rot will be your biggest problem body panels made with cheap metal as part of the mercedes cost cutting exercise which also included the wiring far too many exposed earth points which corrode causing electrical woes and exposed connectors which also corrode,there is a bag beside the battery which mercedes in there wisdom fitted upside down so the water would fill up in the bag and rot away the wiring,engine wise they were ok there was an issue with oil consumption on the early 312/412 but i cant remember what the outcome was,also there were complaints about the brake pedal travel we had no end of customers complain about brake pedal travel mercs did do a couple of mods but i dont think it cured the problem. they had a habit of loosening the rear spring clamps and then shearing off the dimple that locates the spring in the rear axle causing the axle to move around,the front transverse leaf spring has been known to break as well,the interior is very plasticy and the cowling switch gear ( which we called cow horns) was very weak,the throttle pedal was very weak it had a serated clip which housed the cable the edges would wear and cause the cable to slip we had to cable tie the clip to stop it slipping,they also had an injector issue where it would fill the electrics with diesel quite funny to see the rear light clusters full of diesel,but that was very rare.i'm going back years though i am not a merc tech anymore but remember the sprinter being launched.I’m looking at a Sprinter 412d p reg, any tips or advice on what to look out for also any input about the reliability of these vans would be much appreciated, many thanks
40000 miles wow that is very low mileage and being ex-police van maintenance wont have been an issue,i would say for what you want it is the perfect vehicle that version of sprinter 1st generation came out in 95 so it wasnt too electrical and still fairly primitive unlike the 2nd generation when it went common rail injection and more electrical, the biggest thing is going to be rust so underseal is a way to go i keep getting adverts on facebook for some stuff called lanoguard which requires hardly any prep and just spray on might be worth looking into,the cowl switch wasnt the radiator cowl i meant the indicator/wiper stalk they were very weak i dont recall many overheating issues and possibly a bigger rad might help,but defineatly check all the earth points in the engine bay for any green corrosion you cant miss them there will be a bunch of brown wires going to a single terminal screwed to the body.another thing to keep your eye on is the key the immobiliser chip is in the end of the key and has been known to fall out its a little black square thing oh and the outer door handles were weak as well.the only thing i will say is they have on board diagnostics but its not the generic type it used a big round connector it was a very early version of star it had a dot matrix screen it was quite basic and i am sure there are alternatives now.Ahh brilliant Jasons76, you seem to know you’re stuff,
I’m looking at converting a 412d into a camper. I can turn my hand with diy basic car mechanics but I’m not a mechanic myself, hence I thought I’d see if anybody had any advice
I’ve heard of some of the electrical headaches with these vans, but I’d not heard about diesel in the rear lights . is there anything i can do myself/pay to have done to mitigate potential electrical issues in these vans in particular?
I’ve also read about some potential over heating issues with these vans and radiator changes/modifications may help, possibly to do with the cowl switch you mentioned?
Also in terms of the body work, someone suggested to me a clear coat for the panels and getting the bottom under sealed wether that would suffice I don’t know.
the van I’m looking at is low mileage around 40000miles the sellers says the body work is perfect and zero rust (it’s ex police mobile office so possibly kept in a garage most of its days). I’d love the idea of having an older van and understand there will likely be some issues with a 24yo van but I was just wanting to get some genuine knowledgeable advice of wether it’s worth a punt on one of these vans or would I be better with a newer sprinter with higher mileage.
many thanks again
