The Joy of Running an Old Shed (Vol 2)

[MrGTI6]

Arnold Cunningham said:

A bit off topic. But if you had a 15K budget and needed to buy a van, transit lwb size, needs to be able to give you a decade of service and run up to 250k or so miles. What would you consider?

I drive a lot of vans and I much prefer the Master/Movano/NV400 over anything else similarly-sized. They're nice to drive (for a van), and seem far more rust resistant than the Transit or Sprinter. They're good value too.

Somebody else might be able to give a better insight into longevity, but I've driven a lot of moon-mileage Masters and they always drive well. The driver's seat bolster tends to wear quite badly, but the same can be said for any large van.

Whilst it's a bit long in the tooth, the Boxer/Relay/Ducato is excellent value. It comes with a bewildering array of engines depending on badge/year/etc, so it would be worth doing some research as no doubt some are better than others.

I would avoid the Crafter like the plague. The earlier five-cylinder ones are nice, but the later ones with the 2.0TDI are problematic and tend to feel very tired after three of four years of heavy use. They also rust like you wouldn't believe.

[993kimbo]

Raino144 said:

Surely 1h40? Not many mountains in Switzerland 40 mins from the airport (I live 25 mins from the airport)… I’m guessing you went to Verbier for that kind of bill?

You’re right, now I recall. 1hr 30 mins. The resort was Le Villars. Cab was a Mercedes van. We thought the Tesla cab maybe too expensive!

Edited by 993kimbo on Thursday 28th April 21:59

[bristolracer]

Arnold Cunningham said:

A bit off topic. But if you had a 15K budget and needed to buy a van, transit lwb size, needs to be able to give you a decade of service and run up to 250k or so miles. What would you consider?

Assuming you mean proper LWB and not T5/Transit custom/Vivaro size

You have the Sprinter, will rust ,will need expensive injector repair
Transit,rust and probably wont get to 250k
Crafter,up until recently is a Sprinter with a different badge
Iveco may fit the bill but is quite agricultural
My choice would be the Citroen relay/Peugeot Boxer, change the oil regulary it should do the miles

[anonymous-user]

V6Nelo said:

I quite enjoyed spotting the 90’s cars, whilst not as “bad” as Italy the number of bangs can scrapes on the majority of cars would make this thread appear like the “old conservatory”.

On a holiday in Italy, I saw an elderly lady in a Panda skelp the rear corner of a Clio in a supermarket car-park. She got out, whilst the guy in the Clio was waving at her. Then he got out, they greeted each other and stood for 5 mins smiling & chatting. Neither even glanced at their cars.

Contrast this country, Mr powerfully-built company director in his 5-rings-of-success 'premium' 'executive' automobile with his BO55 numberplate would be screaming blue murder, contacting a NW based accident management company (owned by 'the brothers'), would visit the hospital to get his 'whiplash' checked, and would require a similar 'premium' courtesy car whilst complaining loudly about the vast income he was losing due to her inability to drive.

[ferrisbueller]

So people should just be allowed to drive into other people's cars?

[aaron_2000]

Romford4 said:

Contrast this country, Mr powerfully-built company director in his 5-rings-of-success 'premium' 'executive' automobile with his BO55 numberplate would be screaming blue murder, contacting a NW based accident management company (owned by 'the brothers'), would visit the hospital to get his 'whiplash' checked, and would require a similar 'premium' courtesy car whilst complaining loudly about the vast income he was losing due to her inability to drive.

If someone hit any of my cars I'd be pissed, no matter what their value is.

[Mildlyinterestd]

Someone hit my old S40 a year or so ago. I came back from work to find the offside headlamp unit on the floor...

The lass had left a note apologising and giving her phone number.

She was very surprised when I told her I'd just duct taped it back in place. Was good for another year and passed MOT no problems.

Proper shed.

[757]

Mildlyinterestd said:

Someone hit my old S40 a year or so ago. I came back from work to find the offside headlamp unit on the floor...

The lass had left a note apologising and giving her phone number.

She was very surprised when I told her I'd just duct taped it back in place. Was good for another year and passed MOT no problems.

Proper shed.

Only shedders will understand.

[757]

In boring shed news, as like every week, the bin men come and leave my bins right at the bottom of my drive, as i have already mentioned, I use my shed to push them back up my drive, first time tried it in "new shed" the Vectra, oooo much better with the more weight behind it than the MINI shed in the past.

