I have a horrible feeling my T4 van's head gasket is toast

[weeksy]

Mine is a 2016 and the end of the non-wet belts. TBH mate you're wrong with the amount of failures being 'so many', my next one is likely a wet-belt. Don't forget that the Transit was the best selling vehicle last year, not the best van, or the best commercial, but the best selling, highest number of ALL. They get hammered and abused... which is likely as much of a reason for the failures as anything else.

The wet-belt issue wouldn't put me off buying one... but i'd buy slightly more cautiously than a non-wet i admit in terms of where/dealer/backup.

[Count Steer]

but the electric bits are NICE, like the heated seats, cruise, air-con, heated screen etc etc.

Yeah, I get that but I'm a natural-born Luddite and the flipside is that it's just more stuff to go wrong that I can't fix. From everything I've heard, the T4s are the last of the reliable Transporters. The later ones have a poor reliability record despite being far plusher, having all the toys and being nicer to drive.

Having said that, I'd probably go for a Renault Trafic if I was replacing it.

Just put of interest like, what's the commonest equivalent van that you see around the money pit?

I'd assume that the Renault service network is the commonest, but Ford seem pretty universal - although I was surprised to see most European Transits are built in Turkey rather than 'indoors' in the EU.

[mangocrazy]

Renault are absolutely everywhere - the closest official Renault garage to us is 2-3 kms away in the next (large) village. I haven't noticed where the nearest Ford garage is, but I'd guess their coverage will be good, but not as blanket as Renault. There's also the fact that any little indie garage will know Renaults inside out, they deal with so many of them.

From what I hear about Ford and the wet belt engines, a lot of it is down to how often the oil is changed. The latest super-high oil change intervals really don't help, and it's imperative that you use the correct Ford-specified oil or all bets are off.

And I've just found out that the little indie garage I used shut up shop in June! Now that is a blow...

[Noggin]

Yes, I doesn't owe me agreat deal (if at all), I agree. Part of my reluctance (apart from the cost) to switch to a newer van is the level of electrono-trickery on modern stuff. My T4 isn't without some of this, but it's nothing like the extent there is in a modern van.

The body seems pretty solid and stuff like brakes/suspension etc, I class as consumables so if I can get it fixed for (say) a couple of grand I'd take that happily.

but the electric bits are NICE, like the heated seats, cruise, air-con, heated screen etc etc.

Yeah, I get that but I'm a natural-born Luddite and the flipside is that it's just more stuff to go wrong that I can't fix. From everything I've heard, the T4s are the last of the reliable Transporters. The later ones have a poor reliability record despite being far plusher, having all the toys and being nicer to drive.

Having said that, I'd probably go for a Renault Trafic if I was replacing it.

T6 I hate - can't turn off the traction control (maybe you can now, but couldn't when I had to drive them) - they are much narrower than a trafic and a bit narrower than a transit, and I'm convinced you can't sit straight in them!! Well, I can't! Just slightly off centre and bloody uncomfortable as a result! I spent a half a winter driving T6s and was so very happy to go back to Trafics the next winter! (Although we have Caravelle luxe that is kinda cool, but still not as comfy to drive!)

T5 - that's the one I bought that blew up - I wouldn't touch another, they are old now and if they haven't been really well looked after . . . . .


I do rate the Trafic - driven them a LOT here (have done thousands, probably tens of thousands, of kms in them over the last 8 winters!!). I do prefer to drive a Transit tho, even though it's smaller for carrying capacity if that's important.


Have a look at the Peugeot versions too. Lots of people around us are buying van/minibus models by Peugeot for work vans and transfer vehicles. And a good mate up here has bought a Nissan minibus for his transfer business.


If I was looking again I'd want a Transit but would seriously consider a Nissan and it would probably come down to price.


Whilst I LOVE the Transit Custom, Traffic are a brilliant van (And take a LOT of abuse by transfer companies in the winter here - most companies use Trafics!!).

[Sadlonelygit]

Nissan nv/vauxhall movano/ traffic are all the same vehicle. Much like the citroen/peugeot/ fiat seval based vans

[mangocrazy]

Nissan nv/vauxhall movano/ traffic are all the same vehicle. Much like the citroen/peugeot/ fiat seval based vans

Didn't Vauxhall fairly recently switch from Renault to Citroen for their badge engineering? Not exactly sure when the switchover happened.

[cheb]

2019/2020 ish. I've a 20 plate Vivaro and it's Peugeot/Citroen based.

It's nice enough, start, stops, steers, speeds. The mk7 Transit has the best cab on any van I've driven.

[mangocrazy]

The van is booked in at Autohaus Dolby in Sheffield this Thursday, so hopefully I can get a definitive answer on whether the head/gasket is en panne (or not). I have a slim hope that there's a water leak in the heater box area, but I'm not building my hopes up too much.

As long as the Citroen/Peugeot/Vauxhall vans don't have wet belts they will be in definite consideration (along with Renault) if I need to replace the old bus.

