Hi all,

Picked up a sprinter this weekend, going through it to find the initial defects (all cars have em) so that they can be fixed before we move the "stuff" in. Any words of wisdom on quirky little things that popped up on yours?

Check this out.

[Link: townhall-talk.edmunds.com]

The electric mirrors stopped working in the first month.
The side door has been giving us fits for a while now.
The steering rack had to be replaced (under warranty). Keep an eye out for leaks.
Be careful drilling through the floor behind the driver's seat - the tank is under there. (don't ask me how I know...)
The locks take some getting used to. (see earlier threads)

Otherwise, we love it, and get great mileage.

e-mail me for ideas on setup - I have some pics I could share with how we did ours.

Ours has been going strong for nearly 9000 miles now. Its ready for its first service. I am going to have them investigate some rough downshifting, and have them hopefully re-code the locks so they dont auto-lock. Our side door is out of alignment too.....should be an easy fix. Great mileage. Lots of room to haul stuff. Does OK in the snow....but the traction control is a bit too aggressive for my taste. :)

Ours is great for one major excpection to where i am not sueing the dealer. NO AC! AND that is very much needed, the transmission over heats and goes out when we use it. THey checked it over a dozen times, never was able to fix it. But besides that we love it.
Infact we just ordered a second for my self. Great milage and space.
WE also had a problem with the transmission shifting gears, that was fixed.
ONce in a while our radio stays on, not sure why. My uncle has a fleet of 15 of them and most of them have the same situation with the radio not turning off
But it over all is a great truck.
Norm mind if i take a peake at those photos?

Norm
I am also like to look at your picture's We are thinking about picking up a Sprinter.

Zinon

[email protected]

1st day the steering rack leaked all its fluid on my driveway. Took a week to fix. 2nd month the drivers side wiper quit on the freeway during a downpour. The first winter the LCD display would lose some digits if the temp dropped below zero. When they replaced the instrument cluster I no longer had a service computer--they asked if could live without it. 2nd replacement instrument panel was also bad, third time was the charm. At about 30k started getting intermittant ASC warning lite when cold, dealer could not duplicate, now happens about once a week. At 40k had a flat, discovered what that film of oil on the toolkit was, hydraulic fluid had leaked out of the jack, now it wouldn't lift the vehicle. I borrowed a jack only to find the dealer had never applied anti-sieze to the rims. Took an hour to get the tire off. They also never rotated the spare, now I'm stuck with a crummy Michelin that I'll never use. Be careful of the dealer recommendations about service. They got me for a $120 fuel filter at 20k, the book says 30k. Read your manual about service intervals. 3 weeks ago I noticed the cruise wouldn't work, nor the manual shifter. After reset it worked. It has since happened about 6 times, the tranny is going into "limp" mode, locks into 4th gear and disables the cruise. I think they are using Chrysler minivan transmissions. These things eat lights. The first year I lost 3 headlights and a tailight. Radio won't turn off about once a month, "they all do that". If you put in an aftermarket radio you will get no AM, crummy antenna.

Good point--The HEMI emblems are only $18.00 from the dealer.

Frieghtliner dealer told me the Dodge had a know transmission problem, I thought maybe this was just a sales pitch since I thought both units had the same specs?

Hey Phil, Why windows? Do you have a passenger van?

I will stick to my 99 E-250. I had it a year. Oil changes and that is it. Oh and about 9 mpg. Nobodys perfect. That is why I am adding a Honda Fit to the mix for first visits walkthrus minor service calls etc. Now if I could only find one....

I work for Mercedes Benz and these are all standard MB bitches, This is the crap I hear all day long 12-13 hours a day.

If your door lock autolock feature is MB design, with key on hold the lock button down for about 30 seconds and the auto lock feature should turn off, the procedure is probably in the owners manual. I know, its boring reading.

If it is a MB transmission and you are experiancing harsh upshift and downshift when vehicle is cold, this is normal condition called upshift delay. It is there to warm the engine/trans and cats up quicker. If you feel it all the time it may need a software update or possibly there is a broken c-clip on the clutch pack. I would not call the upshift delay a known problem, but it sure is a sensation most people do not like. Nissan is taking a shot at it with there no shift shock advertising.

Radio staying on, or not turning on should be a software update.

And for whatever reason, European vehicles in general chew bulbs up like candy, regardless of brand of vehicle.

I sure am seeing alot of these vehicle out there now and am getting used to them. Great for 6 foot 3 guys like myself, not so many knots on the old noggin.

Mike

edit Mb did on some of their cars have for a little while, have a problem with the transmission cooler taking in coolant from the radiator and filling the tranny up with coolant. Dont know about the tranny cooler on the sprinter if it is in the radiator or if it is externaly mounted

My downshifting problems happen when I am slowing to a stop...and it lowers a gear and I feel a vibration....if I manually downshift to the next lower gear, it works fine. I am sure its nothing major, but will have it addressed.

I will also try disabling the auto-lock feature. Thanks for the tip.

I think I will just throw in a spare CD player I have laying around. That hopefully will turn off all the time. ;)

That's how my Dodge Caravan tranny works. It's best described as sort of a wobbly downshift and only happens when the tranny down shifts from 2nd to 1st. It took some time getting used to this behaviour.

UPDATE:

Lock fix:

The manual clearly states how to defeat the auto-lock feature. :) I guess the manual is good for at least one thing.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

We were riding around all day giddy with delight that when we tried to open the doors, they were unlocked. "Hey - check it out - it's still open"

I had to take some new pics, as I couldn't find the old ones. I will post soon.

Yah, its a dual purpose vehicle. Takes about 10 minutes to remove my tools, drawers and ladders. Pop in the middle seats and I can take 7 of us with our bicycles inside. The kids love that they can stand on the seats and not hit their heads.