New Vito Advice

[bendont]

Hi,

I am looking to buy a vito van to use to do a bit of light removals work as well as lug my mountain bikes around to the local trails. It seems to me that there are alot of high mileage vitos with people still asking a decent price for. Can anyone advise me milage should be considered as high for a vito (Are they usually still good and relaible at 200,000)? Also if anyone has any advise on what to look for, common problems etc I would be very greatful.

thanks

Tim

 

[JonA]

Working on the commercial section for Mercedes, the main things we ever seemed to change were:

- The seals which fit on the back of the common rail (FPR)
- Injectors ... however it happens very rarely now.
- Pressure converter (sits on the pipe which runs from the intercooler to the manifold
- Lower ballsjoints A LOT
- A pump which is to do with the heating ( poor description sorry)

That's about it. If you were very unlucky then, instrument clusters and High pressure pump. Other then that they are pretty much solid.

HTH


~Jon

 

[m0jpm]

Hi, please refrain from buying a mercedes, I bought a Vito 110CDI (2000) and had nothing but problems.

Injectors are prone to leaking and thick carbon builds up on the head. This is a result of poor design and cheap enginering. Steel screws of the fork clamps that holds the injector in to place are screwed directly into the aluminium head.

The injectors are very long and same here steel into aluminium (which in my opinion is asking for trouble) therefore they tend to stick and 9/10 unremovable (good tip for those who have trouble getting them out use Mr. muscle oven cleaner not the foam but the spray we found it to do wonders!!)

Same problem with the glow plugs they cease solid in the head although if your glowplug light does stay on it's most likely the relay.

The body work suffers from RUST, RUST AND RUST.

The Vito is a problem vehicle and every honest mechanic will tell you this, thats why most mechanics wont take it on. and you have to take it to the stealerships, in my case Roadrange in Liverpool, 9 months ago i had a head replaced due to severe cabon build up and had 4 new injectors fitted all in all at the cost of £2500, a month later they started leaking again, back to the stealership where they retapped the thread, went ok till last week when i had a knocking noise (diesel knock) so i took it in to Roadrange liverpool to get some diagnostics done. first they give 2 hours, then they rang me back to say they needed some more hours (about 3) then they rang to say, you need 4 injectors or maybe 2?? now they have changed 1 and say, "it still does the same you might have a hole in the no 3 piston, so we need to strip it down. total cost sofar £553.13 a total ripp off.

In conclusion dont buy a vito, it's the nicest looking van on the market, it's a lovely drive (when it does) but you won't enjoy it for long. Very high maintenance cost.

Looking to buy a Hiace now, you cant beat Japanese reliabillity.