[dave f]

igot a citroen dispatch on a 06 plate had nowt but hassel ie 3 atemps at cluch exhaust fell off rocker cover gasket leek power stering pipe leaking, misfire i had enogh took it back, lost vat, 1k plus they took 500 quid off for ware n tare got a relacement van which cost another 3k ive lost 200 quid on signage 80 quid on roof bars i got a 07 transit replacement with 61 k on it ,but theres a twist i suspect this one has a irratic idling fault i pointed this out after a couple of days guy said transits do surge a bit but its a bit more than a smallsurge going over to to see them to point out that i aint convinced its driving me up the wall its cost me a a fortune lost work extera doe to cap it all inoticed the guys who did the signage got a couple of numbers wrong way round not being very mechanical dont want to tack any bull the place where i got it from seem ok theve been very good and lent me a van to get about in the few days ive fitted the wfp system in the tranny so it looks like ill have a few more days off 

[bobby p]

 french vehicles always av been a bit of a nightmare ,i used to be a mechanic and no mechanic likes the french stuff . from what you say,sounds as if a cack handed mechanic was fixing your citroen which you cant be ,you gotta work carefully on them.

 the way i used to look at it if i came across a bad un is, dont worry about it,dont lose sleep, in 6 months time itll be history one way or another

 id think your Ford would be sortable , might be just a split air pipe causing it to rev up and down,i once saw that on a Focus

[dave f]

i agree. now its the tranny i aint convinced that the idling is correct ive got 3mths warraty so gonna persue  untill im happy

[andyM]

There are a lot of crap vans for sale it seems  
I had to buy another van a couple of months back. I was looking for 2 weeks solid and ended up with a 2005 Citroen Berlingo which will do for a while. But I looked at a lot of vans from private sales to dealer sales and I was shocked at some of the crap that was on the market.
I looked at one van that a dealer was selling which was an ex-company vehicle (1 owner). Anyway it seemed quite straight and had lots of service history up until last year in the ex-company name.
Anyway I did a bit of investigating and contacted the company who had it previously and they told me they only keep their vans for 3 years and then get rid. They off-loaded this van in 2008?
So where had this van been for the last 3 years? And someone had obviously forged the service history records up until 2010 in the ex-companies name!
I looked at numerous other vehicles which were suspect in one way or another.
It has really put me off buying another used van and I am considering a new one next time.

[Spruce]

There are a lot of crap vans for sale it seems  
I had to buy another van a couple of months back. I was looking for 2 weeks solid and ended up with a 2005 Citroen Berlingo which will do for a while. But I looked at a lot of vans from private sales to dealer sales and I was shocked at some of the crap that was on the market.
I looked at one van that a dealer was selling which was an ex-company vehicle (1 owner). Anyway it seemed quite straight and had lots of service history up until last year in the ex-company name.
Anyway I did a bit of investigating and contacted the company who had it previously and they told me they only keep their vans for 3 years and then get rid. They off-loaded this van in 2008?
So where had this van been for the last 3 years? And someone had obviously forged the service history records up until 2010 in the ex-companies name!
I looked at numerous other vehicles which were suspect in one way or another.
It has really put me off buying another used van and I am considering a new one next time.

Anyone can order a rubber date stamp on the internet with a garage name and details on it and stamp a history up - service history is a great selling point, but you've got to know where the vans have come from. (You can even buy a new service history book from the main dealer spares dept and redo your own.)

If you buy a van from a main dealer, ie Ford, the majority of their nearly new stuff comes from within their own company, ie demonstrators and 1 year lease contracts to big companies that Ford HQ will do to big companies directly. This ensures a supply of low mileage 1 year old vans into the second hand retail market. They are choice vans and carry a higher price tag.

Ford (as do all the others) also do contract hire of vans through their dealer network up to 48 months and these vehicles that are in good condition, usually with Ford Service history done with the contract hire agreement will go into their dealer network, usually via closed auctions (not open to the public). All the other 'suspect' stuff will go direct to "open" auctions and this is where the majority of traders buy their stock. They also get stock from dealer trade-ins that the dealer wouldn't put on their forecourts.

There are some traders who have supplies from a particular council for example, that they buy and sell on, most being in good condition and well maintained.

So traders stock doesn't always come from the best places, but they always describe their stock as immaculate.

Spruce

[andyM]

Very informative as always Spruce, your advise is much appreciated.  
I opted to buy a used Berlingo direct from a local company who had owned the vehicle from new and had serviced and maintained the vehicle correctly through the main dealer.
Although this does not guarantee a faultless vehicle I at least know it has not been abused.
But there were plenty more vehicles I looked at which had not been maintained and were probably going to end up needing plenty of money being spent on them in the near future.
      

[Spruce]

The best chance you have is a van that has had 1 assigned driver - BT vans are a good example. On the other hand, Post Office vans are driven by all and sundry and are usually thrashed to death. I notice that a number of them on our area have numerousl battle scars as well.
I would never buy one.
Spruce

[dave f]

just got back from dealer told them i wernt happy and that the irratic idaling wasent normal even they said trannys do surge a bit so they are gonna replace the egr valv and re map if needed so far they have been very good its just a pain as ihave only got this motor at the moment

[Nameless Drudge]

Re: 2005 Transit 85 280 surging
by VRD » Tue Sep 06, 2011 6:37 pm

Finally, Finally got to the bottom of this problem, after changing the MAP sensor and the problem still persisting, I decided to do a run with the diagnostics still plugged in and do a live data test, it turns out that ford in there wisdom, have to admit it is impressive, have installed an overide system which means that if the engine gets too hot it cuts back the power normally around the 125 / 126 degree mark to save it cooking the head, it also turns out there's an issue with a spline wearing that connects the power steering pump to the water pump and hey presto problem solved, now just need to replace the offending part, thanks for the help and advice from various members

Might be useless information,but worth considering or giving to the mechanic/technician.

