The beginning
Picking
Picking the right van was a far more difficult task than it aught to have been, but then I am a picky bugger.
Having recently sold my Audi A4 Avant B7 Sline SE 2.0 Tdi 180ps (to give it is's short name) I had gotten used to a rather plush drive.
I also had to shift the urge to not buy one of those big bi-turbo S6's or similar, so suffice to say my research was far reaching.
My needs were simple. I wanted a reasonably interesting vehicle that could transport a couple of guys, bikes and kit to a race and back.
A car and trailer were an option, but an undesirable one, if I ever wanted to take up motorcycle racing seriously.
That left a van. There are lots of these about but they are generally agricultural at best which is great if you are using it for work but this would also need to be my primary caging device and as mentioned before I had turned into a bit of a tart so this was going to be tricky.
So a premium van was in order; realistically leaving me the Mercedes Vito and the VW Transporter T5. It would also need to be a long wheel base in order to get the bikes and kit in comfortably. As with many people like me; my tastes outstretched my means so I was going to have to search hard to get what I wanted without costing myself the earth.
Oh as a rank outsider there was also the option of an L300 as a somewhat crazy yet quite different option. I doubt you could fit 2 bikes in easily but it would have been fun to mod one and look a bit different.
Back to the point and allot of looking later a rather nice white Vito kombi and a T5 2.5Tdi 4motion were sat high on my watch list and I went to pay them a visit.
Having recently sold my Audi A4 Avant B7 Sline SE 2.0 Tdi 180ps (to give it is's short name) I had gotten used to a rather plush drive.
I also had to shift the urge to not buy one of those big bi-turbo S6's or similar, so suffice to say my research was far reaching.
My needs were simple. I wanted a reasonably interesting vehicle that could transport a couple of guys, bikes and kit to a race and back.
A car and trailer were an option, but an undesirable one, if I ever wanted to take up motorcycle racing seriously.
That left a van. There are lots of these about but they are generally agricultural at best which is great if you are using it for work but this would also need to be my primary caging device and as mentioned before I had turned into a bit of a tart so this was going to be tricky.
So a premium van was in order; realistically leaving me the Mercedes Vito and the VW Transporter T5. It would also need to be a long wheel base in order to get the bikes and kit in comfortably. As with many people like me; my tastes outstretched my means so I was going to have to search hard to get what I wanted without costing myself the earth.
Oh as a rank outsider there was also the option of an L300 as a somewhat crazy yet quite different option. I doubt you could fit 2 bikes in easily but it would have been fun to mod one and look a bit different.
Back to the point and allot of looking later a rather nice white Vito kombi and a T5 2.5Tdi 4motion were sat high on my watch list and I went to pay them a visit.
Vito
Early Vito's are well known for rapidly turning brown and scurrying down the nearest drain. Mercedes later realised this wasn't a good for sales and told all future vans to pack this in however the forums still rumbled with stories of wo.
As I am not much of a fan of forum poison I chose to check this one out and it was superb. It was recently repaired after a bit of a ding on the door, she was supporting a brand new factory kombi conversion, AMG alloys and drove wonderfully. It was the new shape with the galvanised chassis and was unusually cheap due to its previous prang allowing it to be just in my budget. I was immediately sold. On checking for an insurance quote however I was shocked to find it was twice the price of the VW, the cost of having been the subject of a claim it would appear. Not willing to fork out a fortune on insurance each month I sadly left this one with the lovely chaps at the workshop and moved on.
Transporter
The van featured no kombi seats but did have the need window, was already carpeted and cost 2k less than the Vito. It also only had 68k miles on the clock so was barely broken in!
The condition of the van reflected the lower price; with some rough paint and torn seat back but these were small details that didn't matter in the short run as a touch up pen and seat covers would tidy her over just fine.So I bought it.
On offer of a test drive I simply told him I'd turn around if it wasn't right and give it straight back to him and minutes later I was driving home.
