Which panel van to convert

Borderland

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Having sold my previous vehicle I intend to buy a panel van to convert and on looking at the various sizes I had decided on a Citroen Relay or Peugeot Boxer with a 2.2ltr, 120 bhp engine.
I have however looked at numerous forums on the internet and the reliability of these vehicles gets totally slated with very few comments of approval. Most of the complaints seem to relate to vehicles that have covered 60k - 80k miles and the common problems are failures of the injectors, turbo, EGR valve, clutch, gearbox, dual mass flywheel. Whilst I don't normally take too much of what is on the internet for granted there does seem to be an extremely high number of forums where owners are condemning their vehicles and several having to shell out over £2000 to get them repaired and some owners have had new engines fitted.
Are there any mechanics on the forum that can comment on these vehicles or suggest an alternative make/model
 
The Fiat with 2.3 engine is a little better, certainly it hasn't as many problems with EGR valve, and doesn't tend to destroy the engine with turbo/piston failures, but all vehicles seem to have an achilles heel of some sort.
p.s. the 2.2 citreon/pug engine is basicaly the same engine as transit.
 
Thanks for your reply.
I did discount the Fiat because I believe it has a cam belt as opposed to timing chain and again several reported issues on internet about belt snapping and cost of replacement etc but did not do a lot of research into it and I may have the wrong opinion.
I accept all vehicles have their Achilles heal so to speak but the Relay and Boxer seem to get slated with the issues I mentioned and also a lot of electrical problems as well including immobiliser problems.
Have to say I can't find any van that gets a lot of praise on the internet but some seem to be a lot worse than others.
 
Camchain these days is no guarantee of reliability. Plenty of reports of transit camchain engines eating themselves and others too. E.g. Nissan Micra (the beetle shaped one) are reported go stretch theirs and lunch the motor (or cost heaps to fix).

But if it helps, our work has run some Vauxhall Vivaros hard and heavy to 150k without any big issues, and the Renault Trafic Hitops seem to doing well too. The guys run very heavy commercial vehicle toolboxes, oil, spares, jacks etc, and dont hang about or mollycoddle our vans. Weve seen engine management lights on etc. but the vans havnt gon inti limp mode or had any actual mechanical issues when the eng light has come on - one van ran like that for 10's of thousands of miles with no ill effects.

Ok... maybe we have just been lucky, or maybe vans hold up better worked hard? Either way all I can comment on is what my work has experienced.

( I run an old 2000 LDV Convoy camper with a Transit Banana engine with an EGR-ectomy, so I cant suffer from electronic, DPF, DMF gremlins, cos I dont HAVE any of em :banana:
 
i run a 2.8 iveco turbo with out all the electrickery s--t ,its a ex library bus all alloy & glassfibre on a truck chassis.They can be bought at good money and are a easy convert and very reliable and strong,try and get a series 2 pre 2000.
 
The big supermarkets use iveco mainly or sprinters and run them to high mileages the main issues seem to be tyres brakes and starter motors because of the constant stop start nature of use other than that just basic maintenance
 
Lots of vw crafter and sprinter vans used for deliveries where I work.Speaking to the drivers,a lot say sprinters give them backache when driving and rust easily.Crafters no complaints.
 
I searched for a long time and like you read various horror stories on the internet. I finally decided on an ex-motability trade in (Renault Master SWB) which was ten years old but had been the same owner since new, it had only done 80k and regularly serviced.

So maybe worth looking at Motability Conversion Dealers for a trade in vehicle.
 
Thanks for all your replies. I had originally decided the Relay or Boxer was the way to go due to its size and also because a lot of motorhomes are based on these vehicles but would no longer have any confidence in the vehicle after reading reports on the internet.
I am now starting to favour the Renault Master. I was recommended the Merc Sprinter but high cost to buy would rule that one out.
 
Master/movano have galvanised bodywork and the chassis are injected with wax from memory. I think the sevel vans and the crafter are also galvanised.

The tranny and sprinter aren't, so the bodywork and chassis can rust easier.
 
Borderland said:
Thanks for all your replies. I had originally decided the Relay or Boxer was the way to go due to its size and also because a lot of motorhomes are based on these vehicles but would no longer have any confidence in the vehicle after reading reports on the internet.
I am now starting to favour the Renault Master. I was recommended the Merc Sprinter but high cost to buy would rule that one out.
Click to expand...

Going back a bit , We had Ren Master vans for our engineers, always fully laden to 3.5 t, .Gearboxes kept going. These were 2002 2004 vans. 3 boxes in one of them.
 
Masters and Traffics have GM gearboxs, until a year or so ago these where failing on a regular basis, it was eventually found out that the boxes were being assembled incorrectly.
 
At work we recently ran 6 2.2 Peugeot Boxers all to around 180k no real issues other than all had a clutch and some a flywheel buts to be expected. 2010/11 models.
 
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If I was doing another Self Bild, I'd probably go for an ELWB Iveco
and re. camchains? They tend not go, it's just the followers and their associated bits that collapse :)
 
baloothebear said:
If I was doing another Self Bild, I'd probably go for an ELWB Iveco
and re. camchains? They tend not go, it's just the followers and their associated bits that collapse :)
Click to expand...

strange as there are no chains as there belt cam drive?
 
I've got an Iveco 2.3 140hp MWB. It used to be a general builders van and has a few bruises to prove it, but that just makes it an honest van. Seems to be very roomy compared to the Sevel, and I'm well happy with it. There will be repairs and maintenance to be done, and parts will need to be replaced, but that’s just part and parcel of having a van.:cool:
 
Borderland said:
Having sold my previous vehicle I intend to buy a panel van to convert and on looking at the various sizes I had decided on a Citroen Relay or Peugeot Boxer with a 2.2ltr, 120 bhp engine.
I have however looked at numerous forums on the internet and the reliability of these vehicles gets totally slated with very few comments of approval. Most of the complaints seem to relate to vehicles that have covered 60k - 80k miles and the common problems are failures of the injectors, turbo, EGR valve, clutch, gearbox, dual mass flywheel. Whilst I don't normally take too much of what is on the internet for granted there does seem to be an extremely high number of forums where owners are condemning their vehicles and several having to shell out over £2000 to get them repaired and some owners have had new engines fitted.
Are there any mechanics on the forum that can comment on these vehicles or suggest an alternative make/model
Click to expand...

I've been trying to work out which van to go for myself, post 2007 Fiat/Peugeot/Citroen Ducato/Boxer/Relay seem to get a slating. The Renault Master 2.5 dci seems to have a lot of problems although the bodywork seems to be well made and the VW/Merc vans have great engines but rotten bodies. The previous generation Fiat/Peugeot/Citroen with the 2.2 hdi seems favourite at the moment with hardly any disaster stories. I run a 2.0 hdi Expert as a work van with over two hundred thousand miles on the clock and it has never let me down and still returns around 39 mpg.
 
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