[KungFooBob]

Get a nice Supercarry and deck it out with all the Yoshimura bits.

[mangocrazy]

Get a nice Supercarry and deck it out with all the Yoshimura bits.

Not sure if bikes would fit in the back and 8' x 4' sheets of plasterboard certainly wouldn't...

[KungFooBob]

Yeah, you need one for each foot.

[Druid]

I have a 24 plate Trafic for work and it's a gutless piece of shit. It's been off the road since last Thursday due to exhaust fumes finding their way into the cab, it's booked into a Renault dealer on 6th November.

If I was in the market for a van I'd be looking at a Mercedes Vito, despite weeksy's bad expecience with one

[weeksy]

I have a 24 plate Trafic for work and it's a gutless piece of shit. It's been off the road since last Thursday due to exhaust fumes finding their way into the cab, it's booked into a Renault dealer on 6th November.

If I was in the market for a van I'd be looking at a Mercedes Vito, despite weeksy's bad expecience with one

I'd have a Vito with no qualms but they're a bit smaller than a Transit and I like the heated screen in winter too

[mangocrazy]

I have a 24 plate Trafic for work and it's a gutless piece of shit. It's been off the road since last Thursday due to exhaust fumes finding their way into the cab, it's booked into a Renault dealer on 6th November.

What engine does it have? From memory there are 4 options, 110hp, 130hp, 150hp and 170hp. The 110hp ones are supposed to be best avoided.

The most gutless van I ever had was a 1993 Transit with the 2.5 litre Di engine (no turbo). I used to get overtaken by HGVs on the long climbs onto the Massif Central in France.

[weeksy]

You'd be amazed just how nice the high end Transits are now

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126706590047 ... R6i_toPbZA

[mangocrazy]

That really does look very plush in the cabin and very functional in the load area. Things have certainly moved on in the last 20 years...

[Taipan]

Could you not hire a pressure testing kit? If you don't know, they normally contain various rad cap adaptors and you put that in place of the rad/header tank cap and pump the system to whatever your rad cap says its max pressure is and start looking and listening for drips.

I've never even seen under the bonnet of a T4, but if the heater matrix is suspect and accessible, you disconnect the inlet and outlet hoses, join them together, and then test it and see if you're still losing pressure.

Also as mentioned a sniffer test on the water stem is a good call.

Fingers crossed for thursday that is just a pin hole leak somewhere...

[mangocrazy]

Could you not hire a pressure testing kit? If you don't know, they normally contain various rad cap adaptors and you put that in place of the rad/header tank cap and pump the system to whatever your rad cap says its max pressure is and start looking and listening for drips.

I've never even seen under the bonnet of a T4, but if the heater matrix is suspect and accessible, you disconnect the inlet and outlet hoses, join them together, and then test it and see if you're still losing pressure.

Also as mentioned a sniffer test on the water stem is a good call.

Fingers crossed for thursday that is just a pin hole leak somewhere...

There is no such thing as a rad cap on the T4, just an expansion tank with screw down filler. To be honest I'm not sure I'd even want to do a pressure test myself, I prefer leaving it to a garage.

The garage guy in France apparently did the sniffer in the expansion tank test and reckoned he detected exhaust gases, which is why I've always assumed there was a head/gasket related problem. But he also didn't appear to know that a T4's cooling system is pressurised and that when you open the expansion tank cap that excess pressure will vent. He regarded that as proof that a head gasket leak was pressurising the cooling system when in fact it was just working as designed.

Yeah - I'm really hoping it's just a leak, a failed o-ring or a pinhole somewhere...

[Taipan]

Could you not hire a pressure testing kit? If you don't know, they normally contain various rad cap adaptors and you put that in place of the rad/header tank cap and pump the system to whatever your rad cap says its max pressure is and start looking and listening for drips.

I've never even seen under the bonnet of a T4, but if the heater matrix is suspect and accessible, you disconnect the inlet and outlet hoses, join them together, and then test it and see if you're still losing pressure.

Also as mentioned a sniffer test on the water stem is a good call.

Fingers crossed for thursday that is just a pin hole leak somewhere...

There is no such thing as a rad cap on the T4, just an expansion tank with screw down filler. To be honest I'm not sure I'd even want to do a pressure test myself, I prefer leaving it to a garage.

The garage guy in France apparently did the sniffer in the expansion tank test and reckoned he detected exhaust gases, which is why I've always assumed there was a head/gasket related problem. But he also didn't appear to know that a T4's cooling system is pressurised and that when you open the expansion tank cap that excess pressure will vent. He regarded that as proof that a head gasket leak was pressurising the cooling system when in fact it was just working as designed.

Yeah - I'm really hoping it's just a leak, a failed o-ring or a pinhole somewhere...

Pressure testers have every adaptor and are very easy to use. FWIW, 1:40 in on the video and on a VW too! The garage guy should know every coolant system is pressurised, its how to stop the coolant from boiling! Academic now though. Look forward to the, hopefully positive, update.