Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Jonny 87 on December 10, 2013, 08:40:00 pm
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Ello chaps,
I'm in two minds at the minute. Next year I'm looking to possibly change vans and at the minute I have a vw caddy. I would love a vw transporter but just can't really justify spending the money on it when I do very little mileage and could probably get away with something else not as expensive as a vw.
I would really like to be able to carry more water......legally. and potentially going to start gutter clearing with a vac, so the extra space and payload sounds very appealing.
Doing some research the short wheel base vivaro with 115 bhp seems to look really good. Reliability seems to be good aswell, which I didn't expect to be honest.
Any vivaro users out there that could give me more confidence?
Would you recommend the vivaro?
Thank you in advance,
Jonny.
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i've got one. had it from new and now 3.5 yrs in. very happy with it. really good to drive and reliable. i will definately get the same again
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i've got one. had it from new and now 3.5 yrs in. very happy with it. really good to drive and reliable. i will definately get the same again
Thanks richard. That's what I wanted to hear. :)
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Go for the more powerful engine and ideally the 2.9T version (1250kg payload)
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I'm on my 2nd Trafic. (Same van but Renault badged)
First one was bsolitely perfect upto 90k.
Agro after.
This ones 2 years old now 26k on it, not missed a beat (but you'd expect that from a brand new van)
Lovely to drive.
If I was you I'd get the transporter though.
Vw is much nicer in every way.
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Hi
I have had a 58 reg vivaro for about six months now .
They drive very very well , comfortable ,quick and nice handling .
I have a 650 grippamax in the back and being a fairly flat tank it doesn't leave much room for a vac and no room for a benny.
mine is the swb , a lab would have enough room .
Of course if your tank is smaller /more upright you will have plenty of room(i also have my filters on board taking up room).
The only issues i have had are aircon(fixed by the garage i brought from under warranty), new battery (the original one was still going but was getting sluggish , can't complain as its nearly five years old).
mine has 90000 miles on so i am expecting a few issues here and there but i got it for a good price .
overall very pleased with it.
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I'm on my 2nd Trafic. (Same van but Renault badged)
First one was bsolitely perfect upto 90k.
Agro after.
This ones 2 years old now 26k on it, not missed a beat (but you'd expect that from a brand new van)
Lovely to drive.
If I was you I'd get the transporter though.
Vw is much nicer in every way.
What kind of agro did you get Darren?
I like the vw but they really are expensive unless I go for a much older one, then that could bring its own grief. :(
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I'm on my 2nd Trafic. (Same van but Renault badged)
First one was bsolitely perfect upto 90k.
Agro after.
This ones 2 years old now 26k on it, not missed a beat (but you'd expect that from a brand new van)
Lovely to drive.
If I was you I'd get the transporter though.
Vw is much nicer in every way.
What kind of agro did you get Darren?
I like the vw but they really are expensive unless I go for a much older one, then that could bring its own grief. :(
Turbo issues.
Renault were less than useless.
Local mechanic sorted me out in the end.
Long & short, he reckoned one of the ball bearings around the turbo had shattered and was sending shards of it into the fuel or something.
Don't quote me, I'm not mechanically minded at all! But turbo/ball bearing shattering was definitely the cause he said.
It was a 53 2.5.
I heard that the pre 07 ones have issues but after seem to have been sorted.
Are you paying cash for your new wagon?
What's your budget if so?
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there great when running well but a mare when go wrong , we had them with 290k on the clock running all over Europe on same day work and they had the life beaten out of them
things to watch
water , air intakes low down on engine so watch for floods
gearboxes , let go easy if you don't change the box oil every six months
low reving vans , you will have to learn to change gear faster as they don't like getting a boot full
apart from that they just suffer with the same as any other van and make work them hard pay hard treat them well they wont cost you in the long run
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I'm on my 2nd Trafic. (Same van but Renault badged)
First one was bsolitely perfect upto 90k.
Agro after.
This ones 2 years old now 26k on it, not missed a beat (but you'd expect that from a brand new van)
Lovely to drive.
If I was you I'd get the transporter though.
Vw is much nicer in every way.
What kind of agro did you get Darren?
I like the vw but they really are expensive unless I go for a much older one, then that could bring its own grief. :(
Turbo issues.
Renault were less than useless.
Local mechanic sorted me out in the end.
Long & short, he reckoned one of the ball bearings around the turbo had shattered and was sending shards of it into the fuel or something.
Don't quote me, I'm not mechanically minded at all! But turbo/ball bearing shattering was definitely the cause he said.
It was a 53 2.5.
I heard that the pre 07 ones have issues but after seem to have been sorted.
Are you paying cash for your new wagon?
What's your budget if so?
When doing some research I heard of that problem actually, it can wreck the fuel pump and cost £1000's, but 08 plate on seem to be ok.
Budget depends really, not decided yet. Last van I bought was 6.5k, I wouldn't like to go any higher than 8 for a big van. Then again, if I go to a garage and they offer a good finance deal on a new van I could be tempted too.
