rwtomkins

In answer to your question, lesmon, it sounds like you've suffered all the classic problems with the Gal and you can now sit back and relax secure in the knowledge that nothing else can possibly go wrong. :o

Mr Tower's right, these heaters sometimes behave very unpredictably and I doubt very much indeed whether it's anything to worry about. In any case, isn't it true to say that if the outside temperature is low enough, the heater will come on regardless of the coolant temperature? Perhaps it suddenly turned chilly while you were in the paper shop...

I don't think the ticking comes from a solenoid, my understanding is it comes from the fuel pump which has to work harder in some conditions than others and therefore has a varying noise level as described by Mr Tower. I agree the ticking can be considered as normal in the sense that it is not a defect, but nevertheless it apparently doesn't occur in more recent Ford Galaxies and I definitely recall a thread during the last ticking season in which one member said the ticking was the subject of a Ford Technical Services Bulletin and a fix had been made available to anyone who wanted it. (Presumably this consists of swapping the fuel pump with the newer, quieter unit.) I'm going to decide whether or not to take them up on the offer when the annual service falls due. In my experience Ford dealers are completely ignorant even of the aux heater's existence, let along the ticking noise, but at least the TSB is there to put them right. If Seat haven't issued a TSB, no doubt it will be even harder to get a Seat dealer to do anything about it. For a full decription of what the heater does, see the many, many other threads on auxiliary heater. It's there because in cold weather the efficient diesel engine doesn't warm the coolant up quickly enough, so it comes in to generate an extra bit of heat.

In my experience the aux heater, bless its little fuel pump, is very moody and capricious and comes on when it feels like it regardless of the rules. That's an interesting theory about the interior climate control, though. What we need now is for someone to be waiting in vain for the aux heater to kick in, then for them to wham up the interior heat setting and see if it prods the aux heater into life.

Very interesting, Mr Marauder. I wonder, would the car's own alternator provide this "pulse" charge effect and cure the battery if you jump started the car or got just enough charge into the battery to fire up the engine?

For what it's worth I've never experienced any weird effects of the kind described with my diesel auto, which suggests it's a fault rather than a characteristic of the box. However, a little voice at the back of my mind tells me that in some model years, there was indeed a safety measure of the kind described by Mr Tower that prevented you from engaging reverse if the car was still moving forwards. I was aware of this when I ordered my 2002 model and thought it would prove an irritation, but when the car arrived I found to my delight that there was no problem at all in engaging reverse when still moving forward and I often do it when parking. So I think this feature must have been discontinued at some point, perhaps with the facelift.

Mr Marauder is correct in theory but after running my calcium battery completely flat a year or so ago by leaving the lights on overnight, I did manage to recharge it with a conventional charger set to supercharge and have had no problems with it since. So sometimes, it seems, you might just get away with it.

There are many, many previous threads on this if you want to check them out. For some owners, the whirring noise was also accompanied by a constant loud ticking which came from the fuel pump that fed the aux heater (correctly named the booster heater, if I remember correctly). One member reported that Ford had come up with a fix for this, presumably free when done under warranty. I haven't bothered to have mine done yet but maybe when it gets cold enough for it to start bugging me again... By the way, anyone got a copy of the Ford technical services bulletin that describes this fix or know any website where I can see it?

I think all Gals now come with silver calcium battery as standard. Certainly mine did (a 2002 model). On voltages, for what it's worth, here's some info I posted on a previous thread some time ago. (Obviously the voltage across the terminals would be higher than 12.6 volts if the battery was being, or had just been, charged): you probably all know this but i found the following info from www.autobatteries.com very interesting. a standard automotive battery is made up of 6 cells with 2.1 cells per cell, so it is fully charged when you have 12.6 volts across the terminals. a small drop in voltage makes an enormous difference to the charge, as follows: at 12.6 volts the battery is 100 per cent charged at 12.4 volts, the battery is 75 per cent charged at 12.2 volts, the battery is 50 per cent charged at 12.0 volts, the battery is 25 per cent charged a car battery is considered charged at 12.4 volts or more. it is considered discharged at 12.39 volts or less. it seems extremely improbable that you'd be able to turn over the engine with less than 12 volts across the terminals.

