CM2007

Just to update what I put a few weeks ago, I was going to order a new air flow meter after a friend plugged in his diagnostic machine and read the fault "loss of boost pressure, air mass sensor faulty" But I thought I'd check the plug and terminals first. When I did i noticed the clip on the plug which snaps over the little wedge on the sensor had broken off. My theory was that if the plug isn't fitting snug them it will lose the connection and signal causing the fault. I tied a cable tie around the base of the plug on the sensor then looped another through this and around the plug pulling it tight. The plug cannot move and is now held solid, I have not had the fault re occur since and that was over a month ago. A simple fix that cost me nothing!

Yes i understand that, I'm lucky enough to work in a garage and a couple of the guys have VAG. The fault code has been cleared and I'm going to be driving it around until the fault re occurs but even telling a couple of the guys the symptoms confirmed my theory of either the waste gate valve or the air mass sensor. The fault codes will appear if the plug is disconnected but the symptoms will only appear if the fault is current. I will get it plugged in again on Tuesday to see if the fault re occurs and that will confirm for sure. I know it's in stock so can get it delivered same day if it's confirmed Mike

Just to let you know, I had mine plugged in yesterday and it came up with "lack of boost" and "faulty mass air flow sensor" so I'm replacing it on Tuesday and hopefully all is well. Mike

Would be interested in seeing how you get on as I have the same issue. Cheers Mike

Hello people, I hope someone can shed some light on a power issue I seem to be having when accelerating. I have a 2002 1.9 tdi (115 bhp) 6 speed manual. I first noticed the problem when I was doing around 45mph behind a slow coach in a 60mph, when he turned off I floored it and it took an age just to reach 60 and I changed down into 5th then 4th and I still got hardly any acceleration. My wife said she tried overtaking something on the motorway last week and she got the same response but assumed it was just a characteristic of diesels (we only bought it a few weeks ago and it's her first diesel) I was sure it should have more poke but she suggested its because we were already doing a reasonable speed and it just felt slow. I left it at that until today when I was doing around 30mph approaching a long, steep hill. I started to accelerate up the hill in 4th and was maintaining around 30mph with the accelerator pressed about 2/3 of the way down. Realising I would maybe run out of power half way up I dropped it into 3rd and it took off, accelerating really well up the hill until I got to about 38ish then it was like I had taken my foot off the power for a second and then put it back on but not quite as much. In reality my foot didn't move, it was still pressed about 2/3 and it started to drop to about 35mph then even with my foot flat down in 3rd it would only sit at 35mph and not budge above. There was a definite sudden dip in power. I know some of the older Mercedes vans used to have an issue with a vacuum actuator solenoid which would intermittently fail causing a loss of partial or total boost and the symptoms were very similar. The car is driveable and is quite a dream compared to my old mk1 galaxy and the more recent 3.3 V6 Voyager I had but this is niggling me now and I'd like to get it sorted. Any ideas? Cheers Mike

Hi all, as you may see from previous history, I used to have a galaxy mk1 2.3 V6 petrol which was pretty good until I had a coolant leak into the passenger foot well which along with a couple of other things was the straw that broke the camels back. I bought a Voyager which has been pretty much bullet proof but now her time is up and I want to go back to a Galaxy. My budget is 2k so I'm looking at around a 2001 - 2003 models. I want a diesel for obvious reasons so can you tell me what to look out for when buying one of these please? Any pointers are appreciated. Mike

Cheers Steve, just the answer I was after, many thanks. Mike

I have the usual electric window gremlins, window with a mind of it's own. Can anyone tell me how you take the plug off the door pillar so I can fit a new terminal and wires? Does it just twist off or do I need to take the panel off in the footwell to get behind it? Cheers Mike

Thanks for the replies. I did a few tests tonight and found that even bridging the connections didn't work so it's not the switch as it would seem there is no power getting to the switch and when the window does it's thing it's quite jerky and not smooth at all so it's the broken wire/short theory. I'll strip the door out tomorrow (weather permitting) and have a look Mike

