Diary of an Ordinary Van

[Vee4]

My local dealer has the same war cry regarding bodywork, "You have to take it to the approved bodyshop" Which is on the other side of town

I will, at least, make the phone call to the other dealer. I did buy a Fiat Panda from their used car department about 15 years ago, so I'm sure they'll remember me.

I made the phone call - the Ordinary Van is going in for inspection next week. Don't you sometimes get that feeling that you've started something that is going to spiral out of control ...?

[ake]

Someday someone is going to tell me they have had a succesful corrosion claim from Ford regading a rusty Transit, Maybe it will be you Vee4

[Vee4]

Someday someone is going to tell me they have had a successful corrosion claim from Ford regarding a rusty Transit. Maybe it will be you Vee4

Cometh the hour, cometh the Van? I hope I don't end up like Sir Walter Scott's protagonist in The Heart of Midlothian.

[ake]

Someday someone is going to tell me they have had a successful corrosion claim from Ford regarding a rusty Transit. Maybe it will be you Vee4

Cometh the hour, cometh the Van? I hope I don't end up like Sir Walter Scott's protagonist in The Heart of Midlothian.

I like that page

[Vee4]

Passed the 'mother-in-law test' (*) this morning



Clean and dry, so it looks as if that one is solved. I need to see if the oil stain on the transmission casing eventually dries out:





(*) The Ordinary Van that is, not me: viewtopic.php?p=589588#p589588

[Altransit]

i can't believe they sorted the leak and didn't clean off the stain Very poor

[Vee4]

I can't believe they sorted the leak and didn't clean off the stain Very poor

To be fair, that photo was taken some time ago (viewtopic.php?p=557170#p557170) and was the combined effect of the turbo dribbling and and the drive shaft seal leaking. Also, they did do it straight away for me.

The casing has been wiped but you can still see the stain. Time will tell if it can acquire the generally corroded look of everything else under the Van!

[Vee4]

Trip Computer on Drugs?

On my way home the other day, I was driving along a straight, level dual carriageway road at 60 mph (of course). There was virtually no wind, and I was listening to Joni Mitchell's Blue, the Ordinary Van's favourite album (of course).



The trip computer had been reading 39.7 mpg for some time, a long term average (viewtopic.php?p=581305#p581305) when suddenly, the reading started to drop for no apparent reason. There was no obvious loss of power, or misfiring. It did go as low as 34.4 mpg and, after resetting, did not immediately climb to the expected value which should have been over 40 mpg for the conditions. Eventually, it settled back to 39.7 mpg. This morning, I've seen it up to 43.4 mpg although this will inevitably drop during the week.

One to keep an eye on ...

Footnote: Joni was eventually reunited with Little Green.

[winterheating]

Trip Computer on Drugs?

On my way home the other day, I was driving along a straight, level dual carriageway road at 60 mph (of course). There was virtually no wind, and I was listening to Joni Mitchell's Blue, the Ordinary Van's favourite album (of course).



The trip computer had been reading 39.7 mpg for some time, a long term average (viewtopic.php?p=581305#p581305) when suddenly, the reading started to drop for no apparent reason. There was no obvious loss of power, or misfiring. It did go as low as 34.4 mpg and, after resetting, did not immediately climb to the expected value which should have been over 40 mpg for the conditions. Eventually, it settled back to 39.7 mpg. This morning, I've seen it up to 43.4 mpg although this will inevitably drop during the week.

One to keep an eye on ...

Footnote: Joni was eventually reunited with Little Green.

Could it be particulate filter self regenerate mode

[Vee4]

Could it be particulate filter self regenerate mode?

Tell me more! I don't have the cDPF (coated Diesel Particulate Filter) option. It was available as an option, and as standard fitting on the Econetic. Is there some kind of self-cleaning process on the standard TDCi? No warning lights were illuminated while this was happening. In fact, I might not have noticed if I didn't have the MPG display.

Some links:
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/diesel- ... te-filters
http://platinum.matthey.com/news-archiv ... te-filter/

From winterheating: viewtopic.php?p=468473#p468473

[Vee4]

Yes! We have no bananas*



We have one of these instead:



Will this make it as good as the old one? They are fairtrade ...


* Often associated with WWII rationing in the UK, it is actually a 1922 show tune:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes!_We_Have_No_Bananas

[Vee4]

Rust Never Sleeps - update

viewtopic.php?p=514757#p514757



I took the Ordinary Van to the dealership with its own body shop as suggested by my usual dealer. There was a brief inspection of the underside (in the parking lot), and a phone call to Ford Customer Service (which I was not party to). There was no satisfactory progress as a result of this visit. The next stage seems to be a carefully worded letter to Ford Customer Service.

[Altransit]

Oh dear Now the fun starts


Keep us posted

[winterheating]

it would be nice to be able to buy a brandnew van, to assemble your self, all parts to fit onto the shell and chassis, you could do your own corrosion proofing, it would be great.

[Jasonthemove]

I did a job for a man in Portsmouth last week, we got talking about his work as a spray painter.

He works on ships in the dockyard , he says that navy ships are at sea for 7-8 months in salt water and come back with zero corrosion because of the rustproofing regime that his team carries out. When he worked for Ford at southampton , they developed a Transit that would never corrode in the chassis or body , of course it will never see a showroom because they market would dry up if they did not fall apart. BACK IN 1990 it would have cost £500 extra to build one.