Hello.
This is my first post and it's a long one.
I was thinking of asking whether I should get some alloy wheels for my van, but decided that anyone reading this forum might be interested in my story of how I got ripped off buying what I thought was a good purchase and hopefully no one else will have similar bad luck. This will be a wall of text, but there is a lot of ground to cover! This is one for the history books.
It's Friday night, I've got four months left contract in my current job and my other car, a Renault Clio 1.0 that I had a roof rack on for mountain biking and cycling is closing in on 140k miles. I'm far too tall for it (6ft 7) and have saved enough money from this years job to replace it with another car, but what car. I need it to be able to carry a bicycle, anything decent I'll be too scared to scratch the roof with roof racks or take it the placed my clio would go and I can't afford two cars at the moment. The crunch is when I get an estimate for £700 to repair 'stuff'. It's general wear and tear and its all added. £200 is what the car is worth so with some slight disappointment I start the car hunt!
Hello Ebay my good friend. What's this? A Transit Connect van - 2005 - £2100? - A camper conversion, 100k miles, diesel, official registered as a camper on the v5. Too good to be true! 300 miles north? Let's go!
I meet the guy, he's been in the army. Two tours in Afghanistan and I instantly like the guy. Big respect. Thank you for your service. I feel like I've known this person for years and the van looks OK. It's everything I'm after and I get wrapped up in my own future adventures. The story is that the guy who owned it died from cancer and it's a sad story. It's being re-sold because the current owner has too many cars - He's owned it just a few months. I've checked the MOTs, nothing much wrong. An oil leak in the last 3 mots and it's not been disclosed on the AD - "It's nothing" I'm told. I'm looking at the sump, it's been hit and there is oil round it "So it's coming from the sump huh?" I ask - "Yeah, I've taken it to a local mechanic and that''s what they say - Here's the report I had done on it and a bunch of repair work" It's half history, but it has had £6k thrown at it. How bad could it be? I make up a number, £300 to get it sorted inside and tarted up a bit on the outside. £50 for the sump. I can afford that.
I've driven a transit connect a couple of times for a previous job and I've gone for one because I know I fit in them! I take it up the motorway, the engine does not smoke and unfortunately my clio was so bad that this feels like luxury. Light clutch, nice steering. Fish bowl type visibility and a little amount of power. The steering shakes a bit, but I put it down to wheel balancing and the gear jumps out of reverse. At the time I just assumed it was lack of synchro as some cars don't like going from first to reverse quickly - "Someone else is coming to view it" He tells me. So I shake on it and he only wants cash, no paypal - Whoops!
Driving it home I'm on a high, but 150 miles into my 280 mile trip to my parents to show off my new toy I notice a few issues. The turbo is making a weird noise. I guess a bearing or that something is on the way out. At roundabouts at full throttle there is an alarming amount of shaking from the steering wheel - not wheel balancing and the gearbox is fcked. Reverse jumps out on any slight incline. This is not the synchro and the more I use it the more it feels like moving a stick in a bag of coal. The brakes obviously need bleeding as it's like pressing your foot into a pillow and there is a bad smell of diesel from the internal heater (that's turned off). What did I just buy?!
Let the work begin:
I take it to a local garage near where I work after finally getting home after seeing my parents over the weekend, a ford garage. The news is dire.
I'm shown a load of sealant around the engine
informed of an alarming amount of overpressure in the engine
the gear linkage has the wiring loom wrapped around it
the oil leak is coming from the top of the engine.
the cooling fans are not working
the turbo is leaking oil
It's boiling its coolant (I never saw any overheating or dash lights, even the engine temp never went critical)
wheel bearing / part of the suspension
"the bodywork is ok though"
They replace the rocker cover gasket and confirm the head gasket is OK - £400 - £90 for the wheel bearing or arm (I forgot what it was)
A second garage tells me I should scrap it, but oh, can we have your side window?! "You'll only throw thousands of pounds at it" they say. £0 to do nothing.
I talk with friends and family and eventually decide to throw money at it even though I'm pretty broke - I'm looking at second hand engines and gearboxes. I'm furious with the seller, but the Internet tells me I've been shafted and I can't do nothing because I paid cash.
My current job I get told about a local guy who'll fix it for cheap.
He finds that:
The head is cracked (new head is sourced)
the drive shafts need replacing (the horrible shaking)
the cooling fans are certainly not working
and possibly something else I forgot.
£1200 - Six weeks & changes the gearbox oil, the block is OK and there is no internal damage.
I drive it now and the gearbox feels a lot nicer, reverse it still hold it in only, but I used it a bit for work and I give a couple of people lifts, everyone thinks it's an awesome idea and thing to own "It feels fine" they say.
It's still leaking oil...
I know a guy in Wales that I've used since a teenager, a local garage I've taken most of my cars to and I decide over xmas to hand him the keys, my clio has to be scrapped, but my parents lend me their car because I need something for job interviews as my contract has finally ended.
The news wasn't that good from the Welsh mechanic:
What he found:
Bent gear linkage and bolts missing
Bolts missing from the engine, an apparent poor re-build, terrible gaskets, the horrible sealant that was doing nothing.
Some parts missing from the engine causing the leak (he could not explain, something at the back? I dunno)
The turbo is on the way out, but he found it was partially sized so wasn't working properly anyway!
He had to pull the engine out twice to fix the oil leak and said it was one of the worst he's ever worked on.
Reverse now 'works'
Bald spare tire.
The disgusting old internal heater (in back) has been pulled out and a removable welded plate put there instead.
I've no idea how much this will cost me, but I'm guessing at least £2000
Total paid including the van and insurance £6090 - Some would argue that's not bad for a 'camper van', but the work is far from over. I do smile when I go over the severn bridge and they try and charge me normal van prices and I end up being that guy as sometimes I have to show them it's a camper van
I think I've driven it less than 800 miles since I got it in September 2016 and 85% of ownership it has been in someones mechanics workshop.
Whoops!
In the end, in a years time when I've clawed back the cash I put into it, tarted up the interior a bit and used it for what I wanted it will be worth it. It's only money right. It comes and goes.
It's just the principal and that I was a bit stupid and the seller clever at covering all the problems! It's not about the cash, it's about how horrible people can be when they sell cars. I was lucky I could just about afford the repairs. I don't make much money and had to sacrifice a lot to keep funding this project as none of it I could do myself and the in between jobs parts was especially stressful as I almost had to move!
It's now May 2017 - The van is still with the Welsh mechanic and my parents want their car back. I had to buy a car to get me to work that incidentally I'm taking back to the dealer Sunday because it too has undisclosed issues! FML. (I do have some warranty though)
As it turns out I've still got my parents car.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story. I've almost forgotten I own it and it's going to be a shock going back to wales next week to pick it up. At least I'll have 200 miles to home to see if anything else falls off it.