First long journey..

cormie

Hi,
Was in Cork over the weekend with my van (99 Ford Transit 2.5 diesel) I've been driving about 2 weeks now. Anyway, just a few things, I filled the tank to the max at 144 miles on the mini clock and at 444 filled it up again to the max, which required 60 litres.

Is 60 litres for 300 miles good? I think I could do it in about 40 litres in my 1.1 fiesta.

I had a good bit of stuff in the back and it was very sluggish a lot of the time on very slightly slanted roads. I could be going 100km and the road would slant slightly and it would go down to maybe 80 quite quickly. Busses and 40 foot trucks were even overtaking me. Is this normal?

The next morning after driving down, I went to start the van again and even though I didn't leave anything on, the battery pretty much died and had to jump it using leads and another car. This is quite worrying considering it definitely would have had a good charge in the 150 mile+ journey down. Why could this be?

There is also this incessant rattling sound and I just can't figure out what it is. It's very strange, it sounds like a big marble is attached to a piece of string on the roof and when I go about 80kmph it starts banging and rattling around, but get this, when it was lashing hailstones down yesterday it stopped for a while, then when I got through the bad weather, it came back, it still does it in rain etc but stopped in the hail? It's so annoying, greatly reduces the listening pleasure of music:(

Any feedback appreciated:)

overdriver

Hiya Cormie

I'm getting 7.5 miles per litre in the HiAce, so that does seem a little thirsty, but if you had a full load and a lead foot, who knows. I do have a full load betimes too, and I still seem to do better than that.

The dead battery is down to a dodgy battery or a dodgy alternator. Start with replacing the battery, because if the alternator is dodgy, it'll take out the battery eventually anyway.

To test if its the alternator, start the van and put a multimeter across te terminals of the battery. it should read about 14 volts - 12 to run the car, and the rest to charge the battery. Any less and it's new alternator time.

bazz26

The old Transit was never designed for speed. The 2.5 litre diesel engine is quite old so doing 100kph with a heavy load in the back is impressive. All the same has the van being serviced recently? Maybe it is due a service.

Not really fair compairing the mpg of a Transit to a Fiesta. I would presume the Transit has a bigger fuel tank and is alot heavier especially when carrying a load. Your driving style also has to change slightly from a petrol car to a commercial van. Give it a bit of time.

The battery might simply be knackered or the altenator itself could be dodgy.

skibum

About 10 years ago I ran a VW transporter van and remember being a little disappointed on its thirst for diesel, even though I did have a very heavy right foot .

Had a quick look at your VanTasks.ie site, very nice, clear, no clutter, with good information. Good luck with your new venture

cormie

Thanks for the replies. Just about it being sluggish and fuel consumption, would tyres effect this much? Over 300 miles, how much extra do you reckon would be spent on fuel on almost bare tyres compared to brand new ones? My tyres are ok for now, just curious though:)

Overdriver, when you said "Start with replacing the battery, because if the alternator is dodgy, it'll take out the battery eventually anyway."

did you mean alternator instead of battery there?

If I had the headunit stereo on at high volume with a sat nav plugged into the cig adaptor, would this have effected the battery? Even though the engine was on whenever they were in use. Lights on during all journey time too.

How much would a new alternator/battery be?


Full tank on fiesta would have been about 40 litres and it's about 65-70 on transit.

I understand that the transit wont be as fast with a load as a car and going 100km is going good, just questionable that there's busses and HGV's overtaking me:o

What size engine would be powerful for a transit? Powerful as in, it will overtake safely and be able to maintain 120km, or 100km going up a steep hill with a full load?:)

cormie

skibum wrote:

About 10 years ago I ran a VW transporter van and remember being a little disappointed on its thirst for diesel, even though I did have a very heavy right foot .

Had a quick look at your VanTasks.ie site, very nice, clear, no clutter, with good information. Good luck with your new venture

Thanks a lot:)

When you say heavy right foot, I take it this means basically having the pedal to the floor for the whole journey, that's how it was for me basically. Is this bad?

patrickc

well the more to the floor the pedal is the more juice your van will use..

Mahatma coat

if yer gonna drop in a new engine why not see if ya can source an aussie V8

Esel

Mahatma coat wrote:

if yer gonna drop in a new engine why not see if ya can source an aussie V8

Best advice I've read recently - not.

Spit62500

Check your fanbelt - could be slipping at higher speeds, reducing the charge that the battery gets.

overdriver

No, I meant start with the battery. You don't know how old it is, and they do die eventually. It's much more likely to be the battery than the alternator, and I like to start with a fresh battery in that circumstance anyway. As I said, check the voltage at teh battery terminals to be sure it's not the alternator.

With the stereo on, you might not have head the fan belt slipping at high speed. A cold morning start might tell you if its the fan belt, cos that's when it'll slip too.


Yours is 2.5 litre and that should be ok for what you're doing. it's NOT going to be as fast as you're used to. Diesels like that tend to pick up momentum rather than accelerate as a petrol car. I do find the HiAce a bit underpowered on hills with a full load, but I don't fancy changing the van or the engine to get there 10 minutes earlier.

Oh and the site looks brill. I hope you have all the luck in the world with it! You'll have a fleet of vans soon!

peasant

overdriver wrote:

Diesels like that tend to pick up momentum rather than accelerate as a petrol car.

Good advice that.

You have to change your driving style to get the best out of a "lame" diesel like that. Look further ahead, anticipate what is going to happen, keep the momentum up, avoid hard accelerating and hard breaking, just try to keep it "flowing".

When you see a hill coming, pick up momentum beforehand and try to carry it up as far as you can. Accelerating on the hill will only result in lots of smoke and higher fuel consumption ...not speed

Alfasudcrazy

I was going to buy a VW Transporter (the best large van IMO) a few years back but was put off by its high fuel consumption. So I bought a smaller VW Caddy van instead.

The transit was always a sluggish vehicle - I am not sure what size / height your transit is but obviously the bigger the slower. Your transit obviously has some problems - perhaps it could be something to do with the turbo or air flow sensor. I know the air flow sensor on my Caddy is a bit iffy now and the van is a lot slower than it was when I got it - they are expensive though - think they wanted over 300e from me to get a new one.

Make sure the tyre pressures are right too as this can slow you down if the pressures are too low.

3ps

it's been very cold lately... perhaps your battery was old and was killed by the cold?

my neighbour has a 2.5 Transit and this morning the battery was dead.

cormie

Thanks again:)

Do you reckon the fan belt could be what the rattling is I wonder? It's very loud and sounds like it's coming from above me but this could just be the way the sound travels around the van!

overdriver

That rattling sounds more to me like the skin of the van rattling against the frame that supports it, or if it's double skinned, one rattling against the other.

tc20

cormie, on the rattling sound - this is a longshot but...
is there a shelf over the cab, that you can access from the body of the van?
There might just be some little bit of rubbish or something thats causing the rattling
I was driving the Transit we have in work at the weekend, and there was an empty cardboard core rollling around up there that did my head in. It lasted all of 30 seconds til i found it

cormie

I don't have a shelf, it might be the two layers overdriver was talking about. This could have something to do with the way the hail stopped it. I'm pretty sure it's definitely something on the outside that's causing it