New Bus, preparations for a trip to Corsica this summer.

[MickeTJ]

Me and my wife and two friends plan to go on a trip to Corsica this summer. More specifically, in July.
I bought the bus in February from Holland and has never owned a VW before so am not sure if it will last?
I have some time to get it in order.

The bus in question is a T3 Syncro -1990 with high roof 2.1 WBX MV 2 locks and ABS.
It has 230,000 Km on the meter.
The receipts from the previous owner shows he renovated the gearbox 20000 kms ago.
I myself have changed the oil, filter, spark plug wires, rotor, spark plugs and starter motor.
I have also changed the rear brakepipes and both brake cylinders.

After the oil change I've noticed that it drips a little oil, not dangerous but annoying nonetheless. On inspection, I got a good to know:
rear wheel bearings right. not bad but it was little play in it.

New BFG tires must be on, the old ones are like slicks. I did chose Corsika for a bit of offroad driving.

But what should I otherwise revise / change before such a trip?

What should I bring for spare parts?

If we brake down along the way, Where should I be towed? VW here in Sweden do not want to touch it with a stick, as they think it is too old and does not have any parts for it?

Grateful for all the tips and ideas from VW veterans who certainly think this trip is a breeze

[AdrianC]

Me and my wife and two friends plan to go on a trip to Corsica this summer. More specifically, in July.
I bought the bus in February from Holland and has never owned a VW before so am not sure if it will last?

No reason why not!

You don't say where in Sweden you are, but wherever, you'd probably go over Oresund to Denmark then south. You know how far you are from the bridge. Google reckon it's 1,600km each way from Malmo to Genoa, or 1,900 to Marseille for the ferry over to Corsica. Then whatever distance you do on the island - it's not a big place. We flew and hired a car a couple of years ago, and did maybe a little over 1,000km in a week on the move fairly constantly, trying to see as much as we could.

So you're probably looking at 6-7,000km tops, plus your Swedish distance, most of which will probably be on main E routes getting there and back. If it's a van that you're happy using regularly anyway, then it should do that without any sweat.

If we brake down along the way, Where should I be towed? VW here in Sweden do not want to touch it with a stick, as they think it is too old and does not have any parts for it?

There are T3 parts suppliers in France (http://en.serial-kombi.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), and - particularly - in Germany and the UK who can get parts (including Syncro stuff) to you within a day or two without any problem. Steer well clear of main VW dealers, and head to small village garages. Not only will the labour cost be less than half, but the mechanics will be proper mechanics, rather than just children who know how to ask the computer what the problem is.

Grateful for all the tips and ideas from VW veterans who certainly think this trip is a breeze

<points to blog link in signature...> I'm no "veteran" - we bought our van three months before leaving, and just gave it a good service then used it round the UK a little bit before we left.

[MickeTJ]

Thanks for the reassuring Adrian!
Thats how I want to think.. it has already done 230 000 km so why not 7000 more..
Im taking the ferry from Gothenburg where we live to Kiel, so no miles in Sweden.

I used to drive a heavily modified Jeep Wrangler 97 and it always broke down when I did longer trips. And it was always the tricky parts that broke.
So maybe thats why im so worried.

The fun thing is that I was the one convincing the other 2 plus my wife that this should go just fine...
- "These busses go to africa and back.."

But now I am the one getting cold feets.. I dont want to ruin the others vacation just because I have forgot something.

Good tip to go to the smaller shops instead of the VW dealers, usually thats where the towtrucks let you of due to insurance.
Usually I can fix most mechanical things but usually its not those kinds of problems that get you stranded.. to me its been blown headgasket, broken fuelpump and gearbox failure.

More tips is always welcome!

[AdrianC]

Im taking the ferry from Gothenburg where we live to Kiel, so no miles in Sweden.

Then only 1100km to Genoa. Easy!

[tforturton]

Not sure if I speak for everyone on here, but those worries you're feeling are the same ones I get whenever I think about a long trip! All I can say to you is - make sure the van is serviced before you go (you've done that), take some spares (see wiki for list), and some sort of recovery insurance if you can get it.
Good luck!