[Nameless Drudge]

A common fault with the mk 7 tdci  2.2 transits appears to be rough idle engine tick over or fluctuation engine hunting. Many back street garages will offer a multitude of answers ..." It's Your EGR valve mate " Injectors need replacing Guv" "needs a service" "It's your High pressure pump " etc etc This is all very well if you have a bottomless pit of money to keep forking out replacing most of your engine ... An alternative, shall we start with the most obvious cause?
Arm yourself with an 8mm and 10mm  socket , remove the air filter box , this is held down with two 8mm nuts at the back and one 10mm at the front , unclip the airflow meter pipe from the box( retained by two spring loaded clips)   slide off the air intake pipe located to the left of the box, pull airbox from engine bay . Now you can see the wood for the trees! Ok next port of call is the fuel pressure relief valve, this is located at the right hand ( if looking at the van from the front)  end of the rail. The valve is  a 17mm retention .Remove the diesel relief pipe from the valve ( normally held in place by a clip, push in red tab to release  ) Unwind the valve with 17mm ring spanner. If upon removing the valve you find that you have 'several bits' this means that the valve has exploded! and will need replacing a good valve will be one part  ......STOP!!!
The valve will cost you about £60 but if you put a new one in - that will go bang too ... Why ? Your van will need a software update and a process called pcm recalibration , pump learn and fuel pressure relief valve counter reset .This process will cost you one hour at ford Aprox £70 . Don't be fooled into thinking that a back street garage armed with a snap on code reader can do this because they can not !

This review has just saved you £170 diagnostics charge from your ford main dealer , so now getting it done shouldn't hurt your wallet so much !!

If your fuel pressure relief valve is intact  a software update will normally solve the problem... One other area to check is your clutch pedal switch located on the pedal box frame work . remove the dash panel under steering wheel to expose frame work , find the switch which is controlled by your clutch being pressed . remove plug to switch and take out switch by twisting .. see if engine ticks over better without it, don't drive van without this switch as it controls throttle damper and without it your revs will hold whilst changing gear...

This might be betterer.

[concept]

A common fault with the mk 7 tdci  2.2 transits appears to be rough idle engine tick over or fluctuation engine hunting. Many back street garages will offer a multitude of answers ..." It's Your EGR valve mate " Injectors need replacing Guv" "needs a service" "It's your High pressure pump " etc etc This is all very well if you have a bottomless pit of money to keep forking out replacing most of your engine ... An alternative, shall we start with the most obvious cause?
Arm yourself with an 8mm and 10mm  socket , remove the air filter box , this is held down with two 8mm nuts at the back and one 10mm at the front , unclip the airflow meter pipe from the box( retained by two spring loaded clips)   slide off the air intake pipe located to the left of the box, pull airbox from engine bay . Now you can see the wood for the trees! Ok next port of call is the fuel pressure relief valve, this is located at the right hand ( if looking at the van from the front)  end of the rail. The valve is  a 17mm retention .Remove the diesel relief pipe from the valve ( normally held in place by a clip, push in red tab to release  ) Unwind the valve with 17mm ring spanner. If upon removing the valve you find that you have 'several bits' this means that the valve has exploded! and will need replacing a good valve will be one part  ......STOP!!!
The valve will cost you about £60 but if you put a new one in - that will go bang too ... Why ? Your van will need a software update and a process called pcm recalibration , pump learn and fuel pressure relief valve counter reset .This process will cost you one hour at ford Aprox £70 . Don't be fooled into thinking that a back street garage armed with a snap on code reader can do this because they can not !

This review has just saved you £170 diagnostics charge from your ford main dealer , so now getting it done shouldn't hurt your wallet so much !!

If your fuel pressure relief valve is intact  a software update will normally solve the problem... One other area to check is your clutch pedal switch located on the pedal box frame work . remove the dash panel under steering wheel to expose frame work , find the switch which is controlled by your clutch being pressed . remove plug to switch and take out switch by twisting .. see if engine ticks over better without it, don't drive van without this switch as it controls throttle damper and without it your revs will hold whilst changing gear...

This might be betterer.

Just looking at a mk7 as a replacement for my mk6. Thanks for the info!

[Spruce]

These common rail engines are getting too complicated for purpose. No wonder this 'go green' drive is costing our ecomony a fortune and making it less competitive.

[CleartechLee]

Anyone with a Ford IDS system can do the reset and injector calibration coding or anything ford can to be honest so don’t go paying ford prices because I’d surprised if they do any of that for £70+

Ring around your mobile auto leccys any decent one will have the kit. (me included  )

Alot of mk7's get mis diagnosed as duff injectors because they are sooo soooooo common and the mk6's and the mondeos and that relief valve on the end of the fuel rail isn’t there on the mk6's but show exact symptoms as a leaky injector or 2