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2002 Vauxhall Corsavan (‘Low-blow’) 1.7Di. 113,000miles.
This little car derived van has served me very well over the last 12 months but now has a few issues that I do not have the time or inclination to solve as I’m going travelling.
Please bear in mind that I am not a mechanic - the faults listed below are essentially my best guess. I am giving as much detail as possible in the interest of openness, but any potential buyer should either check the vehicle out for themselves before bidding or bid safe in the knowledge that my assessment may well be wrong. Caveat emptor applies.
Let’s do the good stuff first:
MOT’d in January
2 New Tyres
Roof Fan/Vent
Tow bar professionally fitted in August last year.
Very solid
Runs and pulls very well once warm.
Turns, brakes, compresses and rebounds extremely well – all running gear is in excellent order it would seem.
Very economical – well over 50mpg
The not so good stuff:
Something is amiss with the cooling system on the car. It can take rather a long time to warm up, although this is not always the case. It is losing water from the header tank pressure cap. The cap has been replaced but the problem remains. My best guess would be a head gasket failure but a recent coolant-pressure and sniff test revealed no obvious signs so it could well be something else?
The car is also a bit hesitant sometimes until warm.
The vehicle has had the carpet and some of the sound deadening removed. Having bought the vehicle at auction, I found the carpet to be sodden with water. I removed it with the intention of replacing it but never did. I do not believe that the water in the cabin is related to the loss of coolant. Instead, my web-interrogations seem to point to something called the BCM housing under the bonnet that requires resealing. Again, I do not know this to be true.
The seats are both stained and a bit manky. The driver’s side seat has a not insignificant hole on the bolster nearest the door. At the very least one might want to consider covers or possibly replacing along with the carpet – I was quoted £140 for second-hand seats and carpet.
I believe I have all of the plastic trim/centre console but I may be missing something from when I removed the carpet.
In terms of the bodywork, it is all a bit dull. There are scratches on each of the panels – nothing too major. It remains quite presentable but would no doubt benefit from a T-cut.
There are two large dents - one on the nearside rear beneath the light cluster and one on the nearside sill.
The area beneath the load cover is dirty and there is some very light rust there.
The nearside front wheel arch trim is a little loose and occasionally needs pushing back into place.
The rear wiper arm is absent.
The spare tyre is no good - I picked up two nails post MOT!
The hub caps have seen better days.
The tax has just run out and the car is SORN’d.
That’s admittedly quite a list but I’ve made every effort to be as thorough as possible. If I have missed something then it’s because I don’t know about it.
Despite its current issues, this has been an excellent vehicle – to the extent where it has become fondly known as “Big Jeff” within the family. I am genuinely sorry to see it go but “Jeff” needs a new owner with more time and knowledge to get him back to rude health.
Please remember that you are bidding to buy, not merely to view. Please contact me if you would like to see the car before you bid.
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So there we have it folks... if someone was keen and wanted to pay for 6 months tax I could do that and someone could drive it home... I'm pretty sure it'd be ok.
I'm rather gutted as I've recently forked-out about £500 putting it through an MOT and solving an ECU fault and I'm well aware that I won't get near that figure. Don't be shy!
It has been brought to my attention that I may have rather over-stated the size of the dents. Hence, links to images are below:
Back Corner
Side
[Edited on 17/3/10 by TimC]
Rescued attachment BigJeff.JPG