Hello,

Yes I have read Oilman's sticky in the tech thread however this is more of a discussion point.

Castrol, Texaco, Comma, Morris etc all make semi synth 5w-30 oil to the Ford WSS-M2C913-B spec, are they therefore precisely comparable because they meet the same industry standards and manufacturer specs?

Also Mobil make Mobil 1 ESP Formula 5W-30 fully synth which is not quoted as meeting the Ford spec though meets higher industry specs A3/B3 etc, is this better per se' or should it not be used in a Ford because it does not meet the Ford WSS-M2C913-B spec?

Any thoughts? Read more

Against my better judgement my father let the garage change the worn original fitment Dunlops on his 2001 Astra for a couple of Aurora tyres. Haven't previously heard of them before, and google doesn't throw too much up about them, neither does a forum search.

The only answer I could get from my father was that they were cheap ( < £40 a corner fitted ) and the garage said that they fit quite a few of them to various cars. Until I get around to driving his Astra I couldn't possibly comment on how good or bad they are. But, I have a nasty suspicion they won't be as good as the Dunlops that were previously on there.
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(Thread headline altered for clarity. HJ)

...on cars these days? I'm certain we have discussed this before, but I would like to offer the following sorry tale as a caution to others.

The Mondeo has popped its offside sidelight bulb. Now, I am the sort of sad person who cannot stand to have lights out, even little ones, and was becoming maddened by seeing an odd number of lights reflected off the back of cars in front of me in traffic.

So, the day being clear, the sky being bright (sort of) and Mrs B needing peace and quiet for an hour or so, I strapped B Junior into his pushchair and walked the half-mile or so to my local Halfords, bought a twin-pack of suitable bulbs, and returned home to have a crack at fitting one. I am reasonably competent at taking things to bits, fixing them and putting them together again, and I thought "Can't be that difficult, there are instructions in the handbook ..."

...which turned out to be as much use as something that really isn't very useful at all. On the current model Mondeo it is apparently necessary to lift out the entire headlight assembly in order to change any of the bulbs inside. In order to do that you have to move the grille out of the way.

Trouble is, they don't seem to have updated the instructions since the facelifted model came out in '04, and of course the old model has a slightly different design of grille, so I damn near broke the thing trying to move it out of the way. Not clever. Anyway, after about 15 minutes of fiddling and swearing, I got the headlight assembly out, and removed the cover for the sidelight bulb holder - only to find that the wire has been cut so short that I couldn't get the bulb out anyway.

It then took another 20 minutes to get everything back together again, and given that the idea with all this rigmarole is clearly to make me take it to the dealer and pay them to do it for me, thus ensuring an income stream for them, I suppose I am now looking at a bill of around £50 to replace a pathetic little bulb costing just over a quid, which is ridiculous.

What particularly annoys me is that I had to do the same job on a '95 Punto SX about eight years ago and the whole process from opening bonnet to going indoors with the empty bulb packet and putting it in the bin took less than ten minutes. Heaven help me if one of the Mondy's foglight bulbs ever goes (not that I use the foglights much, if at all) - it said in the handbook "Consult your dealer", which given my experience above, probably means that the bumper has to come off... Read more

Hello Guys and Girls

I'm having trouble finding out much information on this car and they look very good value for money second hand.

Does anyone have any comments to make, are the expensive to service?, are they thirsty? are they fun the drive?

I have found out that they were built in the USA and I think they are 200BHP with a 0-60 in around 7.5 seconds and they are all autos.

I'm guessing it will be more of a grand tourer than anything?

Thanks you for any input :) Read more

For the last 6 months my Galaxy has been very slow on accelerating and top speed of about 75. It really caused problems in Wales !!!! I have changed the MAF sensor twice - Fuel filter - air and oil filters - and checked intercooler and as many pipes as I could find. The symptons were: acceleration very slow of the mark until hit 2000 rpm and turbo kicked in and then kicked out straight away. I eventually took it to a garage and they diagnosed sticking variable vanes on the turbo. Ford wanted £1500 for a new one - so sent it off to Turbo company who confirmed diagnosis. Turbo rebuilt for £200 and fully tested. Excellent service. Refitted and hoping for a major change in performance - BUT it is slightly better but top speed now only 80mph. I know the turbo is producing boost. I have full code read and it shows no faults? There is no smoke from exhaust. The only sympton I can describe is that the engine feels very rough. between 1000 and 1500 rpm the engine shakes the car - similar to one cylinder not firing.

Any suggestions most welcome as I am at my tether..... Read more