BruceM

When you say that the cold water alarm has a mind of its own what precisely do you mean – it may help to know? Personally, I don’t see replacing the studs will make any difference, they appear to be be simple (stainless steel?) bolts designed to allow electrical contact between the DC-VE line and the studs used for monitoring. If the monitoring is erratic I’d suspect a poor connection to the studs or a damaged or poorly seated cable harness. Perhaps to test the system it would be worth progressively linking the DC-VE line to each of the stud monitoring lines (they appear to be colour coded) to see what the effect is. At least that way we’ll be able to narrow down to the area at fault.

We own a 2003 van, purchased about six years ago. It’s turned out to be superb with few issues. In our case we intentionally focussed on German built A class vans only due to their perceived superior build quality, Dethleffs in our case. These vans seem to have a much higher clearance than a modern van (I can crawl under its whole length) which is great for diy’ers and may help preserve the chassis by keeping it further away from wet road surfaces and allowing more air circulation. As has been mentioned the base vehicle (fiat) will be common to most vans. If it’s a 2003 vehicle it probably has a 2.8 jtd engine but you need to be certain. I have the impression that the 2.8 jtd is regarded as a reliable workhorse if well maintained. In your situation, if any van you inspect has clean mots and has a regular reasonable mileage (ours at 89,000 miles has an approx average of 4,000 miles pa) and evidence of regular servicing, fluid levels are good, starts first time, doesn’t smoke, drives well and an inspection underneath with a torch indicates the chassis is ok then I’d suggest the next major focus will be the condition of the habitation area. You’ll probably get a feel for how well the van has been treated by the state of the habitation area. If it sports a lot of diy modifications I’d be cautious. If all the equipment works (heating, fridge, cooker), the taps all work (view it with water on board and boiler heated up) and all the cushions/bed equipment are there then that's a positive sign. Unless the van has been particularly well maintained expect to spend a bit on the habitation area to bring it up to spec. For instance habitation batteries may require replacing, solar if there is any may be usefully upgraded, and probably every habitation bolt and screw will need to be tightened after the van has been bumped around for 21 years. Re damp, a damp meter is useful. Personally, I preferred to use by nose and touch to detect soft or damp conditions – not very scientific but works for me. I’d always buy from a private seller. A lot can be gleaned from a current owner regarding their use of the vehicle, their reason for selling and generally whether there are any issues (features?). It’s also generally cheaper to purchase this way. However I guess whether to purchase through a dealer or a personal seller depends to some extent on how adverse you are to risk.

I’m not able to offer any definitive advice as I don’t know enough about the engine to know whether the coolant sensor controls the fans or whether there’s an engine oil sensor (?) maybe that the cpu monitors and then the cpu controls the fans – but . . . when I first got this van the temp dial on the dash never sat at the mid point when the engine appeared to be up to temperature (a known issue on this engine apparently). The sensor and thermostat were changed with no effect. However, putting an analyser on the engine indicated that as far as the cpu was concerned, the engine was up to temperature. So, as I’m now aware that the cpu is responsible for operating the fans then in the first instance I think I’d put an analyser on your engine and read what temperature the cpu is reading. If it’s not reading high and the fans are coming on I’d suspect an electrical short of some kind. If it is reading high (and hence turning on the fans) then the garage can compare it to the actual engine temperature taken with an external probe and reach a conclusion of what to investigate next from there – ie a coolant blockage or an electrical short. Incidentally, I never did discover how to get my dash temperature gauge to display correctly.

Thanks, yes I spotted the same , now rectified. This A Class takes its air from under the vehicle which is probably the worst place for sucking in fumes in a traffic jam so we're frequently closing the intake.

Thanks both, that’s really useful. I sanitised the van interior and air vent system when I first bought the van to remove that vague smell of dog(?) that vans sometime acquire. Probably about time I sanitised the air vent system again.