Still gotta do my research I think.
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there great when running well but a mare when go wrong , we had them with 290k on the clock running all over Europe on same day work and they had the life beaten out of them
things to watch
water , air intakes low down on engine so watch for floods
gearboxes , let go easy if you don't change the box oil every six months
low reving vans , you will have to learn to change gear faster as they don't like getting a boot full
apart from that they just suffer with the same as any other van and make work them hard pay hard treat them well they wont cost you in the long run
Thanks Susan.
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there great when running well but a mare when go wrong , we had them with 290k on the clock running all over Europe on same day work and they had the life beaten out of them
things to watch
water , air intakes low down on engine so watch for floods
gearboxes , let go easy if you don't change the box oil every six months
low reving vans , you will have to learn to change gear faster as they don't like getting a boot full
apart from that they just suffer with the same as any other van and make work them hard pay hard treat them well they wont cost you in the long run
Jeez change the gearbox oil every 6 months?
Never heard of doing that on any vehicle....ever.
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We have two the probs we had are ball joints going, and cam shaft sensor gone. When the cam sensor goes so does the crank sensor but all in all good vans. But re sale value go for the vw because of the following they have you will not lose as much money.
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there great when running well but a mare when go wrong , we had them with 290k on the clock running all over Europe on same day work and they had the life beaten out of them
things to watch
water , air intakes low down on engine so watch for floods
gearboxes , let go easy if you don't change the box oil every six months
low reving vans , you will have to learn to change gear faster as they don't like getting a boot full
apart from that they just suffer with the same as any other van and make work them hard pay hard treat them well they wont cost you in the long run
Jeez change the gearbox oil every 6 months?
Never heard of doing that on any vehicle....ever.
i used to change the gearbox oil in my escort rs turbo every 3 or 4 months.....due to be going through 4 gearboxes in a year :D
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there great when running well but a mare when go wrong , we had them with 290k on the clock running all over Europe on same day work and they had the life beaten out of them
things to watch
water , air intakes low down on engine so watch for floods
gearboxes , let go easy if you don't change the box oil every six months
low reving vans , you will have to learn to change gear faster as they don't like getting a boot full
apart from that they just suffer with the same as any other van and make work them hard pay hard treat them well they wont cost you in the long run
Jeez change the gearbox oil every 6 months?
Never heard of doing that on any vehicle....ever.
in six months ours could do 60k-80k and more it was a small price to pay instead of a van comeing back from the eu on a recovery truck 11 pounds worth of oil vs 1200 pounds gearbox rebuild
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I just took delivery of a new vivaro today. Looks great. Well pleased so far. I looked at a lot of vans but I think these are hard to beat. Low rate finance as well.
Steve :)
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I just took delivery of a new vivaro today. Looks great. Well pleased so far. I looked at a lot of vans but I think these are hard to beat. Low rate finance as well.
Steve :)
Spill the beans on price and payments then pwwwwease :)
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I just took delivery of a new vivaro today. Looks great. Well pleased so far. I looked at a lot of vans but I think these are hard to beat. Low rate finance as well.
Steve :)
Spill the beans on price and payments then pwwwwease :)
I inderstand if you don't want to say, but it would be interesting to know. :)
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I just took delivery of a new vivaro today. Looks great. Well pleased so far. I looked at a lot of vans but I think these are hard to beat. Low rate finance as well.
Steve :)
Same here had mine for just over a month and can't fault it.
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I have had one on a 04 plate and had it for 5 years no problem, but when it went past 100k I had problems with fuel injectors which is £200 each and a pain to remove
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the gearbox oil will not need doing every six months unless you are doing starship mileage like susan.
However the service intervals on them are now 25000 miles with "long life oil" , i would personally change the oil every 10,000 as oil in poor condition will wreck the turbo eventually .
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had my 56 plate four years and it hasn't needed a spanner on it in that time.it has 72k on the clock
and its just come back today from another pass though the MOT,and some how ive managed todo just over 7k of miles in a year ;D ;D ;D ;D
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the gearbox oil will not need doing every six months unless you are doing starship mileage like susan.
However the service intervals on them are now 25000 miles with "long life oil" , i would personally change the oil every 10,000 as oil in poor condition will wreck the turbo eventually .
Water gets into the gearbox via the gear selector shaft on those early model vans. Its the water that does the damage to syncro cones and bearings. So Susan's suggestion of replacing gearbox oil regularly to a good one. Changing the oil seal on the selector shaft is also a worthwhile cost. Early Ducatos/Relays and Boxers suffered from the same problem and the seal was easy to replace.
(The strange thing is that not all vans suffered with this problem although all had the same box.
