by barryorbik » Sat Oct 07, 2017 6:40 pm
Just back from a completely trouble free 1,500 mile trip around Germany, Holland and Belgium in our 1997 Transit MK 5 2.5TD based Autosleeper Legend. Got back late on Friday (yesterday) and the MOT was at 9.00 a.m. this morning and she passed with flying colours plus the overall fuel consumption with mixed (M25 slog) motoring and some sustained sections at +120km/hour came out at 27 mpg.
As a reward I am now treating her to a gearbox and back axle oil change with some Slik 50 added to the gearbox to help quieten the slight whine in 4th and 5th, plus I have just ordered new front and rear shockers as she still has her factory original 20 year old ones on a present and although they are not leaking I figured they may have lost a little of their damping efficiency by now.
The cab bodywork, especially the doors is getting a bit 'rust bumpy' in all the usual places but I cannot find any doors in this area that are any better, so I plan to cut out the rust and re-metal them over the winter. Interestingly we spotted quite a few MK 5 transit based motorhomes during our trip and they all seemed to have excellent doors with no signs of having been patched up, so was it only the UK ones that were fitted with duff ones?
Looking forward to many more trouble free trips overseas with her and Spain is beckoning but I think a trip to Poland may be a better option, as rumour has it that they have loads of spares for MK 5's over there.