[yorky]

Bit like a customer saying my £40 a sqm wool cream carpet looks like you know what after six months.

Depends how you look after it.

Mark

PS. Ive the new transit and cant fault it apart from I bought a blue one instead of white.  Big mistake.  Needs washed every hour.

Don't agree. My Vauxhall is washed every week. As was the transit. The transit rear arches were rusting after less than a year. Poor quality.

[Matt Lindus]

Vauxhall are the way to go for a cost effective every day van, that stays rot free. The Vivaro is the van we should have gone for.

Be aware of this as well,,, On the Transit, if a front wheel bearing goes bad, which they will, they always do.
Due to the stupid design and layout of the break discs, right on top of the bearing hub assembly. The bearing hub welds to the main wheel flange and cannot be removed. This means the whole wheel hub flange needs replacing as well as the bearing. A wheel flange from the dealer is £152 ex vat.
Expect a £700 bill if you get noisy bearings, both should replaced as a matter caution.

[jasonl]

Sounds like you were had over , my front wheel bearings were 35 quid each,  plus 60 fitting, you are meant to put the assembly in a freezer and they then separate out easily.  They only weld on if you leave them whining too long , my cousin left his for 8000 miles and had to get a new drive shaft , it was only 80 from a breakers though.

The vivaro is much smaller inside than the transit too , I have a medium roof short whee base, it is  nearly4m3 bigger than a standard vivaro in the back

[Shaun_Ashmore]

My transit was more or less trouble free for 5 years, usual tyres, breaks and clutch, good van, my Fiat is the bargain though £4K cheaper slightly bigger more va va voom only trouble is NO heater windscreen I have to warm van up to defrost or de mist in mornings sometimes.

Shaun

[derek west]

My transit was more or less trouble free for 5 years, usual tyres, breaks and clutch, good van, my Fiat is the bargain though £4K cheaper slightly bigger more va va voom only trouble is NO heater windscreen I have to warm van up to defrost or de mist in mornings sometimes.
Shaun

times are hard shaun, we all have to make sacrifices sometimes,

[Matt Lindus]

Sounds like you were had over , my front wheel bearings were 35 quid each,  plus 60 fitting, you are meant to put the assembly in a freezer and they then separate out easily.  They only weld on if you leave them whining too long , my cousin left his for 8000 miles and had to get a new drive shaft , it was only 80 from a breakers though.

The vivaro is much smaller inside than the transit too , I have a medium roof short whee base, it is  nearly4m3 bigger than a standard vivaro in the back

Did they replace just the bearing races or did they fit the hub with the races already in. You will find that transit bearings come already fitted in the hub.
We've have had loads of bearings go on our transits. Every motor engineer you talk to understands the problem of breaking the bearing hub from the wheel flange on the transit mk6. One had ours upto 27 tons pulling pressure after heating it on a flame, still did not break.
The ford dealer has broke loads of pullers on the mark 6.

I have a letter from Ford Motor Co apologising for the design fault on the mark 6 transit and due to the design fault not being a safety issue, they felt the mark 6 did not need be recalled for remedial work. They went on to apologise for the extra expense required to repair the bearings and that design engineers were looking into the problem and would re design the bearing situation for the launch of the MK7
Dealers are now requested to advise customers of the MK6 Transit prior to bearing work being undertaken.   

[jasonl]

It will never come apart on a press , however big , it has to get cut off with a grinder , then put in a freezer so it shrinks ,the new bearing is heated to make it bigger , then it slips right on the hub.  The factory is up the road from me , plenty of people round here know the transit inside out and all the little tricks. Some are made in Turkey still , they are the rusty ones.

[Matt Lindus]

It will never come apart on a press , however big , it has to get cut off with a grinder , then put in a freezer so it shrinks ,the new bearing is heated to make it bigger , then it slips right on the hub.  The factory is up the road from me , plenty of people round here know the transit inside out and all the little tricks. Some are made in Turkey still , they are the rusty ones.

Next time a mate of yours is doing the freezer trick with the bearing, get the head engineer round from Ford Motor Co. He can then train all the techs working in dealers round the country on how to break a transit mk6 bearing via the use of a hotpoint fridge freezer.  

[Matt Lindus]

It will never come apart on a press , however big , it has to get cut off with a grinder , then put in a freezer so it shrinks ,the new bearing is heated to make it bigger , then it slips right on the hub.  The factory is up the road from me , plenty of people round here know the transit inside out and all the little tricks. Some are made in Turkey still , they are the rusty ones.

Hold on a minute Jason!! That’s not the text you initially put, you've just gone and moved the goal posts. The subtle amendment you've just made to the above text now involves cutting em off with a grinder!