Now all the snow has finally cleared and the car is back in proper use, it seems to have developed a drivers window with a mind of it's own. The other day when my wife started the car, the window went down about 2/3 of the way all by itself. She pressed up on the button but nothing happened. When she came back and went to lock the car, she held the key to the lock position so the conveinience closing may have closed it but again, nothing. Then again yesterday when I went to have a look at it, I switched the ignition on and it went nearly back to the top except about an inch. I wiggled the wires and kept switching the ignition but still no luck. When she went out earlier, it went all the way down by itself again and it won't go back up. I'm going to strip the door tomorrow to have a look but I wonderd if anyone else has had anything similar and whether I can look for something? I am aware the door looms are often at fault as one of the rear windows don't work but i wonder if I might have a short somewhere or bad earth which may be connecting power to the motor of it's own accord. Any thoughts would be a great help. Cheers Mike

I am getting a problem with the windsceen steaming up when the engine heats up and a smell of antifreeze. Can anyone tell me an easy way of accessing the heater matrix or is it a dash out job? Also, if it does turn out to be a faulty matrix, any instructions as to how to do the job? I have a friend who is a mechanic and he had worked on many cars but never done a matrix on a Galaxy so I want to give him a head start rather than him guessing. Many thanks Mike

I noticed the other day the alternator belt on the Galaxy looking a bit worse for wear the other day so I have a new one now but does anyone have any tips on replacement? i.e. the best way to loosen the tensioner off etc? I am already aware I need to make a note of the belt pattern on the pulleys before I take the old one off. Any other help gratefully recieved! Cheers in advance Mike

I have the 6 captains chairs in my Galaxy instead of the 2-3-2 layout. I have heard it's possible to get the row of 3 seats in the centre as the fixings are under the carpet. Is this true and if so, anyone done it? Any info greatly appreciated Cheers Mike

All sorted now. Ford no longer sell this part!! so I got one from GSF, car is now back on the road! Mike

Ooh you say such kind things, almost as if I was stupid enough to go to VW for Ford parts but ok, you have a point and I have already found VW to be just as unhelpful. "Can't do anything without a chassis number", so I told them it was a Galaxy, they told me to go to Fords. Luckily, I have been in the motor trade for 13 years and as a parts specialist for Mercedes for the last 7 so I know how much trouble shared chassis can be, especially when I get a VW customer coming to me for Mercedes parts and I have to tell them I can only help if they can either provide a doner chassis number off a Merc, or they let me take an educated guess, neither for which I can be liable for should anything go wrong. So in the same vein, at least I have some comeback from Fords because it is a vehicle they are responsible for but VW wouldn't care less. I did find out today that our workshop controller has a friend who is a service manager for VW so he is going to contact him for me. Thanks for the link. Mike

I have just got a new oil cooler gasket for my V6 and It's totally diffeent o the original which is basically just an o ring. The new one they sent is a plastic disc with a hollow shaft in the centre and two plastic prongs sticking up. I have been back onto Ford and spoke to 2 different guys who both say it's right and it has supersceeded from an early one to a later model for engines 2000 onwards and say it should go straight on without issue. The prongs have to slots to go into and the shaft in the centre would cover most of the thread. Any one done one of these and may be able to shed some light s I now have a car off road and a wife who has to do the school run for 3 kids on the train and walking. Help!

I'll admit that I may not be able to offer any real expertise on this but maybe to help others help you. Perhaps you could say when it started happening i.e. any event that may have caused it? Any other faults that may have also occured? Is it manual or auto? If it's an auto, it could be the inhibitor switch (this is the switch that stops the car from starting when in gear) and if it's a manual, have you tried push starting it? Apart from that, perhaps an immobiliser fault? Hope you get it sorted! Mike

Well, if this was a competition, you definatley win a prize! The workshop controller at my place has a friend who is a service manager at VW who confirmed head gaskets arevery rare on the VR6 engine and your theory about the vent pipe checks out. While one of the guys was checking my car over, he got me to fill the coolant bottle as he was checking for leaks and he said the coolant looked like it was leaking from the exhaust manifold? the car seemed to be holding most of the water in so he started her up and ran until hot, then steam started coming from that area. I looked and saw the vent pipe dangling over the exhaust downpipe and hey presto, the penny dropped! After we cleared that out of the way the steam stopped and he found a very slight leak at one of the T-piece junctions where 3 pipes meet at the back of the engine. I got the t-piece with 2 pipes which come with it for

