Ford Galaxy

[Guest Tanner]

I am the proud owner of a Ford Galaxy 1.9 tdi, year 03. I have had a problem with the clutch for over a year now. I first reported the fault when the 60,000 mile service was due. But Ford's couldn't find any thing wrong with it. The clutch pedal moves up and down on it's own?? If you accelarate the pedal rises, if you de-accelarate the pedal drops slightly. The clutch pedal sometimes gets stuck half way, you have to pull it up with your foot! The vehicle sometimes gets stuck in first and reverse gears, thats if you can get it into gear. When stuck in gear car will move, even uphill, when foot is on brake, it burns clutches out within 10,000 miles. In the past nine months Ford's have fitted:

4 clutches, clutch bearings

3 Master Cylinders

3 Slave Cylinders

2 Fly Wheels

And all other pipes and parts connected to the clutch system.

Still the fault remains, worse than ever. Ford's have run out of ideas, as to what the fault is...

Hummmm, didn't Ford design and build it???? They have now suggested it could be the Gearbox.

That's only

[Guest neil_wiles]

Welcome Tanner

 

Just a tad on the strong side for a first post !

 

So apart from the 57,000 mile you have done in one year what else has gone wrong ?

 

Incidently I have the same problem on my 53 1.9 tdi the pedal sticks and now the slave cylinder has developed and annoying habit of leaking fluid if and when it feels like it....

 

Oh and overnight the pedal may decide to sink to the floor if its getting tired, hey ho but I am gonna do the replacement myself as it has already covered 100k miles so warranty words dont even get used.

 

 

 

N

[sepulchrave]

...Actually it was built by VW/Seat in Portugal using almost no Ford parts at all.

 

Anyway, the only blindingly obvious part NOT on your list is the crankshaft, could this be out of true where the flywheel mates to it, it certainly wouldn't need to be out by much and I would guess it would be totally undetectable by Ford trained grease monkeys...

 

Stranger things have happened to new cars!

[Guest Tanner]

I must firstly apologise for the strong wording earlier.

 

I forgot to mention that we drive the vehicle in this state every day, hence the mileage.

 

Sometimes the only way to get the car out of first or reverse is to turn the engine off,

not great when you are at a roundabout!! The smell of a clutch burning, not nice!

 

Anyway, we have had the Crankshaft/Endflow inspected by Ford's, VW, and an

independant transmissions garage, they have all said this is not the problem.

 

Ford's have totally run out of ideas, at one stage they told us to drive it until it

breaks down, then they would look at it again!?

 

The 3rd clutch went after only doing 10,000 miles, we now try not to let the clutch burn,

should last a bit longer then.

 

Ford's even said that we were unfortunate to have had 2 faulty master cylinders, upon

fitting a 3rd which didn't cure the problem, they then quickly withdrew that statement!

 

One of the clutches which went whilst doing 70'ish in fast lane on M11 motorway, whilst

overtaking a bus, was removed by Ford's, and replaced, telling us that it was completely

shattered, we asked why? it was shattered, guess what? they didn't think to find out why!!!

 

They have recently replaced the clutch again, along with the master cylinder, slave cylinder

and flywheel.

 

Saying then that the gearbox is the only thing left.

 

They have now refused to inspect gearbox, they don't want to ever see the car again!!

 

We have also had 3 air-con pipes fitted in the past year, they seem to break quite easily.

 

Thanks for your speedy input, we are grateful for all advice given.

[tiny]

A long time ago I had problems with a sierra engine. The car was just over 2 years old and was bought from a ford main dealer, was ex fleet and had covered 50k miles. Basically the engine died after a month of ownership (low oil pressure, big end failure, shells picked up on crank etc etc)

 

Anyhow I took the car back to fords, and they refused to even look at it as I hadn't shelled out for a warranty!

 

I went to trading standards who sorted the whole matter out for me. A week after phoning them i had the car returned to me with an exchange motor, plus I had the use of a courtesy car for the time it was away.