The solution for the Fiat manufactured vans was to reroute the drain pipes from the heater air intake as they ended above the gearbox. The other thing was the the gearbox was strengthened/reinforced by a pattern of ridges that looked like small boxes and was part of the gearbox housing casting. These 'boxes' collected water, mainly from the drain pipes. So each time it rained these boxes were supplied with fresh water. The gear selector shaft was located in one of these 'boxes'. Even someone with half a brain could guess the result. The short term solution was to reduce the height of these boxes with a grinder and then fill the remainder of the box that had the selector shaft with a resin so that water could no longer pond there. As gearboxes are usually made by a specialist company, it wouldn't surprise me to hear that Reanult used the same gearbox in their van as did Fiat.)
As far as servicing intervals are concerned, look for the small print. Somewhere will be something that advises that the vehicle should have an interim service every so many miles or annually, which ever applies.
Safety is one of the big issues with regard to long mileage service intervals. If a mechanic advises that the front disc pads have 50% wear, what does he do? Does he change the pads as they won't last to the next service (adding cost) or does he ignore them, hoping the brake warning light is operating on the disc pad with the most wear?
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£3000 deposit and £240 a month for 5 years. No mot or repair worries and if you look after it, it will do 10 years. Im happy :)
Steve
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£3000 deposit and £240 a month for 5 years. No mot or repair worries and if you look after it, it will do 10 years. Im happy :)
Steve
And there are lower deposit's then that out there, I paid £1200.00 plus Vat with the company I used.
Steve does yours have a balloon payment at the end?
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£3000 deposit and £240 a month for 5 years. No mot or repair worries and if you look after it, it will do 10 years. Im happy :)
Steve
who did you get that deal with?
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I was tempted to get a vivaro but all the horror stories about them put me off. Bought a VW T5 in the end, glad I did, lovely to drive and I boot it sometimes ;D heard they can reach 90 fully laden on the road ;D Only fault I have with them is that I have a long wheel base version and the turning circle is crap putting it politely, 3 point turn is more like a 6 point turn >:( Other than that pleased with mine.
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the gearbox oil will not need doing every six months unless you are doing starship mileage like susan.
However the service intervals on them are now 25000 miles with "long life oil" , i would personally change the oil every 10,000 as oil in poor condition will wreck the turbo eventually .
Water gets into the gearbox via the gear selector shaft on those early model vans. Its the water that does the damage to syncro cones and bearings. So Susan's suggestion of replacing gearbox oil regularly to a good one. Changing the oil seal on the selector shaft is also a worthwhile cost. Early Ducatos/Relays and Boxers suffered from the same problem and the seal was easy to replace.
(The strange thing is that not all vans suffered with this problem although all had the same box.
The solution for the Fiat manufactured vans was to reroute the drain pipes from the heater air intake as they ended above the gearbox. The other thing was the the gearbox was strengthened/reinforced by a pattern of ridges that looked like small boxes and was part of the gearbox housing casting. These 'boxes' collected water, mainly from the drain pipes. So each time it rained these boxes were supplied with fresh water. The gear selector shaft was located in one of these 'boxes'. Even someone with half a brain could guess the result. The short term solution was to reduce the height of these boxes with a grinder and then fill the remainder of the box that had the selector shaft with a resin so that water could no longer pond there. As gearboxes are usually made by a specialist company, it wouldn't surprise me to hear that Reanult used the same gearbox in their van as did Fiat.)
As far as servicing intervals are concerned, look for the small print. Somewhere will be something that advises that the vehicle should have an interim service every so many miles or annually, which ever applies.
Safety is one of the big issues with regard to long mileage service intervals. If a mechanic advises that the front disc pads have 50% wear, what does he do? Does he change the pads as they won't last to the next service (adding cost) or does he ignore them, hoping the brake warning light is operating on the disc pad with the most wear?
Mine is the newer version and i think the gearbox issues have been sorted .
The book for mine (59 reg) states 25000 miles or two years for service intervals , like you said spruce , dangerous in my opinion .
Obviously designed to appeal to fleet buyers saving service costs .
mine is on 90000 so has only had 3 services !
I'm going for every 10000 for basic service.
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When I was looking for a new van I read through many Vivaro user reviews and the problems encountered were so shocking I'm glad I did my research. Bought a new shape 2.0 HDI Citroen Dispatch with 100k on the clock and even happier with it then with my old Berlingo. Can't fault it. Had it's Turbo and intercooler replaced shortly before I bought it so that's good for another 90-100K. Bullet proof vans. Galvanised as well.
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I was tempted to get a vivaro but all the horror stories about them put me off. Bought a VW T5 in the end, glad I did, lovely to drive and I boot it sometimes ;D heard they can reach 90 fully laden on the road ;D Only fault I have with them is that I have a long wheel base version and the turning circle is crap putting it politely, 3 point turn is more like a 6 point turn >:( Other than that pleased with mine.
drop a revo on your t5 it will change your van again its the way forward
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Vauxhall are doing low rate finance. Done through Vauxhall commercial dealers. Even got free upgrade to include air con & electric windows & mirrors.
Cheers,
Steve