I have a 1996 mk1 V6 Galaxy. In the last week, we have noticed a couple of times the fan seems louder than usual and so I thought it may be the bearings. Being an idiot that puts things off far too much, I have never got round to replacing a faulty temperature sensor, that's my first mistake! My wife turned up at my work today saying the fan has not stopped whirring really loudly so I got her to pop the bonnett and it was spinning like a drill, it was noisy because it was spinning 3 times the speed it usually does. I put 2 and 2 together and thought the car is trying hard to cool itself, therefore it must be too hot. I looked at the coolant bottle, NO COOLANT! so to check the pressure, I very slowly loosened the cap and after about 1 turn, there was a sudden hissing and steam bellowed from the back of the engine and a puddle appeared under the car. I work in a garage so when I told the mechanics, most of them had that look on their face that says 'OH DEAR' followed by a cringe. I'm already braced for the worst news but I wonder if anyone has had a similar thing with their V6 and whether there are any pipes round the back of the engine which may have given up or perhaps something else? Cheers Mike

I found water inside the O/S/R lamp so I emptied it out and let it dry before just running a really thin bead of bathroom sealant along where the lens is glued to the body of the lamp (the glue had gone brittle and it was coming apart) This cured the problem for me. The only reason I can think of the carpet getting wet is maybe the water is spilling out where the bulb holders are? Check the joint Imentioned and if thats where the water comesout when you tilt the lamp unit, you know that's where your problem is. Mike

I have done it though I replaced the whole thing, runners included so I did have to take down the head lining. I did post a detailed way of doing it but I'm not sure it made it to the forum. It's not difficult but it's a good hours job with the right tools. Mike

A good way to start with a misfire is to firstly disconnect the coil pack (CAREFULLY, they are high voltage!) and turn the engine over a couple of times. If you find one or more of your spark plugs are dry, there is no or little fuel getting to those plugs and so may be looking at injectors, fuel lines etc. If all the plugs are wet, then you know the fuel side is fine and it's lacking the spark. When the HT leads failed on my V6, in the dark, when you had the engine running with the bonnet up, you could see tiny little sparks jumping from the leads to the engine cover, therefore earthing out at the easiest point so the spark wasn't making it to the plugs. (Don't touch the leads with the engine running when this occurs because you can get a little jolt off them, nothing too serious but if you are accident prone like me, it made my arm jump and I smacked my funny bone on the airbox lol!) This told me straight away it was the leads so it's a good indicator and quite easy to see in the dark. Obvioulsy if the fault doesn't show as easily as mine did, then plugs are cheap enough to warrant trying (ensure if they are not pre-gapped that you do the gaps properly) I'm not sure what tests there are (if any) for coil packs but I'm guessing this would be the next port of call but a decent garage will probably assist with this. As for the MAF, there is a default setting within the ECU which the car will revert too if the MAF is disconnected. If you disconnect the MAF and suddenly the car runs smoother, then it's verylikely that is your cause. Get it fixed soon though because the default in the ECU tends to make the car run quite rich and you'll see the fuel disappear! Just my 2 pennorth! Cars are often the cause of our woes but also our pleasures, most of the pleasure comes when you have cured the woes lol! Mike

Hi chaps, wonder if I can run this one past you. I have a theory my 1995 V6 Galaxy is sucking exhaust fumes into the cabin of the car. There has been a funny smell inside the car on and off but sometimes when I top the oil up I have been known to spill a bit on the exhaust manifold and just put it down to that but my wife has been getting headaches recently and I drove the car yesterday and the day before and I've had a headache since yesterday evening, also the kids have been being sick on and off (being winter you can expect kids to be ill but too much of a coincidence?) I wonder if anyone has had a similar problems and/or can tell me of where to look. I will check all joints around the manifold but usually I'd expect the exhaust to be louder if they'd failed. Any help on this one is greatly appreciated as I need the car on the road ASAP. Many thanks Mike

My initial thought is possible turbo, either wastegate not operating properly or as you said, veins might be knackered. I work in a commercial dealer and if ever we get black smoke and loss of power issues, a lot of the time it's turbo. Hope you get it sorted. Mike

After driving it yesterday, I'm going with the CV joint theory because now it's knocking a couple of times as you accerate and I can imagine it as if the bearings inside the joint aren't perfectly spherical so tehy are rolling around but very lumpy and that is causing the joint to stick which is what the bang is under the floorpan. As if this wasn't enough, the damn thing misfires badly now too but I'm sure that's cheap rubbish HT leads I fitted a few months back so off to get them changed! Don't you just love cars!! Mike