Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Big lumps of metals and spanners. Including servicing and fluids.

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itchyfeet
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by itchyfeet »

All these vans need work, anybody who think they can buy a 30 year old van and it won't have problem in naive.

How these vans are then brought back to a good state of repair is really your choice, you can do the bare minimum and continually break down and whinge abaout it or you can do it well and do it right, you can do preventative maintenance also, yes it costs loads but thats T25 life.

Some problems lead to others if not fixed quickly, you only have yourself to blame.

E.g. You buy a vehicle and it's got a tired and cracked hose but you never inspected it or you never noticed , also your level sensor is not working and you never checked it.

Once day while on a long hot drive it splits and you loose coolant but you don't realise because the level sensor does not work and it over heats.

You get towed home and replace the pipe, and refill and it runs so you keep driving it with out getting a sniff test done.

Over time pipes keep bursting and you keep loosing coolant until one day your water jacket seals are leaking and you realise you need a new engine.

You buy the cheapest recon you can find , why pay more? and it's fitted and OK for a while but you refitted the old waterpump which was cooked the last time so on your next holiday it fails and you get towed home again.

The new engine has now been over heated it fails on your next holiday and you claim under warranty and get another, the engine company can't really afford to give you another so they fit that crappy one they have that hasn't been rebuilt but runs OK...........
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1989 DJ digijet WBX Holdsworth Villa 3 Pop Top
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Troopy
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by Troopy »

Sir Brixalot wrote:I reckon mine's one of those lemons

Four or five engines
2 automatic gearboxes may need a third as just gone wrong again
Rear trailing arms
every rubber coolant pipe due to pressure problems or leaks
rebuilt carb twice
rebuilt alternator
Rebuilt starter motor
2 Fuel pumps
shocks all round
front wheel bearings
welding rear quarters
a few cv joints
most of the bushes including both trailing arms
snapped accelerator cables twice once overtaking in France and once on M3 briefly shutting it whilst I got towed off by police
calipers
coil
repair blos broken by AA or RAC
lots of ignition switches and other switches and sensors
ignition amplifier
all switches/sensors
LPG problems,
wiring problems
several £100 batteries killed by alternator problems

many random failures to start after switching fuels, always seems to be when I really need to get somewhere.


it's only failed MOT once - for a registration plate bulb but broken down on M1, M2, m3 twice, M4, M11 twice, A2 , A303 twice in France plus many other times up and down the country. Broken down on my son's birthday three times by the time he was nine. Low loaded more times than I can recall. The costs had dropped recently as I was doing as much as possible myself but automatic gearboxes are beyond me.

Thought I'd never give up on it but I/m done now. It had been running really well, almost silent when idling and cruising smoothly and I thought I'd finally be able to do the upholstery but the new gearbox problem is the final straw. Cost me too much and no one seems to know how to repair them properly. Once it's repaired I'm selling and hope the next owner is one of the lucky few to get a properly sorted van.

I still want an 80s/90s vehicle but need to find something more reliable. Doesn't need to be a camper as I carry a tent now. Been looking at old 7 series and varieties of bigger 4x4 cars, Surfs Shoguns Delicas etc

You had me until you got to the accelerator cable and said you were overtaking :lol:
1987 1.6 TD

Sir Brixalot
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by Sir Brixalot »

In truth it was passing an ancient tractor.
IF, you're speaking as someone with the knowledge and space to do your own full rebuilds. I relied on garages and spent many hours to and fro paying for repairs, the breakdowns were not down to lack of expenditure or cutting corners but problems not being diagnosed correctly. Could you rebuild an auto gearbox?
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itchyfeet
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by itchyfeet »

Sir Brixalot wrote:In truth it was passing an ancient tractor.
IF, you're speaking as someone with the knowledge and space to do your own full rebuilds. I relied on garages and spent many hours to and fro paying for repairs, the breakdowns were not down to lack of expenditure or cutting corners but problems not being diagnosed correctly. Could you rebuild an auto gearbox?

Not personal SB :D

I can't help thinking that some of your breakdowns could have been prevented. E,g, If I remember you had an accelerator cable snap in France and it was bodged with an electrical block, then it failed again later. When you got home after the first fail you could have had the cable replaced, If you thought they replaced it in France you could have checked.

