Are modern Transits any good?

[Des]

One of my valued punters is a local medical centre who took on another clinic a few months ago, they scored lots of equipment and while I was checking over for them I noticed a white Transit that was part of the deal. Well I spotted it from an upstairs window. Sporting '55' on the reg which I assume means 2005, I don't quite understand the modern numbers, there was too much green on the roof for it to be 2015 and 2055 hasn't yet occurred so I believe my deduction correct. Looked utterly fine from 20 yards, only obvious problem is a side door impairment caused by towel rails mounted to hang titty screening banners, the rear doors are unobstructed so not a problem.

So is a 2005 Transit worth having? I'm just wondering when the cut-off point is for when the nonsense appeared, you know the things with abbreviations instead of names like DPF, DMF, KFC, all that old rubbish that serves only to expedite the weighbridge trip, I want a van not some R2D2 dishwasher Metal Mickey hybrid.

My little Rover van is coming up for insurance, MOT, and hasn't been used greatly of late as I've been moving big things and abusing a camper, I plan to move house soonish which would employ a Transit most purposefully so my head says replace the Rover with a Transit, my heart says have both.

[Cavcraft]

Sadly, no. With help from fellow shiters, and a fair bit of homework afterwards, modern Transits are just fucking rubbish. If DMF don't get ya, the fuel pump, injectors or rust will. I want to like them, because the old Di models were brilliant, but the Millennium on ones are just shit.

[Captain Furious]

A friend of mine had a 135bhp LWB, I think it was around a 55 or 56 plate which at the time was probably fairly new and before any major tin worm set in.  It was quite a nice piece of kit, leccy windows, heated screen, cruise control etc all the mod cons you'd expect to find in a car really.  And it was unbelievably fast for a van!

 

Turbo failure got him in the end though, he managed to get it reconditioned but it was never quite the same.  I think the TDDI's are a bit more robust than the TDCi's, but just like when they come in cars, a 4 figure repair bill is always looming on the horizon for any or all of the reasons listed in the post above.

[Lankytim]

These rot like absolute bastards from what I've seen. This one may be different/unique though.

[scaryoldcortina]

No. They rot, they break, they are awful to work on. Just don't.

 

Tomorrow I have MoT repairs and a turbo fault to sort on one.

[Richard]

Compared to the current one they are brilliant.

[Arthur Foxhake]

I had a Mk6 for about 18 months.

It was a fwd 80ps swb.

It had loads of problems with gear cables, selector and even the gearstick eventually snapped off.

It suffered turbo failure as well.

But the worst problem was the rot. It was infested, everywhere.

I looked at newer ones for a lot more money and decided to wait for an older van at the right money to fix up.

My current van, (see Arthurs Transit thread) is 20 years old, more mechanicaly sound and far more solid than any mk6/7 I could find for anything up to about 3 grand.

[twosmoke300]

You can hsve my Ducato for 1500+vat . 55 plate swb 2.0 hdi 😄

[Rusty_Rocket]

Why is it all these TDCi engines smoke like a train all the time?  They absolutely stink too, if you're unlucky enough to be behind one.  Back bone of Britain my arse!!  You'd be better off with twosmoke's Ducato.

[Slartibartfast]

No.

 

I had an 04 plate Tourneo. It was nothing but trouble from the moment I got it. Clutch went before I'd even got it home. Clutch failure means DMF has to be done at the same time. Then there was a leak of air into the system that caused constant limp mode. Once that was fixed the turbo exploded and injected oil into everywhere. I got shot of it at that point. The person who bought it and fixed the turbo issue had an injector go on him. Everything that can fail is expensive, and it will all fail. The fuel pump for example is several hundred pounds to replace, unless you want to chance your arm with a scrappy one which will likely also be screwed. And they rust terminally.

[twosmoke300]

05 transit WILL be rusty underneath .

85hp ones don't have a dmf . Tddi can suffer from sudden pump module death .

Timing chains rattle and can jump .

Discs can be an absolute arse to replace due to silly design and rust issues .

Locks and keys made by fisher price .

Concentric slave cylinder bollocks .

 

 

On the plus side the gear boxes aren't too bad

[Slartibartfast]

Oh yeah, in some the timing chain tensioner is tensioned by oil pressure, or something comical like that. So if you lose oil pressure the tensioner loosens and causes the chain to jump teeth = dead engine.

[twosmoke300]

Most timing chains use oil pressure to tension but most use better quality components than ford

[Arthur Foxhake]

Also, if you try and bump start one, expect chain failure /jumping, due to the above.

