Help - mystery over car breaking down! Mechanics/car "people" please help!

asbokid

fusar wrote: »

Thanks all,

Just a couple of quick questions... if the turbo has gone, how muc would it probably cost to get it sorted?

Not sure about your Galaxy model.. Does it have a Ford engine or is it one with a VW engine?

Totally ball park figures...

At a Ford workshop... £1000-£1500
At a "reputable" independent garage... £600-£800
Salvaged turbo fitted by a friend... £100-£150

Turbos are not very difficult to fit.... lots of pipework for coolant and oil, but not rocket science!

Good luck.. The Galaxy is a nice car.. Worth the fix!

'Course, it could be something else.. the oil control rings or the valve stem oil seals.. I would still bet on the turbo since the smoking started so suddenly, whereas the other components tend to wear over time...

ozvaldinho

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

I would agree with some kind of oil leak. I'm quite surprised that taking the key out actually stops the engine.

BTW if the engine refuses to stop, open the bonnet and shove a coat or a jumper into the air intake quickly.

Quicker to jam it in top gear and stall it!

asbokid

asbokid wrote: »

Salvaged turbo fitted by a friend... £100-£150

If yours is a 2000 model... From ebay....


2000 FORD GALAXY GHIA TD 1.9L TURBO UNIT/CHARGER - £149.99 or Make Me An Offer....

fusar

Thank you all for taking the time to answer my question - very much appreciated.

goldspanners

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Try decoking the cylinders with some stuff you can spray in the airtake, might be on offer at a garage and easy to try

Basically check all the basics first, all the easy things and the fuel as suggested would be an easy one.
Also try an italian tune up

Bad turbo would make it sluggish, how does it perform. Too much smoke suggests the mixture is wrong on one of the elements but I'd expect the car to bring up a fault code if anything big was wrong

whats all this?

the engine sounds as if its trying to destroy itself and you think helping it by increasing the revs or adding a solvent to the air intake will help this?
too much smoke suggests wrong mixture in elements. ehh? you dont even know what colour the smoke is.
as some sensible folk have suggested by the engine ticking over ok and then the engine over reving and emitting smoke when the accelerator pressed would suggest the engine is ingesting oil from a blown turbo seal. or you may have an injector over fueling a cylinder. but the turbo seal is the most likely.

fusar

Thank you goldspanners - I will suggest this to the mechanic who is coming on Monday :-)

steveo3002

why would the turbo cause it to over rev /rev itself up?

kinda sounds fishy that you filled up and the problem started

was the tank part full and you topped up , how much fuel did you add to the tank

fusar

Well, the red warning light came on as I was leaving home, so I went to fill up straight away, I put about £30 worth of diesel in the tank - this was confirmed on the receipt. However, according to the supermarket chain that I bought it from, I was the only person to complain about having a problem with my car on that day. The manager told me that they have thousands of cars filling up each day, and my call was the only one about contaminated fuel......

hewhoisnotintheknow

do these have a vw engine in them? sounds very VW like in terms of its problem

roswell

If it was a oil leak the engine would not have stoped when you took the key out, Diesel is "light oil" if the chambers are getting oil from another source eg the sump it would have continued to run as it wouldnt need the fuel pump to supply the oil the crank would have done that job itself im sticking to wrong fuel.

you can run a diesel engine on parafin / auto gearbox oil / cooking oil / peanut oil so some 10-40 would have done just nicely ;-) except sump oil would have been a dark black smoke and stank to high heaven.