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Thanks for putting up with me in advance.... I'm in the Milford area (will try to get that posted on the map once i figure it out). I work on Sprinter vans for a living so if I can ease anybodys suffering here PM me and will help out. See ya around.
Welcome to the Michigan Chapter. Enjoy our little corner of FTE. If you brought beer with you, that gets handed to me.... all of it... thankyouverymuch.
My buddy owns Snack Time, has a bunch of Sprinters. So far he's not very impressed. Stupid stuff like harmonic balancers falling apart, A/C systems that constantly fail, stuff like that. They run great, but it seems like everything attached to the motor is crap.
Some of them are 5 cylinders (earlier ones) and others are 6. He's had the same problems with all of them. It's just nickle and dime stuff. The other day an intercooler line blew off. Clamp was a pos. Reinstalled with a real clamp. But, when they run, they run well. And he's impressed with the mileage he gets from them. It just drives him (and me because I'm the one going over to help) nuts with all these little things that go wrong. They also like to eat their idler pulleys for lunch, and sometimes dinner. Keep in mind, these trucks have 150,000 miles on them. Their first 100 were absolutely problem free.
First gen had two different five cylinders-early and later. Changes were a new intake and eletric in tank lift pump. Second gen (07 and newer) all havve 3.0 liter V6s. All are 5 speed autos. Haven't seen a balencer come apart on a V6 yet. Germans didn't discover how A/C was supposed to work until a few years ago(and that goes for all of them). Just now getting somewhat reliable. My biggest problem that I see on the old ones is rust-they just look horriable after a few years. The V6 may need its intake removed and cleaned out if it sees much bio-diesel; wet stacks reallly bad for reason. If you put a lot of miles on(like 10k a month) I feel there a good choice. See them come in routinely over 300k on original motor/trans. Record stands at 618000k right now.
I don't know why, but those darn things hold there value almost as well as a Ford truck....it would still be an expensive home built RV if you want under 200k miles and look presentable.