daunted newbie - next move? 1.9 1983 petrol waterboxer

[keytouch]

Put your locations in your profiles. You never know, there may be someone helpful nearby.

[bensid]

Well it's been an interesting ride so far, a learning curve of finding out about these vehicle the hard/expensive way...

Firstly i took it for a "mild" service at a VW specialist £300. The mechanic gave it a once over, oil change, new spark plugs, windscreen wipers. Informed me of extensive corrosion underneath the vehicle and that there had been some "spray welding" and other bodged bits and bobs done to it. The respray was recent and not 4 years old as advertised, hiding various bodywork bodges. Anyway i took it away confidently after being told it was good to go and it would make my festival trip the next weekend, i just needed to keep an eye on oil and water, which i did.

The van made it from London to Suffolk, the water coolant light only flashing as i made it on site! Result. . A fun weekend was had, i checked water (refill for the expansion tank) and oil and then we were off. We made it as far as the north circular and the coolant light came back. I pulled over, waited 10 mins and checked the water, all fine. No light and bottom of the gauge and we were off again. For 5 mins, then hissing/steam and the light came on once again. I pulled over and saw lots of liquid coming from underneath the van and we had to get rescued.

Long story short (ish) - got it to a garage and the coolant pipes had corroded and coolant had leaked all over the place, engine overheated, we broke down. So it's been in the garage- replace the corroded part of the pipes. But they again told me of all the corrosion, needs a new support arm etc and that it should have never have passed the MOT. Not road worthy basically. Other problems- cracked fuel pipe- replaced. Leaky exhaust, nursed back/sealed. And some other bits- £200.

New problem- the carburettor needs replacing. https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=154171" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've learnt a hell of a lot in the few weeks i've owned it so far. The seller certainly wasn't straight up either sadly... i definitely wouldn't walk intot this kind of purchase blind ever again!

[New Kentish Campers]

Sorry to be putting more of a dampener on this but if the engine overheated, I'd make sure its sound before you fork out any more money on this. A replacement engine from one of the firms that supply such things will set you back a grand upwards, then there the carb issue plus all the other stuff mentioned Perhaps you should seriously consider selling it, as is. Yes, a huge hit to your wallet, but by the sounds of this van, you could be facing an even higher one, long term plus all the dissapointments that go with that.

But, dont let a bad van put you off these models. Now you know that you can ask questions here and are learning fast, you can put this experience and subsequent knowledge toward buying a good one and enjoy driving it to camp in, not continually to the garage.

[dbz864]

Did you buy this van with a long mot? Was it from a trader (someone who sells vehicles to make a profit)?

[Sir Brixalot]

Do you have a link to the original Ad, how much did it set you back? . You're not the first to buy on impulse without checking properly, I did the same first time buying in the North of Scotland thinking it would be an adventure driving back. Managed 10 miles.

Try to do as much as possible yourself, you could have done the service yourself for a lot less and used the garage fees to build up you tool collection axle stands, ramps etc. My tuppence worth is that you really need some quotes for repairing the rust. There's no point chucking loads of money at engine etc if the van is a rot box. The carb won't be a huge expense and there are a few great threads on here that will talk you through refurbing it, done it myself recently.

All vehicles cost money to keep on the road and as long as you get stuck in yourself these can work out cheaper than a more modern car.

[weegaz22]

Try to do as much as possible yourself

+1

I would agree with this whole heartedly, these vans will/can be BIG money pits if you have to constantly pay labour charges because you are unwilling to give it a go yourself, and that will eventually end up sickening you so much you will get rid of it, the way to look at it is your learning a new skill, which i always like collecting, i was a mechanic in my early twenties so kind of have that skill of turning a spanner, but my familiarity of VW stuff wasn't great so i am picking that up as i go, and i have been re-learning the welding and bodywork side that i didn't really do much of other than welding stress cracks on thick truck chassis's, its a tad harder to do on thin metal work!

but i am enjoying it none the less, at the end of each day you get a job done and a nice sense of acheivement that you are slowly getting there, parts aren't that expensive for these vans, but labour charges to fit the stuff on top will make it expensive.

