van Sparts Citroen Berlingo van, more titivating, fixed heater blower!

[spartacus]

A quick collection this morning. I have no use it space for it, but that's the AS way, I feel I've been assimilated well.

Preliminary 'breakfast' before going out to feed some of the animals, further sustenance to be procured en route.

[spartacus]

Collection weapon of choice, Mrs Sparts ex Dean numbers C2. Great little car.

[GMcD]

Good luck!

[Cord Fourteener]

Good luck, happy collectioneering, chodspeed and all that.

[95 quid Peugeot]

Is it a 1.5 suzuki swift in a fetching orange.

[brownnova]

The amount of finding present gives hope that this will be a collection thread of much enjoyment. As they say in France... Bonne Chance!! 

[spartacus]

Collected!

Here we are at chez BeEP, just about to leave with the Berlingo.

As usual it was a no messing experience, he gave me the keys, I test drove it, I came back, gave him the money, sorted the paperwork and off we go.

[tooSavvy]

Ahh.... Lockdown!

My slash n burn policy, on ToMM©, + 'free collection' ridealong with Jim Bell to York @17Oct was fortunate ...inextremis...

[spartacus]

The only very minor fly in the ointment was that BeEP was so blinded by my charm, wit and absorbing conversation that he forgot to tell me not to let the fuel gauge drop below quarter...

Obviously when I picked it up there was just over a quarter of a tank and I mapped out my next 100 miles on that!

25 miles down the road and it's acting up with a truly massive queue of lorries, tractors and irate Sunday motorists behind me.

I gave BeEP a call and his memory was jogged. After a quick top up of diesel, normal service is resumed. The van drives well, I'm looking forward to a little fettling then getting some use out of it.

Top seller, would buy again. Etc etc.

[Jazoli]

Bargain Blingo, they are great car/vans

[spartacus]

I had one years ago and remember it being a pleasant thing to drive, I wasn't wrong. It's comfortable, goes and handles reasonably well and hopefully should be economical. There are a few niggles that I'd like to sort, so I'll no doubt promise to keep the thread updated but then forget.

After I've chucked a load of money and time at it I'll probably put it back up for sale, so don't worry folks, there will be another chance to own this fine steed.

[spartacus]

[BeEP]

Um, yes, sorry, my memory really is rubbish!  Hope you've made it home safely.

[spartacus]

Ha ha, it's no problem, we've arrived home with no further drama, the Bingo drove spot on for the rest of the journey.

[wuvvum]

8 hours ago, spartacus said:

The only very minor fly in the ointment was that BeEP was so blinded by my charm, wit and absorbing conversation that he forgot to tell me not to let the fuel gauge drop below quarter...

The last DW8-powered van I owned did exactly the same thing - if the gauge dropped below 1/4 it would act like it was running out of fuel.  Must be a thing with them.

[loserone]

On the one hand I'm really pleased, but also, sad that this won't be roffled.

 

Still, saves me some beer money

[spartacus]

It'll potentially be roffled when I'm done, so don't be too sad!

[spartacus]

We've had this three weeks today, enough time to use about 2/3rds of a tank of diesel, I calculated full to full and it's done 43mpg, without trying and with 'new car' driving. I'm hoping for 47mpg on the next tank.

Mrs Spart and I went to Manchester to pick up some sandstone cappings. The journey gave us an opportunity to find any niggles and issues. The two most glaring were the radio, it wouldn't hold a station and the front wouldn't drop down to insert a CD. The heater blower didn't work either, when you get some speed up there's enough airflow to keep you warm but driving slowly leads to a chilly cabin pretty quickly.

I had a radio/cd in stock and I choose to relocate it in place of the lower cubby hole which has a cover over it, the cubby hole itself just pushes out and pops straight in the upper radio location.

The door speakers are aftermarket and there are also speakers in the dash, as a result it sounds pretty good.

 

[spartacus]

There were two sets of keys, but only one ignition key worked, I took a trip to Timpsons, where the nice young man cloned the ignition key and cut a new door key. I was slightly paranoid about losing the ignition key and effectively rendering the van scrap.

[spartacus]

The heater blower didn't work in the van, the usual suspects are the fuse, or the heater resistor pack. I checked what I thought was the correct fuse and it was ok, but obviously with it being French, what the manual said meant nothing, so I pulled and checked every fuse...

No, not that.

I pulled the resistor pack out and tested it with a DMM, it was fine, so I chucked it back in. There was talk on the internet of a relay failing, I took a look and there was a relay in the approximate location and of the same colour! I took it out and nothing changed, nothing that worked before stopped working, which confused me a little, looking back that was a clue.

I ended up removing the center console, passenger side cubby hole and kick panel, drivers kick panel and heater controls, it was clear that I wasn't the first to have done this! After about an hour or so I discovered that the heater motor would only work off you gave it a thump first, although that wasn't the main problem it did delay accurate diagnosis. Another couple of hours of chasing electrical dead ends I discovered that the heater control relay, (yes, the one mentioned above), had no live feed when the ignition was turned on. The wires disappeared behind the dash high up, before worming down to the back of the fuse box, so in the end I fed it a new supply from the radio live. 

 I washed and rinsed all the trim, giving the carpet a quick hoover too before refitting it, taking time to get it all as neat and close fitting as possible.

This pic possibly doesn't convey how many torx head screws and pieces of plastic trim I had to remove to fix the heater!

The infamous green relay, with its new live supply.

Now the blower works with a thump each time to get it going, at least I know the power supply is there and it's not too much* of a mission to get the motor out to sort whatever that issue is...

All suggestions gratefully received.

[spartacus]

A previous owner had also artfully crafted mudflaps from a pair of rubber floor mats, I'm sure they worked for him but they didn't for me, at least not aesthetically, so I took them off. Before and after shots below...

[BeEP]

Glad you've (sort of) fixed the blower; I suspect it's been like that for some time.  The previous owner said it never worked for him and my investigation started and ended with checking the fuse.  Have to admit I quite liked the 'make do and mend' mudflaps though!

[The Moog]

The question is ... How many screws did you have left over at the end of the fix?

[spartacus]

52 minutes ago, The Moog said:

The question is ... How many screws did you have left over at the end of the fix?

Ah yes, that old gem, judging the success of your work by the amount of parts left over!

Only two, and they're the tricky-to-get in ones that hold the far edges of the passenger cubby hole, so I reckon I'm on to a winner!

ETA, obvs I'm going to put those back in when I've fettled the blower motor.

[spartacus]

13 hours ago, BeEP said:

Glad you've (sort of) fixed the blower; I suspect it's been like that for some time.  The previous owner said it never worked for him and my investigation started and ended with checking the fuse.  Have to admit I quite liked the 'make do and mend' mudflaps though!

Be pleased you went no further than checking the fuse, it was a bit of a battle!