 

I know this problem is different from yours in nearly every aspect, but it may be worth your while speaking to trading standards, or even pop down to see the local branch armed with all the paperwork and see just what they think.

[Guest Tanner]

Thanks for your advice, it is greatly appreciated, but we have already spoken to Trading Standards. They have told us our rights regarding the warranty claim, being that Ford's must do the repairs under the warranty.

 

However Ford's have refused to do so. We have tried to speak to the department at Ford HO, who dealt with the warranty claim, but they won't talk to us. I do know where their HO is so I am now going to deliver a strongly worded letter by hand, it is quite local to us.

 

Trading standards also told us that we have a right to claim a partial refund of the

[anadin]

crikey :lol: sounds like a nightmare how long have you had the car where did you purchase it ?

[seatkid]

:lol: Come on! Lets be honest about a few things here....

 

Most manufacturers warranties have an exclusion clause when the vehicle is "used as a taxi" (which I think is reasonable). Certainly Ford's extended warranty (i.e. yr 2/3) definitely is excluded here.

 

Even if it was used for domestic purposes only, having your car serviced by your brother is not the same as having it serviced at a VAT registered garage using original parts. (which is what the law requires regarding warranty claims).

 

You seem to have received more than enough "good will" beyond the normal (domestic) warranty period. And way beyond the commercial use period of one year.

 

I suggest that had you been really concerned about your fault you would have engaged the services of another dealer/garage or even your brother to investigate this fault. I cannot conceive of a clutch fault that cannot be resolved by changing everything associated with the clutch, (and more than once). It is far more likely to be associated with the way the car is being used.

 

If you are honest with the facts, I don't think you stand any chance of recourse in law.

 

I don't normally support dealers or Ford - ask any other member - but in this case, I'm sure if I were you I would have got shut of this car way before now - unless I knew the dealer was a soft touch.....

[mumof4]

Hmm...i had to read this several times before i could actually grasp what you are saying.....not because i couldnt understand it..but because green is not exactly an easy colour to read for me.

 

As i understand warranties....they cover x amount of time or x amount of miles..Taxis are a different kettle of fish altogether.

 

To be honest i cant believe that you are driving the car when you know it is faulty.Wont this invalidate your insurance??As you know that you are driving a car which has a fault which may be dangerous to other road users if you have an accident?

 

Why have you not engaged the services of a solicitor???All well and good to involve trading standards...But i do hope that you have a written record of everything that concerns the car..phone calls..work etc....

 

But....i am with seatkid on this one.

 

I must admit that i have had experiance of driving a car with a fault when i have been told there wasnt one.End result was that i hit a tree when the car decided to not respond.Now i have a war going on with 3 garages including a Ford one , all wrangling over why the other garages didnt pick up on the fault.That is all in the hands of my solicitors.My steering pump was requested and replaced and the faulty one sent away to be examined at Fords request.

 

That is why i cant believe that you are driving the car knowing that there is a fault.Dont do it.I was lucky..you may not be.

[Guest Tanner]

Do you prefer this colour Mumof4?

Thanks for your.... insults Seatkid.....FYI.....I am not using the vehicle as a taxi now, I was forced to find alternative employment, so no need to shout about the safety of others on the road!!!! Nobody even knows what is causing the fault, not one garage has said it is not usable, so thanks for your concern. I only use the vehicle to get to work.

Ford's were aware of the vehicle's use and agreed on a 60,000 mile warranty.

My brother works for Range Rover, did I not already say that, he serviced the vehicle there, Ford parts and all.

You can't just get rid of a car that is being paid for on finance, don't forget cars lose value as soon as you drive out the showroom, I probably owe more than it's really worth now.

Thanks for your legal expertise on whether I have a case or not, I don't care about the money, I just wanted my car roadworthy. As for seeking legal advice from REAL solicitors, I have been told that this is pointless until the fault has been diagnosed.

