13-09-2015, 08:48 PM
Hello all,
not a cry for help, I thought I would take a minute or two to do a rundown on my '02 1.9 heap .
Bought for not much cash on Gumtree, first impressions were good; a tidy little van with 160K on the clock and no service history, too good to be true eh?!
But as I've now began to learn after a couple of months running between 400-500 miles a week for work, she's had a hard life and been mechanically neglected (which p*sses me off no end, I just cannot understand how people will ignore the most basic mechanical care on anything, makes me spit blood )
I carried out a basic service first off, as is my norm on any new motor, both the old oil and air filters looked to have been fitted from build, they certainly didn't appear to have been changed anytime this decade!
Oil and coolant levels were both stupidly low but everything else seemed okay.
She was off the road for a couple of weeks and then refused to start. After poking her with a stick for a while, fault finding and reworking some previous ropey electrical "fixes", turned out the fitted battery was kaput; changed it out, all good.
Tracking was visibly off, got that sorted, happy days...
2 weeks ago and with first MOT booked, aux belt starts squealing like an unpleasantly surprised piggy; got my parts in on Thursday and changed belt, pulleys and tensioner today; the automatic tensioner was utterly shot and had actually split apart with the pulley running at about 10 deg off-line and the lower metal pulley bearings were totalled.
On top of that, some tube had gone to town tightening the wheel nuts, took my 1/2 in hernia bar and 12 stone of size 8 boot to break the nuts, plus the cheeky bar-stewards had nicked the jack and handle, so I'm glad I found that out now and not at 3AM in the rain on the side of the A47 some day.
Oh yes, and it failed it's MOT; corrosion near the seatbelt mounts and wishbone bushes. Ho hum!
Anyway, moan over. I don't expect that much from a cheap 15 y/o van with (now) 170K on the clock, stuff wears out, body work starts to go, it's the previous owners who cant be arsed to do the basic stuff that annoy me! So, I will get her sorted and hopefully she will be good for another year. Timing belt and water-pump are next on the 'to do' list.
Vive La France!
not a cry for help, I thought I would take a minute or two to do a rundown on my '02 1.9 heap .
Bought for not much cash on Gumtree, first impressions were good; a tidy little van with 160K on the clock and no service history, too good to be true eh?!
But as I've now began to learn after a couple of months running between 400-500 miles a week for work, she's had a hard life and been mechanically neglected (which p*sses me off no end, I just cannot understand how people will ignore the most basic mechanical care on anything, makes me spit blood )
I carried out a basic service first off, as is my norm on any new motor, both the old oil and air filters looked to have been fitted from build, they certainly didn't appear to have been changed anytime this decade!
Oil and coolant levels were both stupidly low but everything else seemed okay.
She was off the road for a couple of weeks and then refused to start. After poking her with a stick for a while, fault finding and reworking some previous ropey electrical "fixes", turned out the fitted battery was kaput; changed it out, all good.
Tracking was visibly off, got that sorted, happy days...
2 weeks ago and with first MOT booked, aux belt starts squealing like an unpleasantly surprised piggy; got my parts in on Thursday and changed belt, pulleys and tensioner today; the automatic tensioner was utterly shot and had actually split apart with the pulley running at about 10 deg off-line and the lower metal pulley bearings were totalled.
On top of that, some tube had gone to town tightening the wheel nuts, took my 1/2 in hernia bar and 12 stone of size 8 boot to break the nuts, plus the cheeky bar-stewards had nicked the jack and handle, so I'm glad I found that out now and not at 3AM in the rain on the side of the A47 some day.
Oh yes, and it failed it's MOT; corrosion near the seatbelt mounts and wishbone bushes. Ho hum!
Anyway, moan over. I don't expect that much from a cheap 15 y/o van with (now) 170K on the clock, stuff wears out, body work starts to go, it's the previous owners who cant be arsed to do the basic stuff that annoy me! So, I will get her sorted and hopefully she will be good for another year. Timing belt and water-pump are next on the 'to do' list.
Vive La France!