Looking for Merc. Vito ... any tips?

[mark61]

I never had the pleasure of having a OM602. I wanted one though, lol. Quite a few 207's 307's & 208's 308's. All bought second hand ( as have the Sprinters) some with phenomenal mileage. Never main dealer serviced though, my latest Sprinter is the only one to go to main dealer as original purchaser also bough the service package, then sold the van at 5 months old. A very lucky e bay purchase for me.

 

[mandrake]

I must be lucky, the handful of Sprinters I have had, have all turned out to be as equally reliable as the legendary T1's. True they don't have the same solid feel to them, dashboards in particular, and certainly now there is a lot more to go wrong. Barring my latest Sprinter, all were work vans, not pampered MH's. I do keep my fingers crossed though. lol
T1's went up to 4.6T

early sprinters were ok its just the later stuff ,cars and vans all totaly rubbish .you can see 12 month old vans full of rust

 

[Seannachie]

I never had the pleasure of having a OM602. I wanted one though, lol. Quite a few 207's 307's & 208's 308's. All bought second hand ( as have the Sprinters) some with phenomenal mileage. Never main dealer serviced though, my latest Sprinter is the only one to go to main dealer as original purchaser also bough the service package, then sold the van at 5 months old. A very lucky e bay purchase for me.

My 310D lwb hi-roof with the OM602 used to do 70mph all day with a heavy Safari caravan on the back (a real caravan, built on a separate BWP chassis but weighed a tonne and a half which was heavy for a small 2-berth). I had it main dealer serviced for 20 years as (a) they always treated me right (discounts for long-service etc) and (b) because that enabled me to get European breakdown insurance for a 20 year-old vehicle. Unfortunately, my wife got tired of being taken for a Gypo, so I had to sell it and we bought one of those fancy commercially built motorcaravans on a nasty Sevel van to replace it. There are only two good things you can say about the latter: we are no longer taken for Gypsies and we can now drive through London without incurring a £100 daily emission charge. Guffaw!

 

[mark61]

lol, Usually on the olde internet the rumour is the original Sprinter was a rust bucket, and the later ones are better. The one I have as a camper is still well within its warranty period. I'll keep an eye out for the rust.

 

[Seannachie]

early sprinters were ok its just the later stuff ,cars and vans all totaly rubbish .you can see 12 month old vans full of rust

The glowplugs on the very early Sprinters used to weld themselves into the cylinder heads - normally discovered only after the vehicle was out of warranty - which meant an expensive repair instead of just £25.00 for a new glowplug.

 

[mark61]

The glowplugs on the very early Sprinters used to weld themselves into the cylinder heads - normally discovered only after the vehicle was out of warranty - which meant an expensive repair instead of just £25.00 for a new glowplug.

Don't understand why they were more prone. Early Sprinters had OM601 & OM602 engines, although the OM602 was heavily revised.

 

[mandrake]

lol, Usually on the olde internet the rumour is the original Sprinter was a rust bucket, and the later ones are better. The one I have as a camper is still well within its warranty period. I'll keep an eye out for the rust.

be carefull with the merc warranty they will wriggle out of the body rust part .i had a c class 250 d car and as such joined the merc club online as you do .the tales of woe i heard regarding body warranties not being worth the paper they were printed on and this was on 12 month old cars ,many were not replacing with mercs but other types like the jaguars

 

[mandrake]

Don't understand why they were more prone. Early Sprinters had OM601 & OM602 engines, although the OM602 was heavily revised.

i have heard of the black death being prevalent on mercs more than other oil burners , but that's usually the injectors poor seals according to form .only thing is that the basic engines may be the same but ancillaries are not up to usual quality ,giving poor reliability

 

[Seannachie]

Don't understand why they were more prone. Early Sprinters had OM601 & OM602 engines, although the OM602 was heavily revised.

MB used a different supplier for its glow-plugs when it first introduced the Sprinter but the problem with them welding into the cylinder head did not become apparent for a few years until individual glow-plugs failed and needed replacement - then the problems arose (note that at that time - 1993 - MB gave only a 12 month warranty). They broke off when trying to remove them, often necessitating a complete cylinder-head replacement, or, at least, its removal to get the broken bits out of the cylinders, according to my main MB truck dealer with whom I've dealt for over 20 years. Admittedly, once the problem was realised, MB changed their supplier, but I don't know by what date this happened. The advice the chief technician gave me was this: if buying an early Sprinter, make it a condition of the purchase that all the glow-plugs are renewed at the seller's expense - on the OM602 engine it cost approx £75 + VAT.