Been a few days playing with things, found something bad out, then something even worse happened, but that's later, last Tuesday we went upto an iveco breakers in Doncaster, firstly we had been to fox covert, and they were useless, firstly claimed they had no iveco's in other than front end smashed ones, when i said i wanted little trim clips and things, after huffing and puffing i was allowed down the yard, they only had 2 iveco vans, both in because engines had gone i presume, no accident damage or owt, i got a few trim clips, a roof handle and that was that, £2, i wanted a passengers seat, headlining and stuff like that, needed the headlining because of the holes in the one i had from where the last owner took a stereo and speakers out, but i had the number of an iveco breakers around where i was, or so i thought, after a lot of farting about, it turns out i had been given the wrong number, a few people have this wrong number so i'm not alone, eventually rolled up at the iveco breakers yard, he had about 20 iveco daily's in, and he also does Renault vans.
Asked for a head lining, no probs, single passengers seat, no can do, they don't make em, I'd have to use a drivers seat, the bolt holes should be there for if the van was a left hand drive model, but he didn't have any decent drivers seats in for my model, i also wanted a few switches and other trim items, no probs, just get the trim items i wanted, while the bloke got the headlining out for me, he gave me the door rubbers, light unit and a load of clips for nowt, so i was happy.
I spent the rest of the week putting the items i had bought into the van, i was doing electrical stuff, and had seen and heard about problems with iveco's suffering fires starting in the fuse board area, i'm glad i took the dodgy alarm out now, as it was what I'd call a fire hazard, especially if this van is known to have problems like this, so for the electrical items i would be fitting (phone charger, reversing monitor system, CD player etc) i put in a separate 4 way fuse box, and ran a fused wire from the main terminal on the fuse board to the second fuse box, on the last van i just ran all the accessories in the cab off one fuse, best do things properly in this van.
I enquired about a good heavy duty battery isolator switch for under the bonnet, gotta choose which one i want, and need to find out the current pulled, and get one with a good break current rating (i.e. no good going for one that can handle the starter load, but if a short ever happens, when you turn the key to kill the power the contacts weld closed, so I'll need a real heavy duty one) i fitted the fire extinguisher by the side of the drivers seat too, just as a precaution.
Also fitted the CD player, i had also got some better door bins, they have speaker pods in them, and the last owner fitted some small Kenwood speakers there, and really bodged it, cutting holes for the grills with what looks like a pair of scissors, i got some door bins with the original iveco speakers in them, so after i had washed the headliner and door cards, put them on the doors.
Cut my hands to ribbons as usual fitting the CD player, had to fit the cage twice.. fitted it upside down first time, wondered why the unit would go in so far and get stuck, then fitted the traveller route planner thing i have, only place for it was on the dashboard document glove box, this is a lift up item, so i had to route the wire through the lid, and loose some of the lift, i don't use it for much anyway, so don't need to have it open fully, the next day i got a new nokia phone holder, and fitted that next to the traveller, fitted the hands free kit and found it doesn't work very well anymore, cheapo aftermarket things, they can hear me, but i get garbled speech from the speaker, wired up the reversing monitors power, used a headlight switch, position 1 and it comes on when reverse is selected, position 2 and it's on all the time, just need the camera now :)
Fixed something i spotted in the engine bay, the cold start devise on this van is a single glow plug and 5th injector unit in the intake manifold, it heats up and fuel is sprayed on it, and that heated fuel is used to start the engine, it works very well, but the engine doesn't seem to even need the cold start, starts the second the starter is engaged, but the fuel pipe connection is a metal pipe from a solenoid valve, and the compression fitting was undone and slipped down the pipe, the threads were damaged on the injector, and i had to take the thing off to restore the threads, no easy task as 2 water hoses get in the way.
On Thursday i went to have the whining noise i have between 60 and 73 mph checked out, i had found a slightly worn centre bearing rubber, and a loose rear wheel bearing, but that shouldn't cause the whining, and as iveco want £198 for the centre bearing, and £94 for each rear wheel bearing kit, i don't want to be replacing things i dint need to, i also asked for a drivers seatbelt as mine is slow to retract, they don't sell them singularly, just in sets of 3.. stalks and all for £145!!!, I'll get one from somewhere else i think.
Went to northern road engineering in Newark, and the bloke drove the van and confirmed it was diff whine, but most likely the crown wheel and pinion was bad, cost to fix.. £781 plus vat!!!, that's for essentially a re-conditioned differential all fitted, but i think i can live with the noise for a while longer, it is just a noise, it'll eventually go, but as long as the oil level is right, it'll last for ages (the oil in the axle when i got the van was like muddy water, it had never been changed, causing the problems)
Friday i fitted the new headlining, it took me ages to clean it, came from an ex gas board van, and the drivers aren't issued note pads it seems, loads of phone numbers written in biro on the head lining, they came off eventually, and at least this lining is complete, finished fitting it, and boarded the holes in the wood above the lining up, also bashed down and re-sealed the rear bulkhead that had been knocked loose at the bottom when the last owner forgot to tie down a load once or twice.