So you've gone from simply getting them off with a hotpoint fridge freezer to a bloody black and decker grinder. The freezer you stated for getting them off is now for putting them on. Are you making this up Jason. 

[jasonl]

Why would ford do something that makes them less money?

[jasonl]

It will never come apart on a press , however big , it has to get cut off with a grinder , then put in a freezer so it shrinks ,the new bearing is heated to make it bigger , then it slips right on the hub.  The factory is up the road from me , plenty of people round here know the transit inside out and all the little tricks. Some are made in Turkey still , they are the rusty ones.

Hold on a minute Jason!! That’s not the text you initially put, you've just gone and moved the goal posts. The subtle amendment you've just made to the above text now involves cutting em off with a grinder!

So you've gone from simply getting them off with a hotpoint fridge freezer to a bloody black and decker grinder. The freezer you stated for getting them off is now for putting them on. Are you making this up Jason. 

No , call Steve at Polden autos , he will talk you through the process 01202 893090 , cut it off with a grinder , on by freezing one part, heating the other , the head engineer from Ford could not careless about a process that would cost the company millions a year.

Dozens of garages do it to several kinds of vehicles.

[Matt Lindus]

The process you mentioned of cutting old bearings off then freezing the hub flange and warming the new bearing hubs makes perfect sense and would work.
But ford won’t condone this practice in case the grinder is taken too far and damages the flange, after all, the flange
holds the wheel on! Doing this is a guessing game and making the perfect cut just far enough is a guessing game.

Still a good way of doing it though, but dealers won’t get involved in that.

[Matt Seymour]

The Ford vans were always the worst when it came to work needed to get them through MOTs.

Mine went for it's MoT last week, it's on an X plate so that makes 11 years old.
Total work required.......Nil, zero, zilch, naff all 
Even though I had put £1,000 aside to deal with any issues 

But I suppose all things being equal it makes up for the new FIP I had to have a couple of years back.....cost £1,000

You must be one of the lucky few by all accounts.

I have never seen any van rust as badly as a Transit. Sure, most vans rust a bit, but most Transits with any age to them are literally falling apart. The way the wheelarches and wings just rot away to nothing beggars belief at times.

And don't buy a Ford Mondeo diesel either.

[yorky]

I have a second hand fan centre near me.  They have a mix of makes and I swear to god every transit they have in there has rusty wheel arches.

[murky]

My tranny just went through the MOT with a sympathetic garage, still needed £300.00 of welding plus bits at £170.00.

It was garaged by the previous owners so that has given me a bit of leeway over the rust problem.

BUT as previous posts we used to have a long wheel base Transporter when doing fire and flood work and it was brill, the usual service stuff plus occasional glowplug.

12 years old and the only rust was from stone chips!. I think they are dipped just like Golfs are, so little or no rust.

I would have another tomorow, as long as I can get a TM in it and extra stuff,  thats the prob they dont do many with extra LWB or high tops.

Murky

[Matt Seymour]

Yeah, wheelarches, wings and back doors on Transits fall apart.

Mercedes vans seem to have a similar problem.

[Andy A]

I sold my old F reg (1989) Transit recovery truck last year, SVO chassis, extra long wheel base, in 20 years it had had a pair of wings a quick blow over and I welded one front spring hanger to get it through the MOT just before I sold it, the biggest bill I ever had with it was when I managed to knacker the old 4 speed overdrive gearbox and chucked a 5 speed in it, the gearbox cost me 50 quid but a new prop front section (different splines to the 4 speed) was £230 quid, that included 2 centre bearings though, f you look after them they will keep going 

[Eric Lloyd]

You lot are worrying me a bit. I bought my 2001 Yreg LWB hi-top Tranny in mid -2004 with 109k on it, since then it has had new front brake discs after one fractured, a new alternator about 2 years ago, a metal strap to hold the outer shell of the silencer together, some front and rear pads and handbrake bits,and a few tyres and a couple of batteries (to replace duff ones) andit is now showing a bit of rust roung the top of the screen. Now showing 195k, and serviced every 8k. Have I been lucky? Only problem is, its rubbish in snow or wet grass!

[Neil Williams]

new front brake discs
a new alternator about 2 years ago,
a metal strap to hold the outer shell of the silencer together,
some front and rear pads and
handbrake bits,and a
few tyres and
a couple of batteries
Now showing 195k, and serviced every 8k.

They're all standard minor items that any vehicle with that milage could expect to need sorting.
My x reg had 70,000 on it when the fuel injection pump packed up.....£1,000
Now that was serious

[rich hand]

Hammerite Direct to Rust Metal Paint Smooth.

Just used it today on my Transit, all along the sills & arches, looking good.