..whilst my neighbor was polishing his 430d...again in the same week, he looked on in bemusement

Shed life mate!

[The Mad Monk]

Mildlyinterestd said:

Someone hit my old S40 a year or so ago. I came back from work to find the offside headlamp unit on the floor...

The lass had left a note apologising and giving her phone number.

She was very surprised when I told her I'd just duct taped it back in place. Was good for another year and passed MOT no problems.

Proper shed.

Who broke the nearside headlamp unit?

[Arnold Cunningham]

Oh-oh. Here we go.

[bristolracer]

Mildlyinterestd said:

Someone hit my old S40 a year or so ago. I came back from work to find the offside headlamp unit on the floor...

The lass had left a note apologising and giving her phone number.

She was very surprised when I told her I'd just duct taped it back in place. Was good for another year and passed MOT no problems.

Proper shed.

Bonus point for the plate being worth more than the car

[Richiepg25]

Haven't contributed much but have been regularly following, I have been tasked by family member to sell a 2008 golf tdi 134000 miles. There is an engine management light on constant and body work isn't good, trader offered £500 trade in. I am considering keeping it myself if the engine management light can be sorted, it drives fine but mot is due.

[aaron_2000]

Swapped the Sierra for this loaded ML270 tonight, drove spot on for about 60 miles home then an EPC warning and the car cut off. Seems it drives fine under 2500rpm then cuts out over that, will investigate this weekend. This is the car I initially wanted but it was out of budget, in buying the Sierra and getting so sick of it quickly then doing this swap I managed to get into the ML far cheaper than I ever could've bought it. We'll see if it was worthwhile or not, but it's going to stay for a long time. I have a drive to Spain planned in October and hopefully a contract there which I'd like to drive to, then I'll run it through winter. Averaged 35mpg home, I'll upload some pics tomorrow. Quite happy with it though

[Ouroboros]

Looks in good nick. Easy win might be a split pipe.

[Mercury00]

Having problems with my shed now. The driver's side front wheel is going DAGADAGADAGA. It started a few months ago, and I had it in the garage, but they couldn't find anything wrong. Now it's getting worse by the day, and I've now had it into three garages, who say there's no play on the wheels. All they ever do is jack a corner up and spin the wheel The steering feels a bit wayward, and it clunks on full lock. Now it's making a big clunk when changing gear - I think a transmission or engine mount is knackered. I can fix a mount myself, but I can't fix an undiagnosed problem!

[andrebar]

Richiepg25 said:

Haven't contributed much but have been regularly following, I have been tasked by family member to sell a 2008 golf tdi 134000 miles. There is an engine management light on constant and body work isn't good, trader offered £500 trade in. I am considering keeping it myself if the engine management light can be sorted, it drives fine but mot is due.

Worth checking what date the car was first registered. If it’s before 1st July 08 I don’t think the EML light will be an MOT issue.

[aaron_2000]

Ouroboros said:

Looks in good nick. Easy win might be a split pipe.

I can't tell if I'm imagining a slight leak sound under load low down. Gonna look under the engine cover tomorrow and investigate a bit. The side decals are coming straight off, I can't fault the way it drives other than the EPC issue though, drives a lot nicer than I remember. I wish the engine in the Sierra hadn't been so underpowered, I really wanted to keep it but my god was it slow. I put 800 miles on it and had enough of the lack of power so it had to go.

[Richiepg25]

andrebar said:

Worth checking what date the car was first registered. If it’s before 1st July 08 I don’t think the EML light will be an MOT issue.

Thanks I am gonna get a good look around it on Monday

[slk 32]

Mercury00 said:

Having problems with my shed now. The driver's side front wheel is going DAGADAGADAGA. It started a few months ago, and I had it in the garage, but they couldn't find anything wrong. Now it's getting worse by the day, and I've now had it into three garages, who say there's no play on the wheels. All they ever do is jack a corner up and spin the wheel The steering feels a bit wayward, and it clunks on full lock. Now it's making a big clunk when changing gear - I think a transmission or engine mount is knackered. I can fix a mount myself, but I can't fix an undiagnosed problem!

Sounds very similar to the failed driveshaft I had on my polo