Hiace Shenanigans

[phil_lihp]

Eh?

[hairnet]

pikeys dont do transits they do hiaces

[phil_lihp]

Ah, then consider me pikey

[Ghosty]

Hiaces were sold over here until 2012. They don't sell them any more because the design was already way out of date by then (ended 2002 in Japan) and they won't sell the mid-engine, forward control ones in Europe. European ones quite literally had an extra bit stuck on the front for the engine instead.

 

Here's a Japanese HiAce:

 

 

And here's a European one:

 

 

Look at the front door shut line - you can see the shape of the front of the Japanese one, and the space in the door for the wheelarch.

 

Now, we get the lesser-spotted Toyota badged version of the Display/Relatch instead.

[spartacus]

You won't regret buying that, mines been nearly twice as far as yours and still drives like something with less than 80,000 on the clock.

Well bought.

[phil_lihp]

Cheers - I'm impressed with it so far, apart from the clutch it does drive very well and doesn't feel worn out.  A turbo would definitely help on long hills but it goes well enough in general and has bags of torque.

 

Thanks for the info Ghosty, I had a feeling they were closely related but that rather confirms it.  They have a massive following (and associated scene tax) in NZ and Australia, where VW has almost no market share at all so there's plenty of info out there on them.

[dollywobbler]

Nice buy. Weren't these just called Power Van or something here?

[spartacus]

Mines a turbo and it drives well. From what I understand the non turbo is...steady, although there's obviously less to go wrong.

[taxi paul]

I have a Japanese import eight seater one called a regius . It's a 2.7 petrol auto. Fantastic, although I am friendly with my local petrol station staff.

[Asimo]

Independent rear suspension in a RWD van without a Vito's solubility / fragility. Win.

[phil_lihp]

Nice buy. Weren't these just called Power Van or something here?

 

It is indeed a Hiace Powervan - daft name but then again the Japanese do like their silly van names.

 

Any thoughts on the clutch?  I'm guessing that as it's biting at the top of the pedal it's probably just worn, I didn't spot it on the very short test drive (it wasn't insured so could only be pootled around his cul-de-sac) so it's my fault if it needs doing but given the price I paid I'm not complaining.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Hiaces were sold over here until 2012. They don't sell them any more because the design was already way out of date by then (ended 2002 in Japan) and they won't sell the mid-engine, forward control ones in Europe. European ones quite literally had an extra bit stuck on the front for the engine instead.

 

Here's a Japanese HiAce:

 

 

And here's a European one:

 

 

Look at the front door shut line - you can see the shape of the front of the Japanese one, and the space in the door for the wheelarch.

 

Now, we get the lesser-spotted Toyota badged version of the Display/Relatch instead.

 

This has quite literally made my day. I really didn't know they are basically the same van!

[phil_lihp]

Just been poking around the POWERVAN and discovered a note in marker pen on the underside of the bonnet saying the timing belt, tensioner and water pump were done in 2011, less than 10, 000 miles ago. Result!

[Guest Hooli]

Used to drive a HiAce for work. Brilliant fun, they'll go sideways at 75 in 5th if you find the right bit of road... (A27 southbound just over the crest the hill after Washington roundabout) was where I discovered this. For some reason this always worried the cars trying to overtake me....

 

The van I drove wasn't serviced for 60k as the idiot driver never booked it in, went much better after it did get serviced.... ....When I booked  it in they took the sump plug out & had to waggle a screwdriver in the hole to get anything to flow out...

[Sheefag]

I'm toying with replacing the drivers seat in mine with one out of an is200. What are you replacing yours with?

[warren t claim]

A Hiace should be blue with column shift gears.

[Noel Tidybeard]

my mate had hiaces as work van both flat front and powervan

 

his company didnt do diesel so thet were all 2.4 pez they were rather nippy- flat fronts topped out at 115 but powervan was limited to 105!

[phil_lihp]

I started cleaning this out at the weekend, ply lining was damp at the back and the little corner pieces were rotten so it all came out to dry.  I swept half a ton of dirt out of the load bay and also treated it to a jetwash underneath which dislodged half a building site's worth of mud from the chassis and arches.  The spare was almost completely coated in muck, it's now a bit cleaner so I need to try and extract it - that should be fun, the previous owner had the van 9 years and had never used it so it's probably quite well attached.

 

I was delighted to find that behind the ply on the sides it was already packed with fibreglass insulation - I did think it was surprisingly quiet.  I've bought two big rolls of lead flashing tape to put on the side panels and floor (plus some under the cabin floor and in the doors) - this is widely agreed to be an excellent low-cost sound insulator, should hopefully muffle some of the noise from the propshaft and make it a bit more civilised.  Once it's carpeted as well, it should be pretty quiet for a big van - however, at the moment with all the ply and insulation out, it is LOUD.  I'm very keen to get it all back in ASAP!

