83C's Shite-esque Fleet: I can see the light!

[holbeck]

Sorry you're having such a ball ache.

 

[83C]

To be fair it’s first world problems in many ways, and given the shit going on with Covid-19 having issues with a knackered 19 year old van is really rather small beer.

[Cavcraft]

1 hour ago, 83C said:

In boring modern news the 525d is going for MoT in the morning. I thought the MoT expired in April only to have a bit of a shock when I checked on 05/03 to find it expired that exact day. It couldn’t go immediately because it had just started suffering from a regular F10 issue, the plug in PCB in the back of one of the headlights failing causing beam levelling issues and the angel eyes to fail. 

New one landed yesterday, fitted today, test tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

In van news, I’m thoroughly pissed off with how things have gone with the Transhit. I can’t do owt to it until Wednesday when I’m back in Cornwall, and even then it may well be that I can’t do anything. If I do get it running I have to admit I’ve totally lost faith in it, with 3 FTPs to its credit so far in just 6 weeks, and performance that is best described as glacial, and struggles to hold 70mph on the flat (74 is the fastest I’ve ever managed on level ground). Not ideal for a machine that needs to do at least half a dozen 600+ miles round trips, fully laden half the time in the next few months.

I’m really tempted to take the easy option here and just buy what I would like, a Transit Custom for around £6k (6-7 years old, under 100k miles) and just suck up the monthly payments. I have plenty of use for a van after, including carting bicycles and motorcycles around. Thing is, I’d need to spend around a grand in VAT to get anywhere near what I’m looking at (unless a VAT-free machine happens to pop up) and I can’t help but think that grand would get me a whole van. But would it just be the same as what I have, i. e. something that is going to be a massive pain in the hoop? I’ve got loads going on over the next year (job change, moving family 300 miles across country) and I just don’t need the stress of worrying whether the van will start or make port. But equally I don’t need the stress of making sure I can afford repayments on a newer machine....

Fuck

My 

Life.

 

 

Would seriously suggest buying a 2.0 with a long MOT and seeing how it goes. These vans are invaluable and can make themselves pay, even if you only get to the next test out of one I bet it wouldn't really owe you anything. This year could very well be the end for mine, I hope not but it's been a great servant and I'd personally worry about spunking six large on a modern one that's just as likely to shit itself, but at far greater cost.

[83C]

38 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

 

 

Would seriously suggest buying a 2.0 with a long MOT and seeing how it goes. These vans are invaluable and can make themselves pay, even if you only get to the next test out of one I bet it wouldn't really owe you anything. This year could very well be the end for mine, I hope not but it's been a great servant and I'd personally worry about spunking six large on a modern one that's just as likely to shit itself, but at far greater cost.

It’s finding one that is any good. Seems anything less than £1500 is fucked these days. If it’s not rotten it’s mechanically borked, or both. 

From what I’ve seen van living has really taken off and is a big thing, so anything bigger than a Peugeot Expert that isn’t fucked commands half decent money. 

[83C]

Fresh MoT for the 525d done. First bit of motoring good news for a while!

[83C]

I had a phone call this morning from a firm in Liverpool because last week during a moment of madness I had shown interest in a Transit Custom that they had, just a basic white panel van that would have suited me right down to the ground.

They were trying to interest me in a completely different Custom (higher spec, newer etc), and were making a big thing of it being ‘just’ £69 per week. I asked for the total price and the initial vehicle cost, only to be met with lots of jibber about how they’d cut the profit on this one to just £100, they were desperate for the sale etc. So I worked it out for them - £500 deposit plus 260 payments of £69 = £18,440. 

“Er, well yes that’s about the total cost, it’s a very competitive offer in these circumstances, my manager has told me to cut it down as much as I can to get the sale...”

Fuck off. It’s a five year old van with a retail value of eight grand that probably owes them between five and six trade, with over ten grand’s worth of interest added to the HP.

Get. To. Fuck.

[Billy - Medhurst]

If the Transit only pulled 74mph flat out - and I assume that was on the vehicles speedo and not sat nav are you sure its not been 70 mph restricted. Depending on who had it new that's the done thing by a lot of firms.

[83C]

1 hour ago, Billy - Medhurst said:

If the Transit only pulled 74mph flat out - and I assume that was on the vehicles speedo and not sat nav are you sure its not been 70 mph restricted. Depending on who had it new that's the done thing by a lot of firms.

If it’s limited it doesn’t feel like it’s running into a limiter. That 74 was going down a serious hill flat out. It just about holds 70 on the flat but any form of hill takes the wind out of its sails very quickly. The same bit of road I hit 74 going down I was down to 35 by the time I got back up the other side - not even the old 208d Sprinter was that bad (and as @HMC will confirm, a 208d Sprinter with the old 2.3 N/A diesel is not quick). 

[83C]

For fuck sakes:

One nail I can understand. Two??

[Noel Tidybeard]

7 hours ago, 83C said:

For fuck sakes:

One nail I can understand. Two??

that's just gready!

[strangeangel]

Jeez. If it wasn't for shit luck you'd not have any. Commiserations.

 

[83C]

Transhit news: We have (compressed) ignition!

[83C]

Half way through a test run.

It is however still utterly gutless. It doesn’t rev any easier or pull any better, I’m at a loss as to what else it could be other than some unseen leak in the pipe work somewhere.

[LightBulbFun]

18 minutes ago, 83C said:

Half way through a test run.

