I'm Ben. This is my first post and first van experience.
We're planning to move from the UK to France and I was looking to buy a Ford Transit Luton van to do the move ourselves.
3 weeks ago, I bought a 02 reg Ford Transit Luton 2.4 350L 90 BHP with ~80,000 miles on Ebay from a dealer who advertised to have 3 months warranty on all vehicles in their classified Ebay ad.
Their Ebay ad had showroom 360' pictures of the van, no faults advertised, low mileage.
Van looked ok to me when seeing it, no obvious rust, engine and all looked clean, then test driving it did not feel that bad for a big van, just thought it was a bit sluggish.
When I got to sign the paperworks, I noticed it said "for spares or repair" and asked why.
The dealer said that it was because of its age they never offered any warranty on anything older than 10 years, that the message about warranty on Ebay was just their standard policy and it didn't apply here, but otherwise the van had been thoroughly checked.
They provided the HPI checks and an RAC report which shown "Check no visible oil leak = Needs attention" and with an additional note saying "Clutch feels hard".
It got my attention and I asked about it, which kind of got discarded by the dealer saying something like "old vehicles leak and clutch can feel hard, just keep a bottle of oil on the trip", I couldn't see any obvious oil leak so I didn't think of anything major. We discussed my plan to drive long distance loaded with furniture, etc. They said this was a great runner and a lot of van for the money (2,000GBP) which at that point I agreed.
I left a deposit after seeing the van, signed their paperwork and agreed to pick it up 3 days later on a Saturday.
A day before picking it up they rang saying the van had broken down on them and it was injector related. Their sales guy rang me saying they will fix it for free, that it would have costed me several 100 quid to fix.
It felt like they did me a massive favour. The guy said they want to make it right so we don't have any issue on our long trip (~1,000 miles).
Anyway, when I got it back home then had it looked at by a mecanic. They found the turbo had been disconnected to hide some other symptom, there was oil contamination in the water system, possibly a cracked cyclinder or gasket, clutch has pretty much had it, and the injectors repair the dealer had done was quite poor... our local mecanic found the injector hoses installed were plastic rather than metal apparently (i don't know what it should be myself) and that it could even be a fire hazard.
So right now, I'm trying to get that van back to the dealer but they won't have a refund. They are pushing back saying it was sold for scrap and repair... which isn't at all the impression I got.
The legal process to have them take the van back and refund it will be a long one and I need a working van for July which will have to be fit to drive to France...
I'd like to have an expert advice on what is going on with that van to see if the engine is fixable or needs a whole new one, because our local garage seem to think it would be cheaper to find a whole new engine, turbo and clutch. They don't even want to attempt fixing the existing engine... I had planned some budget for repairing the van because I knew it would have some stuff to fix, but didn't anticipate it would cost at least another another 2k for a new engine, etc.
If it can be repaired without changing the engine, then I just strech the budget and go ahead with it to avoid a potentially long legal process which I may not win... not entirely sure if I'm within my rights to return it...
When driving, it only feels a bit sluggish to me, no misfire or big smoke, it's pretty smooth to drive just has no acceleration (max speed about 65mph), I thought there may have been a RPM and speed limiter, and other than that it's in good shape.
If the engine is really knackered then I have probably been completely ripped off by the dealer... and got to continue that process with them. I bought this for personal use and not as trade, so wondering if consuming rights apply. The dealer did offer to take the van to their mechanic and pass on the repair bill for me to pay at trade price, but the fact they made that poor repair and lied about the condition of the engine, I just don't trust them now.
What do you think of the situation I'm in? Shall I try fixing that van (could put another grand or so in it) or try to get a refund through legal process.
I don't want to sell it on and pass the blame to someone else... or shall I just cut my losses and sell it even cheaper as scrap detailling all the real issues known?
Is there someone near Surrey or South East here who could have a proper look at it?
I believe this is a Duratorque 2.4l Di engine.
Cheers,
Ben