As for your statement about 'Goodwill', we actually paid for the first clutch, master cylinder, slave cylinder etc.... They were then still covered by some warranty when Ford's wanted to replace them again.

I did explain before that I was taking the car to an independant garage to have the gearbox investigated,

 

Seatkid, why don't you read this forum again, you have just made me repeat myself, Boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought when I joined this forum, that I might get some help from other's who may have had similar problems with their Galaxy's, Obviously not!!!

*finding the fault is all that matters.*

[anadin]

Mmmm trikey one this , i dont think sk was insulting you personally i think we all know taxi's get a battering, if you purchased from ford , then they are responsible for warranty work, but they will argue your brother is not ford trained or employed, this viods any warranty , you'd think ford would want to get to the bottom of it from an engineering/training piont of view, as well as their reputation, i would suggest a meeting with their service manager and try and meet half way on costing, good luck

[Guest Tanner]

Thanks Anadin.... you made me chuckle....

 

Ford's actually trained my brother he worked there for a good few years, he eventually became Service Manager. But like the rest of us who have had unsatisfactory results from Fords, he left to go and work for Mercedes. he went back on to tools, (can't get better training than them!). He then moved home, and job to Range Rover, who I believe are part of Ford's ???? Not 100% sure though.

 

Getting back to me....Taxi/mini-cabs only take a battering if they are treated badly, our car has been treated well, serviced regular and as I said in my first statement I am proud to own it. My quibble is with Ford not my car.

 

It's funny that you mentioned Ford's should want to get to the bottom of it, because the Service Manager who we have dealt with throughout the whole thing, asked us to let him know the result of the independant inspection, because he has had another Galaxy come in with similar problems, and they don't want to throw money away, trying to find the fault on that one.

 

We did offer to pay for the actual gearbox, if they were to compromise with the labour costs, being that they have already taken the gearbox out six times, they also have to fit all new clutch, master cylinder, slave cylinder, fly wheel etc etc, again which doesn't seem worth it, the new ones have only done about 100 miles. But the service manager has no say in any of it, HO decide. They said NO! They are not prepared to discuss it!!!

[anadin]

well glad it cheered you up :lol: , without every bit of factual info its immposible to know, only you and ford have the answer then, as i said in my opinion you'd think they would want to solve it , if they say no either take them to court or pay elswhere , we carnt make ford do it :lol:

[seatkid]

Thanks for your.... insults Seatkid.....

My pleasure :P

 

(the vehicle is a Taxi).....

 

I am not using the vehicle as a taxi now

Make up your mind...anyway, it has been used as a Taxi which is pretty obvious with 57,000 miles in a year.

 

Ford's were aware of the vehicle's use and agreed on a 60,000 mile warranty.

I hope you got that in writing.....

 

You can't just get rid of a car that is being paid for on finance

Thats news to me....

 

Trading standards also told us that we have a right to claim a partial refund of the

[Guest Tanner]

You know what Anadin....you're right.

I am now paying for an independant to do it, he has quoted a lot less than Ford's, Bonus!!!!

Cheers for your input though.

As for us having the answer.... I'm not a trained mechanic!

As for Ford's having the answer.... No, neither are they!

[anadin]

i think its the only way out , if your independant throws up anything then take it up with ford , i would say we have all had clutch probs and gearbox , but not to this extent, "YET" and hopefully never, good luck with it and let us know the outcome

[Guest Tanner]

Hey Seatkid, don't get out your seat!

Don't you like cabbies?

Answers to your comments

 

1. "Who do you think you are, do you treat all women that way?"

 

2. "We haven't cabbed it for the past 12 weeks due to fault being worse than ever, we obviously do a lot more miles than the average driver".

 

3. "Who needs it put in writing, according to you, they don't have to honor the warranty anyway"

 

4. "You can't sell a car on finance, you can trade it in, but as I said before I probably owe more than its's worth"

 

5. "Isn't the whole point of me posting on here, that I was looking for help finding the fault, not gaining money"

 

6. I read through quite a few old posts which were about pedal movement and gear stickage, but they were from a while back, so I regretably started a new post, must be a million other things I could be doing!"