It is however still utterly gutless. It doesn’t rev any easier or pull any better, I’m at a loss as to what else it could be other than some unseen leak in the pipe work somewhere.

just wondering, have you checked if the exhaust is free flowing?

prehaphs maybe its somehow got bunged up inside or squashed somewhere as @Zelandeth mentioned  

[Kiltox]

On 3/23/2020 at 10:02 PM, 83C said:

I had a phone call this morning from a firm in Liverpool because last week during a moment of madness I had shown interest in a Transit Custom that they had, just a basic white panel van that would have suited me right down to the ground.

They were trying to interest me in a completely different Custom (higher spec, newer etc), and were making a big thing of it being ‘just’ £69 per week. I asked for the total price and the initial vehicle cost, only to be met with lots of jibber about how they’d cut the profit on this one to just £100, they were desperate for the sale etc. So I worked it out for them - £500 deposit plus 260 payments of £69 = £18,440. 

“Er, well yes that’s about the total cost, it’s a very competitive offer in these circumstances, my manager has told me to cut it down as much as I can to get the sale...”

Fuck off. It’s a five year old van with a retail value of eight grand that probably owes them between five and six trade, with over ten grand’s worth of interest added to the HP.

Get. To. Fuck.

Jesus fucking Christ - you could surely be in a brand new one for that ?

You could almost certainly be in a new Relay or similar. 

[Cavcraft]

Have you tried 'deleting' the EGR, and DPF if it has one? A decent computer should be able to knock them out, if you just blank them the van can't tell and it'll stay in limp mode.

[83C]

49 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

Have you tried 'deleting' the EGR, and DPF if it has one? A decent computer should be able to knock them out, if you just blank them the van can't tell and it'll stay in limp mode.

No DPF, it’s way too early for that. I’ll try fitting a blank inline on the EGR pipe later. There’s no warning lamps on the dash though. It also wouldn’t account for it being a bugger to start from cold - even in limp mode it should start fairly easily.

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

just wondering, have you checked if the exhaust is free flowing?

prehaphs maybe its somehow got bunged up inside or squashed somewhere as @Zelandeth mentioned  

Its not squashed but I’ve not had chance yet to crack it off - most of my big tools are in Shropshire and the van is currently in Cornwall. Obviously the Covid-19 shituation isn’t helping.

[83C]

1 hour ago, Kiltox said:

Jesus fucking Christ - you could surely be in a brand new one for that ?

You could almost certainly be in a new Relay or similar. 

Yes, easily in a new one. Hence the ‘thanks, but no thanks’. I appreciate I won’t get the very best rate due to a bit of debt elsewhere but that was taking the piss - for comparison carfinance247 were looking to charge me around £8500 for a £6000 van, and were up front about the costs and APR.

[83C]

Shite ahoy!

 

Moar news soon.

[twosmoke300]

I’ve seen those transits suck the air filters in before . They seem to get wet in the air box 

[83C]

1 hour ago, twosmoke300 said:

I’ve seen those transits suck the air filters in before . They seem to get wet in the air box 

It’s had a new one - the old one looked like it had taken a bath in a coal mine but it was intact and in the correct place. Be interesting to see if it starts at all when I go and fetch it in May. 
 

Rover is a tidy little thing. 90-something thousand miles, a years’ ticket and it drives well. Bit of rust here and there but for £300 it’ll do nicely for a couple of months. Probably be up for sale in June/July when it’s finished tat-hauling duty.

[83C]

So then, the Rover in a bit more detail. 

As I’m in the middle of sorting out a house I didn’t want to be using the 5 and potentially getting paint dust, paint globs and rubbish all inside it when I’m going to and from the house. I also wanted something I could load decorating kit into. It’s got 98,000 miles on the clock, the headlining was baggy (now stapled into place), but drives well and sounds ok. Yesterday I got a folding ladder and a bicycle into it, along with assorted other junk. 

According to the logbook it’s an ‘Impression’ model, which I think in Rover-speak = base+ model. 

It comes with the fitness pack:

 

It has wood(ish):

 

And it came with some free money:

Winner. 

I’m off to Cornwall on Tuesday for 10 days (essential to see wife and daughters). Hopefully the Transhit will be making the trip north when I come back, I’ll be interested to see if it starts given the last time it ran was sometime in March, so long as it makes it to Shropshire it’ll take over most of the decorating and shifting jobs. The Rover will be kept for tip runs (fingers crossed the tip re-opens by the middle of May) but after that will be sold. Probably be something like a £6 roffle with two for £10.

[83C]

Well, my prediction has come true, the Rover is indeed up for a 2 4 10 roffle. See the force hail pages for more details.

In other news the Transhit started, though it did require jump leads. Can’t say I’m completely surprised, it has been nearly 6 weeks since it last ran, it probably would have started if the underlying cold start issues weren’t present. 

I’ve been pondering the problem of its poor running, could the leak off pipes cause poor running? I can’t see any leaks but I’m tempted to replace them. I guess if I do I’ll have to go through the rigmarole of using Start Ya Bastard to get the fucker running again after.

Meh. 

I’ll be heading up country in it on Saturday, it’s going to take a loooooong time to do the 280 miles.

[83C]

Ye gods, I’m off on a collection. I’m also at work.

[83C]

By the way, fleet update.

Rover: roffled.

Transit: sold.

525d: still the daily.

ZZR1400, G650GS, SV650S: all good. GS going in for MoT and tyre on Tuesday. 

Tiger: in storage.

Incoming: van, but not yet. And today’s surprise...

[83C]

[LightBulbFun]

20 minutes ago, 83C said:

Tiger: in storage.

always been curious about this one, is there some details about it somewhere?  

 

[blackboilersuit]

1 hour ago, 83C said:

Tiger: in storage.

Given your avatar reading this made me chuckle more than just a little bit ?

[83C]

I have achieved Volvo.

[Fumbler]

Winner.