And I saw this one on FB. Its a 2009 140PS Limited 330S. Advertised as smoking badly and a rubbish advert I thought I had better go and take a look... plus it was cheap.
Anyway I arranged to go and see it on Friday last week, but in the end the traffic was too bad and I would have ended up getting there later than the vendor could manage. Normal speil of several other people were going to look over the weekend etc. Anyway - I got a message on Monday that nobody showed and it was still available.
Grabbed a colleague and drove up to Walsall to take a look after work - and I ended up driving it back to the workshop for the princely sum of £890
Its a proper builders van - there are lots of marks, bits of paint light scratches etc on the outside, the rear doors and the side door are both bent, but there is very little other than light damage on the shell itself. It needs no welding underneath at all. Nothing. It just wants more rustproofing. Under the bonnet is a similar story. A few brown marks but nothing major. The outer sill is a bit bubbly and will need some attention, as does the rear corner of the sliding door sill.
Inside - think of a dustbin and you won't be too far off
the limited seats are grubby and have a few small paint marks, the stitching on the drivers seat is just starting to go. The cab mat is still intact, but the drivers side wheel arch cover is missing. Im planning on (more or less) stripping the cab down (dash out etc) to give everything a deep clean.The back is filthy too. Will rip that out and put a nice new ply lining kit in.
Engine and gearbox wise... it drives fine. It does put out a bit of hazy smoke if you boot it, but I've seen far worse. First thing I spotted when I got underneath was the amount of oil down the front of the engine. Seller tried to explain it away saying he had spilt some putting more in a couple of days ago - but that didn't explain the amount or where it was. When driving it also smelt of hot diesel
anyway after inspection, all the retaining clips for the injector leak off were missing and the O rings are shot. I think that might be a cheap and easy fix!The smoking... haven't got quite as far as I would like. I have the codes that were stored initially - but haven't driven the van since I cleared them. My gut feel is torn between a boost leak/split intercooler and a faulty turbo VNT controller. I don't really want to pay a months road tax for 10 days (most of when I won't be able to use it anyway!) so thats going to have to wait a few days
Anyway - its a cheap, rattty, LEZ compliant van. One of its first tasks is likely to be with a student group I do a lot with in London - and will save about £600 in van hire costs