I'd got the cab looking pretty respectable, stripped the back out of the boarding, done a full service using genuine iveco filters, they were cheap enough, replaced all the oils, gearbox got fully synthetic oil recommended by iveco, it's has loosened up the stiff second gear a lot, back axle got the thickest oil iveco recommends, anything is better than the water it had for oil before, and the engine got castrol GTD, i fitted the old sparkrite alarm from my last van as sigma wouldn't tell me the wiring of the unit that was fitted to the van, so i have binned the sigma unit, the sparkrite unit is just temporary, it'll get a proper good alarm when it's a motorhome, but fitted the alarm so i could have remote central locking, had to buy a sparkrite module to get it to work, but i'm happy with it.
Today i got up at about 7, hadn't slept much due to being up all night suffering from a colitis attack, but went in the van and got breakfast for Vicky from Mc Donald's, called in halfords to have a laugh if they had a seatbelt that i could use in the van.. not a chance, just securon units that have different buckle systems, and none had 2 foot stalks needed for a van where you sit upright in a height adjustable seat that has a foot of adjustment, then later on i made a list of things i wanted for the van, to go to a truck parts place to see if they can get them in cheaper than iveco.
On my list were a set of shockers all round, the ones on the van are pretty worn, a rear wheel bearing kit, centre bearing rubber if possible, and a few other little things, at 10 we set off up the A1 to Newark, everything was fine, engine started as usual the second the starter turned an inch, ticked over nicely, revved cleanly etc, water temperature was at a steady 70 degrees C, as it always is, i was cruising happily at between 65 and 70 mph pulling about 3 and a half thousand revs, about half a mile from the turning i wanted for Newark all of a sudden the engine made one hell of a rumbling knocking noise, at first i thought i had blown a tyre, i dipped the clutch immediately, and coasted into a handy layby.
Got out and all tyres were fine, it all happened so fast so i'm not sure exactly what i felt and heard now, second thing came to mind that it had shed the alternator drive belt and was wrapped around the pulleys, so i popped the bonnet and it was fine, then i dreadingly removed a bolt for the cam belt cover, praying the belt wasn't snapped, it wasn't, still tight and on the sprockets, i checked what i could, the engine had oil in her, upto the max mark, coolant was normal, no oil pools under the engine or anything, it looked fine, then i tried the starter, CLUNK, the engine was locked up, fuckingbollocksarsebastardandshit i said not so quietly, the gear lever had vibrated like mad when it happened, so i crawled under to see if the clutch had collapsed or something ,but it was all fine, i could push the van so the gear box wasn't locking the engine up.
When i popped the bonnet i could smell hot diesel, not really strong, but i never smelt anything off the engine on this van, so that was strange, i noticed an oily leak down from the back of the head that wasn't there before, the engine was pretty leak free, especially at the top end, but now there was an oily mark, could be diesel and oil, but there's no access to that end of the engine with out taking the heater unit off, it's just clips but i didn't want to do it on the side of the A1, i had no choice but to call the breakdown services out, glad i had got proper cover now, if i had assumed the RAC still covered me I'd have been left with a big bill to be towed off the road, phoned up international breakdown, and they farted around for 15 minutes checking my membership status, i had been a member for 2 weeks, that's how long i've had the van, but eventually they agreed i was a member and took the details down, 'someone will be there in an hour' was the usual parting words.
An hour later Hampsons phoned me up, to check what load i was carrying, i had already told international breakdown i was empty, guess no one believed me, but i was told the driver was on his way back from Lincoln, and would be with me as soon as he got back and picked up the big truck that could recover a van this size.
3/4 of an hour later he arrived, we had phoned my parents who went mad, the engine seemed so sweet on this van, didn't use any oil, didn't leak, didn't smoke, it seemed perfect, but we had to decide what to do, have it put on the drive at home, then what would i do, i cant take the engine out on a sloping drive, and then what do i do with it, so it was decided to take it to northern road engineering for them to diagnose and report the problem when they could, luckily someone was there to allow the van to be dropped off at the yard, and they'd look at it on Monday.
So off we went around the corner, i could almost see the garage i was being taken to from the A1, i was that close to where i wanted to be, but we got dropped off at their yard, and the bloke there came and had a look, with no external signs of a fault he couldn't do much, it'll need stripping on Monday, it could be anything from an injector nozzle dropped off and hydraulic locked the engine by pumping in too much diesel to be compressed (bent con rod if that's happened), of it could be a big end has let go, wither way it doesn't look cheap, worst case scenarios a fully reconditioned replacement engine is about 2 grand!!!, about the same as one for the LT, and that one had an extra 2 cylinders, so I'll have to check prices out when i know what's happened and take it from there.
As you can imagine, i'm not very happy at the moment, the money came through today for the motorhome body too, we were about to go up and book a date for it to be built, cant do that now.
I have to wait until Monday to find out what's what, so check back then to find out yourself, and I'll have to see where i can borrow the money from for this problem, (any donations most welcome :)
This is the first time i've ever broken down in one of my vehicles (apart from a mini when i was 17 that got water in the dizzy during a torrential rain storm), the LT engine had 2 half dead cylinders, yet kept on going, it had been like that for 3 years, and I'd been round Europe twice with out a fault, the iveco engine lets go while 10 miles from home, with out any warning what so ever, there may have been warnings, but i haven't found a place to mount an oil pressure gauge yet, but i don't think oil pressure dropped causing the problem, more like something failed and bounced about in the engine, so bod knows what damage it's done, excuse me while i go and cry.