Auto box is very specialist so I can't comment but if you keep having bad service from mechanics then perhaps it's your judgement of who to take your van to that needs to change.
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by Sir Brixalot »

The problem is that it is so specialist that I only find out when it fails. Hopefully the last garage to rebuild it will be more honest than Harry Harpics who actually billed me more for just the gearbox than the last garage who also did the converter and fitted a new (albeit unnecessary part that cost £300.) Harry Harpics wouldn't refund me a penny and owners the son said that I was begging by asking for a partial refund
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Troopy
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by Troopy »

Sir Brixalot wrote:In truth it was passing an ancient tractor.
IF, you're speaking as someone with the knowledge and space to do your own full rebuilds. I relied on garages and spent many hours to and fro paying for repairs, the breakdowns were not down to lack of expenditure or cutting corners but problems not being diagnosed correctly. Could you rebuild an auto gearbox?

No, not personal at all, just thought a bit of levity may help.

Appears I was wrong, my bad!!
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by Sir Brixalot »

No offence taken Troopy. I was replying to two different posts.
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by paperhouselad »

I must have been lucky, had our 1982 2 ltr Aircooled 10 years now, the only essential work carried out has been, £130 welding ( step and bit round trailing arm). 2 clutch slave cylinders £35.00. Split driveshaft boot £ 75.00. Not counting of course the usual servicing jobs inc oils, filters, fuel lines, etc. I know what's going to happen now??.

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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by Da dan »

I think it prob costs me £1k/year on average. That’s with a garage (harry Harpics and happy) to do most of the work to keep on top of things. There is still a long list of things to do but like it is, 35 year old van comes needing help. Could get a t2/4/5 but they come with different problems (and not as nice). I like the fact that with help of you guys it gives me an understanding of the problem before I speak to the garage which stands me good and makes me sound like I know what I’m talking about (but not that much), basic understanding is important though. I go all over in the van and love it. But if you have a troublesome one my hart goes out to you. Had a motor bike like that years ago but just leant to fix it. Albeit a little harder on these things.


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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by Sir Brixalot »

Harry Harpics had a good rep on here which is why I went to them in the first place

The thing is they weren't up to the automatic gear job either with equipment (couldn't take a high top on their ramp) or knowledge and reassembled it incorrectly and then made it worse by repeatedly testing it when it was clearly not working - the gearbox was hissing and popping loudly and the whole van juddering and damaged it badly. They charged me a lot of money and when I visited the the garage they'd finally subbed the gearbox out to it also had another one Harry Harpics had sent them but with the torque converter attached, which is what they should have done with mine-they charged me enough.

They knew they'd messed up and tried to cover their backs with a long detailed receipt full of excuses and exemptions. I'll post it one here for everyone to see. The owner said he didn't make a lot of money out of the business when I asked for a partial refund and his son has since called me a beggar. A 50% refund would have been enough for the repeated train journeys and drives down down to Southend and the inconvenience/danger it put my family in when the gearbox failed on a steep hill. I noticed, they sent their own personal Doka gearbox off to Aidan-says it all really.

The van only went in to have a 2nd gear brake band piston seal changed.
Last edited by Sir Brixalot on 18 Sep 2018, 18:12, edited 1 time in total.
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Dubworth
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by Dubworth »

I'm with Itchyfeet on this one. I shopped around for a decent van (took me a year to find one I was happy with), it came with next to no service history, so I've spent a fair bit of money this last year assuming ALL serviceable items needed doing, all the fluid changes, all the perishable fuel and brake lines, shocks, brakes, ignition, leaky front-to-rear coolant pipes etc... I recently drove my van over two weeks to Slovenia and back. It was flawless. Upon returning, I was using the van to commute as my other vehicle was off the road. 5 minutes drive from home the small plastic coolant pipe union snapped and developed a coolant leak. Nothing too dramatic, I got it home without any overheating, ordered the new part from Brickwerks, fitted it, bled the system and now she's running great again. My take from this is on a vehicle this age you very much need to be on the ball with preventative maintenance as you will often be playing catch-up from where a previous owner has scrimped and run it on a shoestring, but, at the end of the day, these are old vans and parts do wear out regardless. The best you can do is try to stay ahead of the curve.
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VWKat
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Re: Don't these vans drive you nuts?

Post by VWKat »

I've owned my van for 13 years now. Over the last 6 or 7 years I've had to spend a couple of hundred pounds a year repairing and replacing things, like the suspension parts and exhaust and earlier this year, I repainted the whole van with a roller using Cellulose for about £50.. bargain! I did take me 8 full days though. I don't think that's too pricy considering I have the luxury of owning a Campervan and it keeps me busy and entertained. However, I do the work myself as I could no way afford to pay a mechanic to maintain it. Just a couple of weeks ago my Gearbox bust, so it looks like I will be spending about £1000 on it this year and also, the engine could do with coming out and new Waterjackets fitted as one is leaking very slightly. Although I'm wondering if I can put this off till next year but as the gearbox is out, it's probably a good idea to do it now. Anyone have any opinions on how long you should wait till replacing them? one is leaking very very slightly.
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