Purchased Used Galaxy With Snag List

[Kevinb]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm hoping someone can help with a couple of snags I've noticed with a 57 plate Galaxy 1.8TDCi I purchased for the missus.

 

The three interior lights stay on when the doors are closed. They are all set to the central setting (door open) and so should not be on when driving surely...?! Any ideas what may have caused this? I'm thinking possibly a door catch sensor, but then the car isn't registering an open door...

 

The second item is possibly the more worrying. A little explanation first. When I move away in first, the car is fine and normal. I'm used to putting a car into second as soon as is reasonable (harking back to my driving lesson days twenty odd years ago here....) and up the gears - third at about 20-25mph, fourth about 35-40, fifth about 45-50 etc.

I've found that if I follow this process and accelerate there is a brief growling/roaring noise from the engine. Not immediately after changing gear or accelerating, but during the process of accelerating. There seems to be a slight vibration, but nothing even slightly major.

If I rev the engine to beyond what I've done for years, the growling isn't there. Almost as if it's been bypassed.

 

Okay, so the easy answer is, "Well, don't change gear so early!". Yes, I would agree with that; however, I'm sure the car isn't supposed to growl in this way when accelerating, surely? I'm happy to be wrong here and maybe newer cars just don't like being under load at low speeds, but I just can't help but think there is an issue to answer.

 

Many thanks for any advice anyone can give.

 

Kevin

[Kevinb]

Any ideas anyone? Much gratitude to anyone who can help!

[gregers]

im thinking earth problem with the door lights,as you have said check the door sensors.

 

even though its a large car,i think you need to hang on to the gears a tad longer,my smax albeit a 2ltr used to hate being in 4th at 40.and never ever used 5th in urban driving.

give it a week then see??

[Kevinb]

Cheers for the reply!

 

Interesting you say that about the earth fault; not thought of that... I suspect there may actually be a fault with the boot door catch as it seems to be a little temperamental with closing properly. I had this with my mk.1 as well.

 

As for the gears, I've done a little bit testing here.

 

1st never growls

2nd growls between 18-20mph

3rd growls between 30-32mph

4th between 40-44mph

Not tried 5th and 6th

 

If I change into the respective gear past the listed speed, it doesn't growl.

 

Would this sound about right for moving up too low then? I've not heard other mk.3s make this kind of sound though.

[xavier]

Rather than speed, does the growl occur between a certain rev range? If so, can you post the corresponding rev-range. sounds to me like it's low down so might be turbo? Could also be clutch slipping?

[Kevinb]

Xavier, cheers the reply. I had it checked out by a local garage in the end. His diagnosis was the gearbox.

 

The car was likely used by someone in the past who favoured high gear-low revs. The gears become slightly worn due to this and when put under load at low speeds now, the gears had movement, hence the growl. Once out of that range, the gears no longer played and the sound goes away. He reckoned it was more likely I would win the lottery than see the gearbox fail and so we left it.

 

This would tie in a bit with other issues the previous owner left us with... The irony was they were a doctor...!

 

Many thanks for your time though.

[xavier]

Thanks for posting what you've found. Hopefully car's still going with no issues!