 

 

 

 

 

The naff wheel trims have gone in the bin, I'll give the wheels a lick of paint at some point to tidy them up.  It really is quite tidy considering, although there's a few little jobs to do.  The seller admitted that he'd reversed it into something a while back, the power socket on the towbar is broken and the rear door was stoved in - it's been straightened out and to be honest you'd never know from 10 feet away but something's not right as it doesn't latch tightly, there's a gap and the door can be wobbled by about an inch, even when it's locked.  I'll have a fiddle with the catch and see if it can be adjusted, it needs sorting out as water can get in and I suspect that's what has led to the damp ply at the back.

 

I'm going to get the panels in the side door and opposite side cut out and windows put in once funds allow and then start working on a bed and cupboards but my main priority right now is a bit more insulation and getting the clutch done.  Mechanically, it's absolutely spot-on apart from that so all in all, I reckon my first Toyota and my first big van is a success.

 

Oh, and this one's staying.  Not much chance of me getting bored of this after 6 months!

[phil_lihp]

It's certainly a bit different to the Jag!  

 

Bigger boot, for a start.

[Asimo]

Do Hiaces come in several sizes?

Saw this the other day, The tailgate is a bit too short. I wonder if the fitter only noticed after bolting it in and then trying to shut it?

 

[Uncle Jimmy]

That Hiace is a good buy, now I'm aware of them again it's got me wanting to buy a pez one so I can use it for jobs in London village.

[Sheefag]

My diesel HiAce works exclusively in London.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Is >2003 LEZ compliant innit gov?

[Sheefag]

Ah, true.

[phil_lihp]

I finished removing the last few bits of plywood (some by force, a few screws did't want to come out after 9 years on a van's load bay floor) and swept out another bucket load of dirt.  It's now clean enough to put everything back in once the insulation's done.  I lined the inside of the side panels with lead flashing tape, stuffed the loft insulation back in and reattached the van's original plywood panels.  Then I had a poke at a small, crusty bit in the floor.

 

 

 

 

Dammit!

 

Bearing in mind this van had a new MOT in August and failed initially for corrosion near the suspension mounting points, I'm a tad suspicious.  It also failed on leaking rear shocks and I can see these have been replaced but it looks like this was not sorted before a new certificate was issued.  I can't see how they managed to miss it, it's pretty obvious from underneath (although the plywood did hide it from inside the load bay).  Ho hum, better get that sorted before I put the flooring in.  There's a less rotten bit showing on the other side as well so I'd better get both looked at.

 

I'm increasingly convinced that the MOT tester wasn't paying much attention on this one, I've since found both rear tyres are in a pretty poor state with cuts all over them, including one long, deep-looking slash to the side wall on one of them and there's not so much as an advisory about it.  I've got a pair of part-worns which sporty-shite is looking after until they can be relayed down from Bolton to fix that.  

 

On the plus side, it's a LOT quieter now, I have put the floor panel back in loose on top of the spare insulation for now and there's still more insulation to add to the side panels plus some to go in the cabin and under the bonnet, plus there's the plywood side panels to put back so it should be quite civilised when it's sorted.  Twosmoke300 is kindly sorting out the clutch for me in a couple of weeks so that'll be one more thing off the list, plus its first outing as a camper and its first time out of North Devon in nearly a decade!

[wuvvum]

my first big van

 

 

 

That's not a big van.

 

That's a big van.

[phil_lihp]

Size isn't everything, you know. It's what you do with it that counts.

[Sheefag]

Driver's seat. Is it fucked?

[phil_lihp]

So, this got given an almighty shock on Friday.  The previous owner hadn't taken it outside of the Bideford area in 9 years so I treated it to a 2 hour drive down to West Cornwall in order to visit Twosmoke300 who kindly fitted a new clutch for me.  The old one was right at the top of the pedal and not far off done in so I decided to get that sorted before it got any worse.  I had ample opportunity to poke around underneath while it was on the ramp and there wasn't much to write home about.  Everything looks pretty good, it's had some welding in the past but seems to be of a reasonable quality.  Mostly it's just caked in the mud of a decade's worth of building sites, although one small hole in the rear floor pan which Phill was intending to weld up turned out to be considerably larger than first expected so I'll get a friend of mine who's a welder to patch it up for me before I go fitting the interior out.

 

I've bought a set of drop links as well seeing as one of them was a bit loose and the other was flopping around excessively, one more MOT advisory checked off the list.

 

Big thanks to Twosmoke300 for the clutch work and to sporty-shite for storing the rear tyres I picked up cheap off eBay which turned up at my office on Friday after a faff with the couriers.  I had them fitted on Thursday afternoon as the previous pair were well worn and covered in deep cuts, not very confidence-inspiring.  I'm dead pleased, I know part-worns can be a lottery but these Bridgestones look practically brand new both in condition and tread depth, total cost including shipping and fitting was almost exactly half the cost of new ones so I'm very pleased.

 

Giving it a decent run has definitely given it a bit of a boost, it's no ball of fire with a non-turbo 2.4D but it goes well enough and is definitely more responsive following a good thrash and a bottle of injector cleaner.

[twosmoke300]

She's not a bad old bus ! Get on top of the few rusty bits as soon as poss tho