The 2.5 Tdi pulled hard even for the 130ps version spreading its power through all four wheels and got me home in no time.
Poking about
why poke
A good clean and polish on a Friday evening made the van look half decent so when a visit to Portsmouth from my Lincolnshire home came up I chose to show it off.
There was however a small gremlin: On some starts the engine would need to be turned for a long time before she sprang to life. I was waiting for the heater coils but it always did it when the van had been standing. It was strange how it started fine from the dealers but I thought I'd save it for a windge on the Monday as it was the weekend and I had better things to do,
All was well till I tried to overtake a car on the A272 towards the end of my journey. As I put on the power nothing happened and the van seemed to bog. Clearly this was not a good place to be on the wrong side of the road in a van that didn't seem to want to accelerate so I checked my mirror to see if I was safe to pull back in to see I was being chased by an angry white cloud.
"Bugger" I thought and put my foot on the clutch to turn the smoke machine off.
This was a mistake it would seam as the engine immediately accelerated into the red line: The turbo was syphoning.
I had not experienced this before but I had read about it and knew what was happening. I immediately dumped the clutch, labouring the engine back down and decelerated. This spooled the turbo down and it returned to behaving itself.
I was now able to limp the van the last few miles to my destination where I would be able to investigate what had happened.
There was however a small gremlin: On some starts the engine would need to be turned for a long time before she sprang to life. I was waiting for the heater coils but it always did it when the van had been standing. It was strange how it started fine from the dealers but I thought I'd save it for a windge on the Monday as it was the weekend and I had better things to do,
All was well till I tried to overtake a car on the A272 towards the end of my journey. As I put on the power nothing happened and the van seemed to bog. Clearly this was not a good place to be on the wrong side of the road in a van that didn't seem to want to accelerate so I checked my mirror to see if I was safe to pull back in to see I was being chased by an angry white cloud.
"Bugger" I thought and put my foot on the clutch to turn the smoke machine off.
This was a mistake it would seam as the engine immediately accelerated into the red line: The turbo was syphoning.
I had not experienced this before but I had read about it and knew what was happening. I immediately dumped the clutch, labouring the engine back down and decelerated. This spooled the turbo down and it returned to behaving itself.
I was now able to limp the van the last few miles to my destination where I would be able to investigate what had happened.
To poking
As always, I start with the easy bits, and checking the oil is easy. Pulling the dipstick out I got allot of runny oil, more than was needed by quite some amount.
Suspecting the oil had been over filled and kicking myself for not checking it (I know basics) I put my misplaced trust down to experience and got some new oil.
With the engine tray removed I placed a 5 gallon bucket under the sump and let her rip and rip she did. Soon a brimming bucket of strong smelling oil was dragged out. The smell was fuel and the oil was far too fluid and thin. There was diesel in it and this was a problem. Clearly the van was making oil and some forum trawling (love hate relationship okay?) said that this was likely to be the fuel pump or the injectors as both of these worked inside the engine.
Now remember that starting issue?
A noted cause of this is the seals on the injectors allowing air into the fuel lines and the fuel to drain back into the tank. If air can get in then fuel can get out and the only place it will go is into my sump.
I looked into the seal replacement and say it was not something I could really do on the roadside with basic tools so I opted to fill the oil to the minimum line and hope I could get back to Lincolnshire safely as the van had clearly driven further before my problems so aught to do it.
Which it did.
Loose the Lemon
Back safely I contacted the dealer and explained my position. He promptly offered to take the van in and fix it. Not even a hint of difficulty or questioning the guy was straight up helpful and apologetic. Pleased I prepped to return the wagon to the dealer for maintenance. There was however an issue.
I was set to leave the country with work in a month so whatever work was done might not prove to have fixed the problem by the time I left and by the time I got back the dealer would be on no obligation to rectify any faults.
This left me only one real option so when I returned the van to the dealer I explained that the only safe thing for me to do was ask for a refund.
Again, no questioning or arguing he accepted and was very gracious in handing my money back in exchange for the van.
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