So, after owning the van for six years and having travelled in hot foreign climes with the windows open and a portable fan to keep cool, I have today discovered after peering under the bonnet that the van has air con! – and it works! This is what comes of not having a base vehicle manual. It’s turned on by pushing the indicated button (see picture). So the question is, how sophisticated is this? Do I just turn it on and it blows cold air until turned off, or do the temperature controls impact whether it’s activated. As a reminder it's a 2003 vehicle with a 2.8 jtd engine

I think that you’re correct. Because they had trouble getting hold of the timing belt cover, they changed the timing belt, water pump and aux belts so that they could start the engine and see if the engine was ok. Apparently they were concerned that the engine overheating might have damaged the cylinder head (new one on me that), and if damaged the bill might be much much larger. Apparently they’d had a motorhome in recently and the damage to that engine cost £7.5k to fix (nope I don’t have any details). My engine was fine though. So when the timing belt cover was finally obtained the aux belt had to come off again to fit the cover – more labour, sigh!

At the last cam belt change in 2019 (in a different part of the country) I asked that any auxiliary belts be checked in case they needed replacement. The van came back with the cam belt changed and the existing aux belts re-tensioned - 'apparently' their condition was fine. Lesson learned.

Gosh, a similar situation to me (2.8jtd). Just before Christmas on a run the motive power died off and strange noises emitted from the van’s front. AA got to me in an hour – and yes could see a belt has failed. Van lifted to the only garage in the area (within 30 miles) who would take the van just before Christmas (a non Fiat Dealership). Turns out the auxiliary belt has failed (engine instantly over heats) , destroying the timing belt cover, contaminating the timing belt (but probably not dislodged it), and the coolant pressure increasing has popped the radiator – which was probably due for replacement anyway. The van ended up being with them over two months. They refused to accept liability for a the timing belt change without also changing the water pump – and spent many many hours trying to get the pump off. Non of this helped by the fact that neither of their two commercial vehicle lifts were quite wide enough to lift the van more three quarters of a metre off the ground so the mechanic had to work on his back. And it additionally took three and a half hours just to remove the old radiator. Finding a timing belt cover was a challenge and they had to resort to second hand in the end. I got the van back a week ago and so far appears back to normal and running well. My bill was much much larger than yours. My only consolidation is that the van is due its timing belt change this year – and the damage could have been much much worse. I suspect my usual garage would have cost half as much, but hey ho, its all swings and roundabouts.

If the work can take place from beneath the vehicle I’d not expect the cost to be any greater. However if through a ‘letterbox’ bonnet it may be another matter. I know from my own experience that I have to be something of a contortionist to even get my head through the bonnet space to reach some parts – eg something as simple as changing the engine air filter. I’d fully expect a mechanic to price in the extra time involved to gain access especially if they’re charging £130/hr or more.

. . . . Also, was it working fine just before it stopped or has it been left shut and unused for a length of time? I had something similar on the rear electric windows of another vehicle. It turned out that because it was so long since they’d been used they were presenting too much resistance to being initially moved (dirt build up etc?) so the motor was sensing an obstruction and cutting out. A few bangs on the window was enough to free it up followed by a good clean of the guide channels.

Likewise, two 95Ah of batteries but with 200W of solar and never see any daytime battery drain during the summer. As always, it depends what power you take out of your batteries. If its just mobile phone and laptop I suspect you should be fine. If you watch a lot of TV (we don’t) and/or operate an inverter then it it might be otherwise.

Depends what you mean by 'stopped working'. I assume it won't lower? I had a similar issue on an earlier model of Dethleffs although in my case it just wouldn't shut. It turned out to be a fuse and more interestingly I discovered that there were two fuses that effected it, presumably one for the switch and one for the relay(?). The fuses looked fine by eye, it took a multimeter to discover that one of them had developed a hairline crack.

Yes, from the French text is a minimum of two people.

I think that the first thing to establish is just how noisy your cab actually is and if it’s more than normal find out why. In my old A class I can hear my sat nav just fine as well as Google sat nav on my mob. As a test, how about trying your mob’s sat nav in the van? If you can hear it just fine then I’d focus on your new sat nav being an issue. If your mob sat nav cannot be heard because of the ambient noise then I think you need to track down why your cab is so noisy. Assuming you’ve already got rid of all the usual motorhome rattles I think I’d turn my attention to the engine bay sound insulation. I replaced the insulation on my van and it transformed the ride experience. I don’t know the age of your van but if it’s an old one, the quality of the sound insulation can degrade over time.