 

7. Wasn't it Ford's job to check the following?:

The clutch pedal itself and the bracketry its attached to and whether this is secured correctly.

Whether the garage changed the pressure plate and thrust bearing each time.

The Clutch thrust arm and its mounting in the bell housing

We paid them a lot of money to replace the clutch parts the first time, surely they would have checked them.

 

Seatkid, are you a qualified Mechanic?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read through,

anymore questions, please don't hesitate to ask,

anymore insults, keep em coming!

[seatkid]

7. Wasn't it Ford's job to check the following?:

The clutch pedal itself and the bracketry its attached to and whether this is secured correctly.

Whether the garage changed the pressure plate and thrust bearing each time.

The Clutch thrust arm and its mounting in the bell housing

We paid them a lot of money to replace the clutch parts the first time, surely they would have checked them.

No....changing a clutch can involve just changing a clutch plate. Often (after examination) the pressure plate is reused, the actuators in a pressure plate can stick or be broken internally (not visible) causing the fault you describe. Thrust bearings usually don't get changed nowadays in the same way as tensioners dont get changed on cambelts - its over looked. Thrust bearings sometimes stick on the gearbox shaft. Almost no-one would check the actuator arm as its so simple it rarely gives problem. But they can bend or the hinge mechanism break.

Seatkid, are you a qualified Mechanic?

Are you a woman?

[mumof4]

That is enough Tanner.....we are trying to help you...most of us are not qualified mechanics but we do the best we can with the help we get from this forum..seatkid knows more than most and has helped many on here includeing me.

 

As for me screaming safety on the roads..i dont want what happened to me to happen to anyone else.

 

As for treating women that way..you get used to it on here..they dont pussy foot around us women on here just because we are female.Yes they are more patient...but they treat us like one of the lads.

 

With any dealings with anyone in regards to who you speak to or work on the car....GET IT IN WRITING!!!!!..STANDARD..you have nothing if you havent.

 

Yes i know what garages are like dealing with women..but you have to perservere and not get abusive. (pot calling kettle here!!)

 

And as for legal advice unless fault is diagnosed..thats piffle.

 

The insults stop here.Any more and i will start issueing warnings to whoever throws them.

 

I understand you are upset Tanner.... But we are trying to help you.

 

 

Marian.Moderator.

[Guest Tanner]

Sorry Marian, The Moderator, my sense of humour must be different to yours!

 

I'm not upset at all, I'm a cab driver, apparently I work in a 'mans world', I get treated like one of the guys at work. there are 95 drivers on our company, only 3 of which are women.

 

It was all very lght-hearted, It wasn't personal, Just humour

 

The fact that I'm female has nothing to do with Ford's refusal to do the work, my husband took the car in each time.

 

Who was getting abusive?

 

FYI...I was only asking Seatkid if he was qualified because he made sense in the technical bit of his post, I wasn't being Rude, honest.

 

The legal advice was from Trading Standards, I trusted that was true, dumb eh!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Seatkid, yes I am a woman, sorry did I not mention that before?? Ha ha

 

The guy who's going to work on it now mentioned some of those things too, pressure plate & thrust bearing.

 

Cheers!

[mumof4]

Humour....i dont think so,

 

It is not good to insult the people you are asking to help you.As they will be disinclined to help you anymore.

 

 

Marian.

[Guest Tanner]

I don't think I insulted seatkid at all.

Seatkid obviously wasn't offended, or wouldn't have continued to offer fault finding hints.

So I'm not arguing with you about it, I thought it was a laugh.

[mumof4]

You insulted me.

 

Enough now.

 

People can interpret what you write in so many different ways,I would suggest that you read the forum guidelines .

[mumof4]

Ok...after taking advice, i am closeing this thread.If you would like to add to it then please pm me.

 

I am sorry to do this but it is getting out of hand and now peeps are editing their posts,

 

Marian.