What to look out for when buying used Vivaro/Trafic.

NerdyNed

Hi,
I'm on the lookout for a Trafic/Vivaro type van. I've read the horror stories about the gearbox/clutches and opinion seems to be divided on them. From what I have read so far, it seems to be hit and miss. You could just get unlucky.

A decent Transporter, Hiace or Vito is out of my price range, and any SWB transits I've looked at were very rough. Also, most of these have bigger engines that I wouldnt fancy taxing (I'll be taxing privately). So it looks like its one of these vans for me, or nothing.

I wondered if any of you who have experienced gearbox or clutch failure could tell me if there was any noticable problem before you had to replace either of them, i.e. did it have a problem that got worse over time. Or, did it just go all of a sudden.

The reason I ask is I was wondering if anything would be noticable during a test drive.

I drove two last week. One had a lot of slack/play in the gear stick, the other felt nice and tight with no slop.

Regards,
Ned

Bpmull

We've had 2 traffics in the past and neither gave any trouble in saying all that we bought both new and kept them for 3-4 years 100k miles. When buying second hand you want to get a really well minded one as they won't take abuse as well as a hiace. But then they are better on diesel than a hiace. What years are you looking at?

NerdyNed

Thanks.
Not too worried about what year, but all the searches within my budget are ranging 2003 - 2006.

I'm just after low(ish) mileage and well looked after. Also clean. I'll be using it as a second car and would like to be able to throw a mattress in the back and sleep in it from time to time during trips to the great outdoors.

Bpmull wrote: »

When buying second hand you want to get a really well minded one as they won't take abuse as well as a hiace.

Thats what I'm gathering. For some reason they seem have a much better rep in the UK than in Ireland. I wonder if its to do with the poorer roads in the country side here. (More gear changes)

bazz26

Afaik these vans have very weak gearboxes. Other stuff to look out for is signs of abuse as vans nearly always end up being abused especially by those drivers who don't own them.

mfceiling

Extremely weak gearboxes alright. Supposed to be the gearbox from a laguna in them.

5 speed box is supposed to be reliable enough but are as rare as hens teeth.

Bpmull

The 2004 one we had would have been driven by my dad and was minded like a baby. We then bought a 2006 which a few different guys drove and it got the living sh!t driven out of it was tipped a few times. There was 2 things went wrong with the 2006 one in 3 years about 90k miles a maf sensor and radiator. But then the radiator was burst by the driver so wasnt really the vans fault. It was used in the construction industry and carried plenty of plasterboard. As for the gearbox It was fine in the ones we had but as I said we got rid of both before they would have been getting old. If you could get a SWB renault master they would be without a doubt a better van. We had a few of them. Still have. Bought it jan 06 over 200k km on it now total spend in 7 years 100 euro on one wheel bearing that's it. Reliable doesn't even give that van justice there a great van tbh. No gearbox trouble in that but I think it's a different gearbox.

harg90

gboxes, ball joints, injectors, cam pullys, fanbelts/ tensioners (reveling and getting caught in your tb) injectors, back lamps melting, altenators, altenator clutch pullys, filter heads, deisel pipes, deisel primers.

buy a transit :L

NerdyNed

Thanks for the feedback folks.

@Bpmull I had considered the master but its no good for me really. Even on the low roofed models, the roof is too high (2.3M) for loading and strapping sea kayaks from the ground. All I see are high roofed, 2.5dCi models on sale in Ireland which would be far too dear for me to tax.

@harg90 Long list of things to check there. I better book a day off work .

Bpmull

NerdyNed wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback folks.

@Bpmull I had considered the master but its no good for me really. Even on the low roofed models, the roof is too high (2.3M) for loading and strapping sea kayaks from the ground. All I see are high roofed, 2.5dCi models on sale in Ireland which would be far too dear for me to tax.

@harg90 Long list of things to check there. I better book a day off work .

The roof on the master is quite high and if taxing privately then it would be expensive. Despite one of the posters long list on things that go wrong none of them should put you of the trafic. When minded they are a good van. And over half of the list was small things wear items which can go wrong on any van. Just try and find a well minded one is the main thing.