[MickeTJ]

Not sure if I speak for everyone on here, but those worries you're feeling are the same ones I get whenever I think about a long trip! All I can say to you is - make sure the van is serviced before you go (you've done that), take some spares (see wiki for list), and some sort of recovery insurance if you can get it.
Good luck!

Thank you! I will get the recovery insurance before we go!
I guess so about the worries, but usually I have owned the cars for a longer time and I know how they behave and what is done to them.
I would have no problems driving my 2013 Nissan X-trail to Corsica,just gas up and go, but I thats not a challenge

[MattBW]

As I learned recently on a very short trip, take spare alternator (and fan) belts with you

[Mudlark]

Top up all your fluids/pressures and the like and do a few run outs with preferably long drives before you go and deal with anything that breaks or leaks or complains.

Get yourself some recovery insurance.

You may get comfort from having a spare set of 'belts and braces' on board. There are lots of opinions on this, but as you are not going anywhere too remote i would not get too hung up on what spares to take.

Last problem I had was a collapsed wheel bearing on a Croatian Island and that required a 'get you home' fix from a local shipyard. I was not carrying either the bearings or the wheel hub.

Fill up the fuel tank and hit the road.

See any breakdown as a just another chapter of the holiday and adapt your plans if they happen.

We have taken our syncro to Corsica four times now and its a great Island of mountains and beaches. Took an off road trip across the romantically named Desert of Agriates to a really beautiful beach with remote campsite but the route was pretty tame and busy with hired cars so we moved on.

Have fun!

[Boldsailor]

Did the grand tour last year..Elba, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and back via the Amalfi coast, Pompei and Vesuvius in my 1990 Syncro. Light switch failed near Pisa (could not turn headlights off) but went to a Bosch Auto Electrical garage and they got a brand new switch and fitted it that day, all for about 76 Euro including the switch, I was most impressed. I think that you can be reassured that there are a lot of places where small repairs can be carried out and parts will be available. The bigger failures can be taken care of with recovery insurance but of course it is better to get repairs done locally as recovery is generaly the holiday over. Corsica is a delight, did it from top to bottom, you will have a great time. Bon Voyage.

[Aidan]

I drove nearly 10k miles last year, even when it went wrong it was easily fixable and I never called recovery, I get in it and drive 3-500 miles in a day without worrying about anything except ' have I got enough money for the fuel for the miles I want to do ? ' how reliable do you want to be ?

[axeman]

I drove nearly 10k miles last year, even when it went wrong it was easily fixable and I never called recovery, I get in it and drive 3-500 miles in a day without worrying about anything except ' have I got enough money for the fuel for the miles I want to do ? ' how reliable do you want to be ?

i echo that i did just over 10k as well in the doka , called the aa out once when a cv joint snapped. i had the joint on board but my tools were in the camper as the honey moon period was well and truly over and it was testing me every time i drove it. as i had the joint and the aa man was not too busy he allowed me to use his tools to replace the joint. you get to a point where you dont even think about a break down.

the camper on the other hand has been testing but i think that i have broken the back of it and is now proving to be reliable. (as he touches a large bit if fire wood). i think once the niggles are ironed out they are only as reliable as the amount af preventative maintenance that you do to them.

neil

[jed the spread]

On one of our many family european trips we take most years in our Westfalia Syncro my exhaust snapped and I thought to myself, "here we go". The night before I sat down with the phrase book and learned a few different lines so I could get my point across. Next day I woke up actually exited that I had to sort it out and arranged for me to take the J pipe off in a small area at the front of the garage, the chappy welded it all back together and I fitted it back while trying to speak my best French. They charged me a whopping £8 and I had a really good time too.

If anything does go wrong just try not to get stressed and make a thing of getting it sorted. Every time we go off the beaten track slightly I am always looking out for small garages though just incase but on our exhaust mission I just used the nearest garage on the Tom Tom.

Hope this helps and I really hope you enjoy your trip. Make sure you post some pictures too as we love to see other peoples adventures unfold


My van has now done over £360,000 km and is usually OK on long trips but it has been looked after.

Jed

[syncropete]

Jed,
It should be reliable if you have spent that much on it!

[jed the spread]

Jed,
It should be reliable if you have spent that much on it!

Tell me about it

Jed

[Mudlark]

My van has now done over £360,000

Think that should read .. done me over for £360,000 ....