Your thoughts on a potential purchase...

[SirGriffin]

I've wanted a small van for a while to use as a mini camper.

I've been offered a Citroen Berlingo 1.4 petrol with what appears to be a rare option - a factory LPG kit.

Just 60,000 miles and very clean, with one caveat - it's in the early stages of head gasket failure.

This would appear to me to be a straight forward repair - the engine actually runs fine at present, and it's not a desperately difficult engine to work on.

I'm attracted to the LPG option for cheap running costs, but LPG seems to be getting harder to find.

Any words of wisdom from anyone on these vans and this engine in particular?

[CarCrazyDad]

No idea about the engine but I'd say go for it, if it's an easy fix and cheap LPG, assuming you live near to a filling station.

[SirGriffin]

The other hurdle seems to be reasonable insurance - it seems companies don't like a van just being used as a private car.

[CarCrazyDad]

Isn't the Belingo a passenger MPV rather than a "van" ?

:-)

[SirGriffin]

This is the van version, not the car.

[samoht]

It's going to be a rather small camper I'd have thought, but I assume you've worked that out.

I had that same TU3 1.4 engine in a 306. The head gasket went, gradually, was fixed by a local garage for a not-excessive sum, and was entirely fine for quite some years/miles thereafter. The PAS belt snapped and derailed the alternator belt, again not an expensive fix. I don't think anything expensive went wrong with it, and that was with me driving it pretty much flat out over Yorkshire roads. This was over about a decade in the family.

If you load the van up with camping equipment it's going to be pretty sluggish I'd have thought, the Pug was ok-ish by yourself but with a car full of people it didn't have much go. But maybe you're ok with that, if you don't have any overtaking aspirations it's probably fine, just work the gearbox to keep the engine in the mid-range.

[SirGriffin]

Apologies mods for posting in the wrong section, thanks for sorting it out!

[PositronicRay]

As a home mechanic the qualifications required to work on LPG systems would put me off, along with the channel tunnel restriction.

[SirGriffin]

I agree with being wary of the LPG, I'll either take it out or have it checked out by qualified technicians afterwards. Lpg seems very difficult to get these days