Yes, SD5W40 is semi-synthetic and yes you have every right to take the car back but frankly I wouldn't bother. I had mine over-filled by no less than 3/4 inch and was assured by AA engineers and Ford Technical Services that it didn't matter. The margin for error is apparently enormous and if there were any problems, you would probably have found out about it by now - weird engine effects such as over-revving or black smoke coming out the back. I would advise any TDI owners having an oil change to supply their own oil and insist on having it used, otherwise most garages will use the 10W40 stuff they buy in bulk. Also, if you don't want overfill, check your engine's oil capacity and drain an appropriate amount out of the container before giving it to them, otherwise they'll just bung the whole lot in.

I've been looking into this for some time having kerbed two of my alloys ages ago. Try searching the web using alloy wheeel repairs uk or alloy wheel refurbishment uk as a search term. It does bring up a small number of promising results. I'm tempted by these people http://www.btinternet.com/~wheel.refurbishment/services.htm who seem confident they can fix anything (I spoke to them on the phone). If the damage is really bad they can apparently do welding as well as machining to restore the original shape. Don't know how much it will cost - they need to see the wheel to quote - but it has to be cheaper than buying new alloys at

Really? So it's me that's misbehaving. I swear I never noticed this before. Can anyone else say if their instrument panel does this?

It hardly qualififes as a problem but when I start up the car, all the warning lights on the instrument panel go out except the one warning that there's a malfunctioning bulb in one of the lamp clusters. This stays on until I press the brake pedal, at which point it goes out and stays out. Anyone else had this? A while ago I got a low fuel level alert even thought there was plenty of diesel in the tank. I'm thinking I should ask the dealer to change the instrument cluster under warranty.

Just for the record, my experience isn't the same as Taliska's - my glow plug indicator comes on briefly whatever the outside temperature, at least on the first start of the day. This also suggests that there's no intelligent device telling the glow plugs to warm up when I unlock the door.

There have been lots of previous threads on this. Millers do indeed do a 505.01 oil, the XFE-PD 5W40, but probably the easiest and possibly the cheapest to obtain is the Ford 505.01 product specified in the Galaxy owners' manual, called Ford SD 5W40, available from the parts dept. of the larger Ford dealers.

I wouldn't let gearbox worries put you off the Galaxy diesel. Sure, occasional problems have been reported on this website but this IS a problem-solving site and I wouldn't say it was by any means a common problem. The diesel Galaxy is a wonderful vehicle, well worth waiting for, and holds its value particularly well. Best reason for buying a Gal: the after-sales support you get from this friendly website! Do the other makes have anything similar?

Tut tut, I'm sure there's some old proverb that says you'll get your comeuppance in the end.

Agreed. Although personally I feel the Chrysler is the better-looking vehicle, it scores much worse on road-holding and driveability than the Galaxy, as is typical of US cars compared with European ones. Apart from anything else, it has a beam axle at the back instead of the Galaxy's independent rear suspension, and a fleet driver who had long experience of driving both told me the Chrysler drove like a van while the Galaxy drove like a car. What clinched it for me was the Chrysler's lousy seating configuration, which in Europe only allows you two seats in the middle row while the Galaxy offers two or three. Also worth mentioning is that the Chrysler is wider, sometimes even too wide to drive through those pinch-points they build on side streets to slow you down while driving through built-up areas.

I don't know how you change the battery but there are a couple of UK websites that do cheap replacement batteries for remotes, watches, cameras, etc. I used to use watchbattery.co.uk but they introduced a minimum charge so I now use battery-house.co.uk.

Yes, I just renewed with Tesco after they came up with a much cheaper quote than my previous insurer, Direct Line. Oddly, Direct Line told me they run Tesco's car insurance. But they declined to match Tesco's quote.

Have you tried driving with the mirror folded forwards or backwards to see if it alters the noise? Just a thought.

That sounds much more likely than my offering. On a similar note, I remember ages ago someone also mentioned that at a higher speeds you can get knocking or rattling noises coming from that plastic fitting that runs along the bottom of the windscreen under the wipers (forgive non-technical lingo). If it happens you just need to knock or nudge the fitting into a slightly different position.

Turbo winding down? If you mean that whining noise when you switch off the engine, it's not the turbo, it's either one of the kids or more likely the aux heater, correctly named the booster heater, which would have stopped operating when the warmer weather arrived. There are lots of previous threads on this.

Andybeezer, I had a rattle from that general direction - don't notice it anymore, so either I got used to it or it's fixed itself - and it was the catch on the big storage locker that opens out onto the passenger's knees.

I've just found a handy website called http://www.insuresupermarket.com/motor/default.asp You put your details in and it searches more than 50 car insurance companies for quotes, including nearly all the best-known ones. It's not perfect: it doesn't always come up with a result for each and every company. But it's a good starting point.