[Captain Furious]

A friend and I did an engine swap in a TDDi Transit tipper a couple of years ago, we had it on good authority* that the bottom end had gone and the guy had a known good engine he'd sourced from a reputable breaker etc.. Due to a flat battery and lack of due diligence on our part we didn't do any further diagnosis and just cracked on getting the engine out.  Two days solid ballache later we had the new engine in and it plumbed/wired up, quelle surprise it wouldn't start.  Not even slightly interested, tried towing it round the block, bleeding injectors and all sorts

 

Turns out the original problem was nothing to do with the bottom end, it was the fuel pump that was borked and yeah, you guessed it, that hadn't come with the replacement engine so we'd swapped it over from the old one.  Didn't even get paid for the engine swap, van returned, please seek alternative arrangements for fuel pump replacement.

 

Learned a valuable lesson that weekend.

[Arthur Foxhake]

I've changed the engine on a mk7 with less than 50k on it.

Threw a leg out of bed. Hole in the block, ruined.

[scaryoldcortina]

On the plus side the gear boxes aren't too bad

Until the bolt holding the selector on snaps, and its head falls into the gearbox....

[garbaldy]

I will never weld another tranny again fook knows what metal they use but it stinks and changes you into an umpaloompa for a few days.

[captain_70s]

I've been roped in to helping fix an '06, it's fucked.

 

Rampant structural rot, rear brakes rusted to the point it's easier to snap bits off than unbolt them, the pipes are just as bad, electrical issues all over the shop, it really doesn't like starting and when it does fire up it blows shit tons of smoke out the exhaust... The owner has already spent over a grand so far trying to get it roadworthy, probably more than it's actually worth.

[mat_the_cat]

On the plus side the gear boxes aren't too bad

 

It may have just been bad luck, but the '02 plate one we had at work until 2005 went through 3 gearboxes in 230k miles!

[Bren]

Too complicated and made from parts obtained from the lowest bidder.

 

I would sooner have a marina van that is as rotten as a pair and handles like a shot giraffe than a modern transit.

 

50 years since their introduction and they still rot like fuck.

[Squire_Dawson]

We have them at work, can't say I see any rot on them but I've never looked 'below deck' on them, but the emissions do STINK something awful, maybe in part due to some additive/emissions equipment. Sometimes the engines just cut out dead, this happened to us on a clearway, to be fair it started up again and went once we'd stopped. I don't think very much of them.

[gordonbennet]

Hiace, that is all.

[0ldCh0d]

Just have a look on the tree of gum at vans £500 or under....The vast majority are usually rotten to the core transits...or, non running transits, due to fuel pump/injector failure...or if you are lucky, Transits with all of the above rolled into one.

 

I will never buy another, all that has been said is pretty much true.

 

Oh....& .They like to rot on the rear spring hangers aswell...Not just the floor, steps, wheel arches (inside & outside), Above the windscreen & everywhere else. The Lancia of the van world now...

[catsinthewelder]

We have just had some bodywork done on a 12 plate Tourneo to cover rust, it's better than the Smiley that someone has dumped in the yard though.

 

[DodgeRover]

We have just had some bodywork done on a 12 plate Tourneo to cover rust, it's better than the Smiley that someone has dumped in the yard though.

 

IMG_20170306_151439977.jpg

I don't expect the Mk 5 is a V6 is it?

 

Oh and there was a report on another forum of a transit needing welding up for it's first test at 3 years old.

[danthecapriman]

The last mk7 we had in our team at work had about 100k miles and shat it's gearbox, 3rd gear fucked off, the guy ignored it and continued using it by jumping 2nd to 4th and then 4th went too.

That was it done then. Lease company said it wasn't worth fixing and it went back to them for auction, spares or repairs.

A few of the others 08 and 58 plates were equally awful once they were over a few yrs old. They ran badly, starting problems, one of them had squidgy brakes and no fault could be found!, the same ones front suspension completely collapsed one day too. They are pretty shit vans tbh. All of them are gone now, replaced with Merc Sprinters 12 - 66 plates and they are much better reliability wise (so far) but they don't pull as well and struggle when used off road where the Transits didn't.

The mk5 smiley Transit was the last 'proper' Transit imho.

[DodgeRover]

Lwb mk3s were the last real ones, cart springs and a steering box

[catsinthewelder]

I don't expect the Mk 5 is a V6 is it?

 

Oh and there was a report on another forum of a transit needing welding up for it's first test at 3 years old.

 

DVLA says Heavy Oil and not taxed this year which is strange as I'm sure it was taxed in January when I looked after a friend joked about it's chances of having a current MOT.

[Des]

Sooo, I should pass on it then?

Next question, does another van exist that would provoke such negative don't go there responses. how did the Transit go so wrong?