I have an old-style Ford Galaxy, which is now ten years old.

The air con stopped working, so I took it to the local garage, who declared it not worth fixing.

So then I took it to another garage, this time an air-con specialist, who also declared it not worth fixing (guessing ~£1k to maybe fix it).

They very kindly offered to take it to the Ford main dealer, so that they could also tell me it’s not worth fixing, but what does the STW hive mind think?

Car is probably worth £3k max (with working aircon). But I really like it – it’s awesome for shifting large amounts of stuff, like bikes and dogs. The newer Galaxy doesn’t seem as good in that respect.

Is this the end of the road?

You could drive it without the aircon?

Does it have windows you could use instead of aircon?

aircon…. whats that ?

I’d say the aircon is not worth fixing

No – buy some soleros and think how much you’ve saved by not getting the aircon fixed.

You’ve grown soft OP.

Why in my day, i’d be happy if I got gravel thrown at me. You’re getting warm air, you lucky devil.

My Focus’s aircon died about 6 years ago. Apart from the very hot days, i’ve not really noticed.

Do the heated mirrors still work?

Yes it’s possible to drive wihout aircon, but a massive slab sided vehicle with lots of glass is a bit of a greenhouse.

Your problem seems to be that the garages aren’t prepared to tell you what the fault is, there are some legal (and moral) things you need to consider when working on aircon systems, but if say it’s a broken compressor it wouldn’t be hard to source another one, even s/h and fit it and then get someone to re-gas it.

Other than that, wait about 6-10 weeks and it won’t bother you, till spring anyway.

IIRC all galaxies of that age and the VW equivalent have dead air conditioning systems, it’s a common fault, just open the windows.

Being a common fault, working second hand spares are hard to come by.

I’ve got a galaxy of that vintage, and the air con does not work, nor does the drivers side window open 👿

but a massive slab sided vehicle with lots of glass is a bit of a greenhouse.

+1 its a very very hot car

Other than that, wait about 6-10 weeks and it won’t bother you, till spring anyway.

+1 again

…a massive slab sided vehicle with lots of glass is a bit of a greenhouse…

Get some of those stick on sun shades if it is a problem?

The second garage think that the filter has failed, and scattered little tiny shards of metal throughout the system. So they can replace the filter, but then will also end up replacing all the other components.

And I guess if they fail to extract all the bits of swarf, then they may end up breaking the new components.

No – buy some soleros and think how much you’ve saved by not getting the aircon fixed.

Mmmm, soleros…..

my berlingo with windows is hardly not a green house yet manages to be a perfectly tollerable place throughout the summer…..

although i do avoid sitting in it for extended periods of time in traffic…..

Galaxy AC broke…?
Good chance it will be THIS pipe thats leaking.

Fix involves dropping the front bumper off & some other bits. Not difficult but worth a shot. Then a re-gas obviously.
If you join the FGOC forum there’s a detailed guide been posted.

AC packed up on mine last summer.
A black Galaxy (Alhambra/Sharran) not a pleasant place to be without AC. 😕

54 plate owner here. Yes its old, but as a practical bike lugging, family hauling bus its fab. I fear a T5 is not far off though, but I do like mine. had it 7yrs.

You could sell it to some gullible numpty who has got excited about the prospect of a bangernomics camper

Never understood the open windows or sunroof vs. air con argument. They really really are not two solutions looking to address a common issue. Open windows on a day like today? Zero effect – you’re still going to be sweating your nads off, but sat in a nice comfy A/C cabin is pleasant.

If you like the car so much then simply pay out to have the A/C fixed. A 1k repair bill is a lot cheaper than the cost of changing the car then hitting that depreciation curve all over again. It is certainly a lot cheaper way to fix your A/C than buying a whole other car.

I’m wondering how we all survived before aircon. Oh, we didn’t, life expectancy was about 25 and we all died of plague.

I would fix the aircon as it usually dehumidifies the air and works preventing condensation build up on cold days..

CharlieMungus – Member

You could sell it to some gullible numpty who has got excited about the prospect of a bangernomics camper

Yeah, and don’t forget to list it as “Aircon needs a re-gas”.

I have a 10 year old Touran. I have owned it for 9 years. The air-conditioning stopped working a week after I had it when a rock smashed the aircon radiator. I’ve never had it repaired and managed fine in all that time. It’s the UK not the med.

not worth fixing doesnt just mean its expensive, it also means the prospect of chasing fault after fault, the garages you have already spoken to know this. Ask them to quote for full removal and fitting of new system. then open up two browser windows, one ebay, one autotrader.

I recall reading that around town, up to 45-50 mph it was better to turn the air-con off and open the windows.

Above that speed it was more economic to shut the windows and used the air-con.

For the sake of a few really hot days, i think that i’d live without it. It’s nice, but how often do you really need it.

Man up and drive naked. You know you want to.

My 14 year old Focus hasn’t had working air-con for about 6 years, it makes lots of noise because the manifold to exhaust junction moves a bit, one window doesn’t wind down anymore and it squeaks from various places.

I’ve driven it for about the last 8 years but now my wife’s using it as I have the longer journey so I take our diesel car she takes the petrol Focus.

I’ve wanted to replace it for about 3 years, 1 week after starting to drive it and finding out that only the left hand speakers work and the radio often turns itself off my wife thinks it’s time to swap it for something ‘newer’.

🙂

The air con on my Renault Modus has not worked since I bought it, keep saying I will look into getting it fixed but managed 2yrs without it so far, does help that it has a massive glass sunroof that can be opened too.

oldnpastit I am sure you and I do, remember when cars didn’t have a/c. Drive it as it is

Just drop the hood.

It needs black plastics seats to go along with lack of aircon.

lol this reminds me of a conversation last week when we used the works van to visit a supplier the girl from the buying department was shocked and appalled when she found out after an hour (of a 4 hour drive there and 4 hours back) the van had no air con.
Her original reaction was like I just told her the van only had 3 wheels!

I said “Don’t worry I’ll sort it out, how about this then” and wound down the window “problem solved” 😀

One of the sales guys had to explain what a fax was to one of the younger girls last week as they didn’t know what one was, I felt REALLY old.

badllama – Member

One of the sales guys had to explain what a fax was to one of the younger girls last week as they didn’t know what one was, I felt REALLY old.

Give it a few years and there’ll only be 2 faxes left in the world. The one in my office, and the one they use to sell us car lease spam every week. It’ll be a visitor attraction.

leftyboy – Member

1 week after starting to drive it and finding out that only the left hand speakers work and the radio often turns itself off my wife thinks it’s time to swap it for something ‘newer’.

Pro tip: Failing left hand speakers on fords of this vintage can often be fixed by turning the volume up really high for a bit. I don’t know the science, I always visualise it as damaged wires soldering themselves back together from the sheer power of METALLLLLLL! that’s being rammed through them, but I suspect that’s not entirely accurate.

This post is genuinely all true btw.

We survived perfectly fine before A/C, but we’re alot more comfortable with A/C. That’s progress! We survived perfectly fine with horses and carts, slide rules,black and white telly’s and mangles and wash boards. But life is so much nicer now.