Moderators?

[BrianH]

 

Sadly its 2002 so its £305 for tax!

 

 

Gulp! Not so bad on LPG, softens the blow a bit.

 

The back boxes will all fit the same. The 2.0 and 2.3 are different, there's a lot of restriction on the 2.3 back box, but I bet the 2.0 is near enough. I had a diesel one with the two tailpipes on mine for a couple of years, was sent by mistake and I didn't realise the difference at the time. Car went like the clappers, but MPG suffered.

 

Its a bit of a shock when you realise the tax on the v8 4l Discovery I've got is £245 though, and a 2.3 is more expensive due to being newer! Anyway that ones gone (so saves the trip to southampton on the plus side), and it looks like all the suitable cars are around the same on petrol, so its not going to make much difference (Need something with a decently big boot) Got sidetracked with work so not been able to look at anything since

[sparky Paul]

It could be worse, a 2.3 Galaxy would be £520 to tax now if registered after March 2006.

 

The plus side with buying petrols is that the mileages tend to be a lot lower, and often in better nick.

[BrianH]

It could be worse, a 2.3 Galaxy would be £520 to tax now if registered after March 2006.

 

The plus side with buying petrols is that the mileages tend to be a lot lower, and often in better nick.

I hadn't looked that far into it to find that out!

 

Will find something just need time to look for something (hopefully a bit more local than i've seen so far)

[sparky Paul]

After just thinking "that looks a bit scabby", then poking a hole in the nearside inner sill, I'm back at the "convince me it's worth saving" stage. :unsure:

[BrianH]

Going to look at another one tomorrow with any luck, provided the Discovery doesn't continue in the ways it has today (Gearbox faults randomly popping up due to a badly designed selector switch, and overheating due to suspected dodgy radiator).

 

How big a hole? - We investigated my Mondeo in February as I'd noticed a hole in the sill when under there for something else - In the month or so it had been like that it got from something you could put your finger into into something you could put your hand into! Given that was a skin sill put on 5 or 6 years ago it had done well, but on investigation it was too far gone to save, ended up with needing both sills, both rear wheelarches and some work round the fuel filler area. Got someone who can do the welding, but i couldn't face having that much of it to do.

[sparky Paul]

It's a screwdriver hole at the moment, I stopped poking after I went through, but there's about 10-12" length of the bottom lip of the inner sill that looks iffy. The actual bottom of the inner sill sounds okay, it's the vertical lip meeting the outer sill that's gone.

 

The trouble is, when you start poking these crusty bits, you inevitably end up chasing the rot back to decent metal. You can't weld to weetabix.

[sparky Paul]

Poked some more holes in the outer sill this morning, trying to find the extent of the rot. Not looking too good. I think you could replace half the outer sill too if you wanted to make a job of it.

 

If you weren't so far away Brian, we might make one good one out of the two. :(

[BrianH]

Poked some more holes in the outer sill this morning, trying to find the extent of the rot. Not looking too good. I think you could replace half the outer sill too if you wanted to make a job of it.

 

If you weren't so far away Brian, we might make one good one out of the two. :(

Oh dear

 

I've picked the replacement up today - not sure about having parking sensors at present! Also found someone has helpfully removed the center of the valve on the rear tyre of my old one (noticed it was flat, so pumped it up to prevent it ruining the tyre, only for all the air to come straight back out as soon as it was disconnected)..

 

And no - I've seen what happens trying to weld to rust - lots of popping and banging usually!

[sparky Paul]

I've picked the replacement up today - not sure about having parking sensors at present!

 

And no - I've seen what happens trying to weld to rust - lots of popping and banging usually!

 

 

What you found as a replacement then Brian? Another Shalaxy? You're lucky to find parking sensors that actually work...

 

What's the sills like? ;)

 

I managed to avoid mine being caved in for 14-odd years, only for them to rot from the inside... :(

 

I'll tell you what happens when you try welding to rust, you end up chasing it half way around the bloody car. My mate came round and had a look at the Galaxy, he's more into the bodywork and painting than I am, being a retired time served panel beater & sprayer. Where I would have patched up the worse bits and left the rest alone, he was all for making a proper job of it. He said if I could be arsed to do it, he would bend me all the bits up to fit.

 

However, he did add, "but really...it's about f**ked mate".

[BrianH]

Sills look ok on it as far as i've seen no signs of the usual damage - not really had time to give a thorough going over yet - A 2.3 Galaxy Ghia 2001 (sadly its registered in May 2001 but never mind!) I now know a place to use in Luton for tyres which is A) Cheap and B) actually seems to understand what they are doing when jacking up a Galaxy - the point i use at the front when jacking is where the outrigger meets the main chassis as it seems nice and soild there, no need to crush sills up unlike the last time i used blackcircles for tyres. They also managed to get the leaky alloy wheel to stay inflated with the best of the tyres that came off the front, which is more than any of the prior lot that have replaced tyres have managed to do (slathering on more tyre sealant ontop of old sealant and flaky paint is not going to work which is what they had done it seems)

 

I'm still trying to fathom out how/what they were trying to tell me - I think i had it confused by being towards a hedge at the front, and a load of conkers and other tree related debris at the back, as it seemed to protest when moved in either direction! I will try it out next time i drive and see if it makes more sense then.

 

Air con i don't think works, but can look into that later on, think it will need a few other bits (2 tyres on front wearing unevenly, so something amiss there) and think i will have to do something about the stereo as I'm used to a DAB unit, Can probably transplant the one from the other car to it with a suitable adapter.

 

Yes i know on the rust front it can turn into a much larger job than expected - The previous mondeo I had to the one i scrapped earlier this year did a right number on me when we came to needing a patch on the nearside sill - Mate started welding it only to discover a load of solder like filler had been used at some point to repair damage in the area, think we ended up using a complete skin sill to sort it in the end. When we had finished exploring the extent of the rust on the 2nd one most of both sills have gone up to within 30cm of the b pillar all along the bottom - We had given up exploring by then as it was clearly too much! Inner sillls have been more of a problem - I've only ever had them patched, but usually by that time the cars on its last legs anyway.

 

Think I've realized what the slightly strange noise is though - Sounds like the clutch release bearing is rather worn. It was just refreshing to drive a galaxy with a quieter engine than mine had towards the end of its life!

 

I think with yours you need to decide if you can really make use of it to make it worthwhile enough to do - They can be found with an MOT on them for not a lot of money - The previous owner of mine had decided to get rid of it as it was too thirsty running round town etc, which is hardly surprising given what it is. It was showing 30ish mpg on the way home though.

[sparky Paul]

Yes, some good points there Brian.

 

Over 14 years, I've had around 30mpg most of the time, without trying too hard. Best ever really was Tesco, Wick to Broxden Services, Perth, through the Cairngorms a couple of years ago - brim to brim it worked out at just over 36mpg. I don't think you will find it any worse than the 2 litre.

 

My release bearing has been whirring away for over 10 years, I had a brand new Ford Motorcraft clutch & bearing/CSC on standby, but never needed it in the end. The 2.3 is actually a lovely engine with the balancer shafts, it's the ancillaries that make most of the rattles and squeaks.

 

Turns out I've got two rotten areas, just in front of the b pillar, so within 30cm of front passenger seatbelt mount, and also around the rear jacking point, so rear subframe mount and seatbelt mount again.

 

The only long term fix for alloys is stripping and repainting, but getting the rough bits down to metal with a flap wheel, followed by a coat of rim seal puts them on for a year or two.

Edited October 18, 2017 by sparky Paul