a mind of its own when driving ie it follows ruts is deflected by road crowns and it tramlines for fun. I have noticed its wearing the inner edge of both front tyres (first 1inch) but Seat tell me the tracking is within limits? My Sharan was wonderful to drive but this car is becoming a pain. Any ideas, anyone had similar issues oh and the tyre pressures are to the specified PSI.

Exactly why I owned my Galaxy for the shortest time of owning a car ever 40 days, 40 nights. Worst car ever and I fully agree with the sentiment woe to whoever purchases a second hand GALAXY mk3. They are in for an empty bank balance and plenty of hours clocked up in the dealership. This car has the makings of the Ulysse,C8 people carrier, beutiful, practical, spacious, cutting edge BUT completely unreliable, troublesome and eventually impossible to get shut of. As for my Galaxy replacement, 06 130bp Alhambra Stylance, faultless drive for the past 6 months, bliss.

hi, I was the unfortunate owner of a 1.8tdci Mk3 Galaxy. 56 plate. It suffered DMF failure, wiring harness failure, clutch burn, release bearing failure and also suffered the flick start issue of running like a bag of nails if you flicked the ignition key and not turn and hold key at start position for min 4 seconds. The tyres wore out at 12,000 miles see my posts on this truly awful car. My solution to the whole issue was to get rid and buy a 06 1.9 pd 130 alhambra Stylance, a far better driving machine and although slightly dated now it wipes the floor with this absolute rubbish from Ford. I have noticed the S max and Galaxy Mk3 are beginning to get bad press due to faults, not good. If you tow using a 1.8 tdci start saving as I bet you will need a new clutch every 25,000 miles! Oh and the Ford dealer was useless.

Definately a strong possibility that the coil pack is on its way out. My 1.8 Mondeo went the same way, ran fine when cold and then began to loose power when it felt like it. Eventually it gave up completely and I ended up with a constant misfire. Take off the coil pack and look underneath at the plastic potting . On my Mondeo it was white/cream coloured and I could see distinct fine arc track lines in the compound. fitted new one from Fords (

Anyone want to purchase a spare wheel for their Galaxy MkIII (16" Steel wheel with Tyre) I have one going for a sensible price, oh the wheel and the tyre are Brand New. Why have I got it, well I used to own a new Galaxy but became so hacked of with the poor quality, reliability and poor pulling power that I got rid and went back to a 130bhp Alhambra Stylance. I did exactly what you have done , purchased a spare wheel and put it in the rear (tied down with straps) because I did not feel I could happily drive anywhere (back of beyond Scotland), any motorway without one. This idea of no spare is crazy in the extreme and no matter how attractive a car in future looks I will never purchase one without one. For all you drivers of a new galaxy I hope you never find yourself in the scenario of: 11.30PM its pitch black driving down a country lane (with your family of 7), you catch a tyre on a sharp rock outcrop at the side of the road, it rips the sidewall out of a tyre, you are in an area where there is no mobile signal and the next house is miles away, oh and its raining. That gizmo and gunk under the floor will do you no good whatsoever, you need a spare wheel! Perhaps whoever decided not to supply a spare should have been put in this scenario, they may have had a change of heart!

I appreciate the point that the euro nutters have set these restrictions but: Driving along in 2nd with the revs sat at 1500-1600rpm put foot down and ............ flat until 1900rpm them whoosh off we go. Seen somewhere that power should be delivered between 1400 and 2000 rpm? Oh the main agent left a pipe off the gold coloured vaccum device that sits on at the left hand end/ top of engine beside turbo. Ran like a sod until I put it back on. Any ideas what this device does. Does anyone know what this could upset.

Hi, Does anyone know what the boost threshold is for the 1.8tdci 125 Galaxy. If I put my foot down there appears to be no power until the revs climb around 1900rpm, below this rpm there is nothing (it feels like a non-turbo diesel). Makes it a real pain accelerating up hills, especially when the 1900rpm figure is reached cos it then goes like a bat out of hell. I realise it takes time for the turbo to spool but this doesn't feel right! Penny for anyones thoughts

I put a post in technical but it should have gone here. Has anyone used ULTRASEAL. Just thought buy one can of the stuff for

At the moment I carry a full size spare around with me whenever I drive on the motorway, round town during the week it stays in the garage. If I had to I would use the gunk supplied with the gal, but as a last resort. Two questions come to mind: 1 Can the compressor provided inflate tyres without attaching the gunk cannister. 2 has anyone ever used ultraseal, or thought of carrying a can, enough to sort one wheel. In the speel it states this product is permanently active inside the tyre. But I wondered if at

Sorry folks my handle shows my old car, need to figure out how to change it I have 1 remote key and 1 non remote key supplied and working from Ford that came with the vehicle. I have purchased and had cut a third standard non remote key and wanted to code it to the immobiliser. The car is a 1.8 tdci Mk III Galaxy 56 plate new shape. Apologies for the confusion!

I have a non remote key that I want to register to the car(purchased spare key from ford, cut at Honda all for

Something doesn't sound right, walk away. My car has done 12,000 miles and doesnt clonk from the steering and there is no wear whatsoever found any of the doors. Wouldnt be the first clocked car on a main agents forecourt! Saw a 56 New shape Galaxy on E-Bay with 68,000 miles, motorway miles, you bet! As for the whine I believe its a common ailment, electric power assistance, motor whine.