[bensid]

Hope you're all well and been thoroughly enjoying yourselves and you campers!

I'm at a bit of a crossroads with my camper and unsure what my next move should be. I've grown a little attached to her but so far all she's really caused is headache. Some more advice from you all would be great, please. The BIG question is, should i sell it, or should i do it up? I have no skills in this area, so would be getting others to do the work and (hopefully) doing bits myself.

We still have problems- I replaced the split flange on my Solex 34 pict 4 carb but the engine/van is still running very rich- strong smell of petrol inside and outside of it. From searching the forum this could be split fuel lines or corroded fuel tank- i fear the latter or both as the petrol spills out when the tank is filled up. Found the same carb again on

My local garage says that there's about £2k of welding to be done- suspension arm etc. It's London so was thinking about taking it out of London if i was to decide to keep her. They also said i should just get rid of it : (

The water coolant level light keeps flashing and staying on- there is coolant in there, so think it could be the thermostat/s? Apparently there's one in the radiator at the front as well as in the back- should i replace both?

There's lots of shoddy filler been used around the van as well as rust.

All this considered, what are your thoughts? I've spent a whack with the initial naive purchase but don't want to keep throwing money at a lost cause. Cheers, B

[Mocki]

last things first!
the coolant light haas two jobs,
1. if the gauge is also high( above 3/4) its telling you OVER TEMP
2. if the gauge is low, or the engine is just started , LOW COOLANT

if its low coolant, and there is obviously plenty in the header tank ( the one in the engine bay NOT the one behind the numberplate flap) its the sender or wiring , a cheap fix, if time consuming if its the wiring

Petrol pipes! They need changing anyway ( all but the plastic ones from front to back if it still has plastic ones) you need to do that whatever, as matter of safety.

as for welding, well , thats something you need at least a second opinion on, and it will never be what the quote is, because of the nature of the beast.

[kevtherev]

All this considered, what are your thoughts? I've spent a whack with the initial naive purchase but don't want to keep throwing money at a lost cause. Cheers, B

You and all of us here throw money at our own lost cause.
Because that's what they are.
If you're not comfortable with that.
And you'd rather not get involved with fixing it yourself then it's time to move on and say goodbye to vehicles that beat you up.
Back to new cars with fault codes and two yearly services. (yawn)

[Ant-t]

As above definitely get a second opinion on welding preferably from someone who knows t25s, another option is to learn welding yourself and work on the van but that depends on your confidence, ability and time. Re coolant warning gauge I'd check the connection pipe between the two coolant tanks, I only say that as my 83 1.9 had the same symptoms a while back and it was this pipe that was the cause of this fault, so worth a look.

[philmcC]

You are not alone!. I bought my 1986 autohomes Komet syncro on eBay as an impulse buy. I picked it up in Inverness with an MOT for one year. I got as far as Pitlochry travelling through a blizzard when it sort of disintegrated. Recovered to a garage in Blair Athol took a month to get it roadworthy enough to make the journey south. I had it looked over by a specialist who said I had two options 1 to scrap it 2 to spend a lot of money sorting it out. By then I was smitten so I opted for the latter. 2 1/2 years later I have a very nice van. Do not underestimate what it will take to sort everything out. PmcC

[Ant-t]

That must have been distressing, a month in a garage after buying it and then told one of two options was to scrap it! Sounds like that was an expensive option 2...

[philmcC]

Yes it was a bit of a hit financially. However it was over 2 years so that spread it out a bit. Getting in touch with real experts, Aidan Talbot transmission and excellent advice, Gary Wilkie bodywork highly technical welding and sending photos of progress and Steve Theobald a great resource of knowledge and skill locally. And a lot of thanks to the forum for practical help and information. PmcC

[bensid]

Thanks all. Going to get a few welding quotes and see how the land lies after that..

Does anybody know of good specialists / garages in north London?