Michael McAleer answers your queries
From John Cleary, Kildare: I enjoyed reading Donal Byrne's very informative article on the Galaxy last week. Thankfully I have had none of these recall problems. The only problem I had was with the lowering mechanism for the spare wheel and I wasn't the only one.
However I was just wondering does the Motors team know when this model is due for replacement. It is out since 2000 and I noted VW selling off the Sharon during the year as well.
Glad you found Donal's piece useful. Ford will not confirm details on the when the new Galaxy will arrive but you can expect it sometime next year.
It's not the only seven-seater in the pipeline at Ford. At the Geneva motor show earlier in the year, Ford revealed its SAV concept. This is perhaps an admission that, for all or fondness for the Focus C-Max, it really missed the boat on the people carrier market by making it a five-seater rather than seven.
Ford is keen to point out that this is only a concept and that even if it is produced, it will not be a Galaxy replacement. However, we expect an announcement in the next week or so confirming that it's going into production, arriving in late 2007 or early 2008.
From Declan McGrath, Waterford: I bought a new revamped Citroen C5 with the 1.6-litre HDI diesel engine, just before Christmas. As you rightly said in your review it is both nippy and economical and I am happy with it.
There is one niggling feature about the car and that is the noisy fan that comes on irregularly, and more so now in the warmer weather. Rather annoyingly, it stays on for a few minutes after the engine is switched off.
I have reported this to the service manager where I bought the car and he assures me that the engine itself is not overheating but it has to do with the 1.6 engine and the FAP (something to do with the environmental management system). Can you enlighten me and is there any danger that it will drain the battery?
Why do you need the fan?
The engine cooling fan is used by the injection ecu to cool down the exhaust to the correct temperature so that the Particle Filter(FAP) can do a regeneration and burn off the soot particles.Other pollutants are burnt off under normal conditions.This explains why the customer can hear the fans running at intervals.The operation of the fans is controlled by the injection ecu depending on the level of pollutants in the Particle Filter.
2. How do you prevent it draining the battery?
The battery will not be drained as the fans are controled by the injection ecu.The ecu is programmed to allow the fans to operate for up to 10 minutes after the ignition is switched off.After 10 minutes the supply to the fans is cut by the injection ecu.
From Michael O'Callaghan: In response to the query from Conor O'Sullivan last week regarding Easypass and the difficulty in getting it to read his device through the windscreen, I drove an '02 Renault Scenic which had tinted glass, and I also found that my Easypass transponder did not work.
This is caused by the fact that the metal layer used to tint the glass will not pass the radio signal used by the RIFID system.
In fact the metal layer is absent from the "spotted" area around the rear view mirror at the top centre of the screen and it is there that you mount the transponder and you will then have no problem with the system.
NTR told me this when I asked for an explanation for the failure to scan at the Westlink bridge when I bought the car. My current 2004 Scenic has the same tinting system and I have had no problem with the transponder mounted in this "spotted" area, [either to the left or right of the mirror at the top of the screen, your choice] .
In the competition chart for the road test of the BMW M5 last week, the power rating for the RS6, taken from an Audi press release, showed it with 331bhp. In fact that figure is the power output in Kilowatts. The bhp is actually 443bhp.