DO NOT BUY THE 2.0 TDCi as a member of my family has one, I have driven it and its still no low end pulling power, it does have a bit (and thats a little bit) more torque than the 1.8 but it still needs revving to get it to move. Oh and they are no more reliable as this particular car nearly caused a smash because of a possible trap in how the steering works. Want to know why! The belt that drives the alternator snapped (common prob apparently), on comes igniton warning light, no great probs just turn off all electric gizmos and drive home. NOPE because on the 2.0 TDCi the steering is electrically assisted not that the driver was aware of this fact and guess what happens at some unexpected moment when the battery begins to die, yup you loose all power assistance and cannot barely turn the wheel even at 30mph. In this instance it happened whilst cornering at 40mph, rather scary eh. I would have thought Ford in their wisdom would have put a STOP message up to warn the driver, but no. Bottom line is the cars rubbish, but I suspect all new diesels are the same! Once I have closure on my car I will post all the faults to date as they make rather scary reading.

Yup upgrade done at no cost (it should be done when its in for service) however mines been in for rather a lot of other things ho hum and it was noted by the sevice foreman that this upgrade hadn't been done. As for PD it stands for (excuse spelling) Pumperdeuch! Yes its German, is fitted in all post 2000 Sharans/Galaxy/Alhambra and Yes its 1000000000000000% better than this useless piece of diesel junk ford have produced. The low down pulling torqe of the 115BHP PD engine wipes the floor with the 125BHP Ford one. There is no way this engine, even re-programmed will pull a caravan. Yes it goes like stink if you wind it over 2000rpm but for pulling away at low speeds with a heavy load I would doubt its ability even to pull the skin off a rice pudding. I have seriously considered taking a hit and trading down a year for an older VW Sharan. If it keeps letting me down and irritating me I feel this will become a reality. My fan blower motor failed by the way.

I agree this was most definately the update done to my car, doesn't seem quite as rapid anymore but now unless you drop the clutch with no rev's it won't stall and the problems you described regarding reversing have also been resolved. It wont however pull as cleanly or as hard as the old PD engine from low speed!, not really that impressed overall.

Oh and on a point to note the old clutch was noted to be approx 1/3 worn out when visually inspected this after only 10,000 miles, not good eh!

Now this new Galaxy of mine is causing the family rather a lot of grief, sadly the car isn't a patch on my old 03 Sharan. Anyway whilst driving 250miles of motorway the car began to shudder (feels like going over a cattle grid)on inclines (5th gear, 72mph,2100rpm). Please note the figures (mine is a five speed box, 1.8tdci LX). This is the giveaway sign that the dual mass flywheel has failed or is failing. My car is beyond the recall cutoff being a 56 plate BUT it still had the recalled flywheel fitted! Anyway 1 new flywheel+bits and hey presto shudder gone. On a note if anyone hears a rumble from the gearbox when the engine is WARM and the clutch pedal is halfway up or down, get it checked as this was another unaccountable noise which dissappeared once the flywheel+clutch+release bearing was changed.

I asked this question to a main agent and the answer they gave was: 500 miles over and/or 4 weeks late is ok anything else tough luck service the car on time when the schedule stipulates!(within this given tolerance) What was the outcome?

Hi, Suspect DMF failure, mine's in for replacement including clutch(which showed signs of being very very hot at some time in its life. Symptom was shudddering at motorway speeds under slight load and occasionally when setting off uphill. The DMF will need to be checked and that means the dealer taking out the gearbox.

Hi, Had my 1.8tdci 125 re programmed by ford as it was almost impossible to set off without over revving as it would stall so easily. Now I can set off uphill with next to no revs and pull away in 2nd from a crawl. On another note what broke in your heater?

Hi, Had similar isssue with mine, didnt appear to have a great deal of down end torque. This resulted in me having to drop down a gear and put on extra revs to avoid stalling when setting off uphill. The car has just returned from the main agent due to the centre console getting rather hot and I must say 10 out of 10 to my local main agent. Took in the vehicle, 2 hrs later phoned me with the problem ordered the bit and will fit it when it arrives. Anyhow that aside he also said that my 1.8tdci needed a software upgrade and he would do that at the same time. The result of this is I no longer have to rev the engine to pull away during hill starts and it will now pull uphill in 3rd when before only 2nd would do. Before it was rather too easy to stall, but not now. Even so round my way its very hilly and just to get off my estate requires two steep hill starts and I have never smelt any hot clutch smell. Have a word with your main agent, I will get the details of the upgrade when I return to the main agent at the end of this week.

Wow brilliant picture, Yes those two pipes on mine get too hot to touch but if you notice the two bolt heads to the far top left and the shiny metal casing they attach to, this part gets too hot to touch along with the two securing screws that are covered by a plastic cover just off the bottom of the picture. Anyway its soon to return to the main agent for repair, shame really as its the only thing to spoil the drive of the car at the moment. Thanks again for your reply will let everyone know the outcome.

No seriously I have just been on a 200 mile trip today and the centre console and handbrake became extremely hot, the plastic at the very bottom by the clutch pedal became too hot to touch and as for the pipes wow! talk about cooking hot, there must be someone out there whith another 1.8tdi who can check their car. Checked shields under the car and they are all in place. Will keep you posted on outcome but I just wanted other drivers to let me know theirs remains at a sensible temp so when the dealer says its normal I can inform them that it damn well isn't. many thanks

I would be very grateful if any other Galaxy 1.8TDCi drivers could check the drivers side centre console (bottom beside the clutch pedal) to see if it is getting rather hot, there are two aluminium pipes visible above the clutch pedal and these are so hot on my car (once at operating temp) I cannot touch them. The result is theat my left leg is slowly being cooked, going to the main agent on Tuesday for their opinion. Thanks in advance