2nd Apr 2010, 05:03

I have a 1999 Vito 108 in my garage too. It's the same problem as the rest. I have stripped down all the air intake pipes to get to the injectors, and it's like someone put a shovel of tar on top of the injectors. A friend told me that the copper washer has gone on the injector; he says if I remove all 4 injectors and replace them with new washers, that will sort out the 3000 rpm problem. But guess what, I can't get them out. I am going out to try turn over the engine and see if they will pop out.

5th Jun 2010, 16:54

I have owned an 03 110 CDi Vito from new, and it's been spotless until now. Started to struggle starting from cold and when warm, have heard about this black stuff, so took the covers etc off and injector tops are clean as a whistle! So replaced the fuel filter (needed doing anyway) and it hasn't sorted it. Booked it into a diesel specialist next week, as I reckon one injector is slightly leaking off. As for rust, if I had left it, it would be pickled, but I like my vehicles looking clean, so a local bodyshop tidies it up every six months or so.

Other than this, the van is brilliant. I do however agree that it's the luck of the draw, obviously my van wasn't a friday afternoon one.

Also, no news spreads like bad news.

11th Jun 2010, 15:34

I have a Vito 108 CDI 2001. Big clunk from underneath and now it pulls quite heavily to the right. Had it up on a ramp and the top part of the steering rack feels lumpy when the steering wheel is turned. Does the whole rack need replacing, or are there some worn bushes or something?

If so, where can I get the parts?

Thanks.

31st Jul 2010, 02:21

I have had my 110CDI for three years, and agree that MB have let their standards slip, having owned a 1990 W123 estate car, which was the last of the real quality Mercs.

That said, my van has never let me down. Problems, I think, come from lousy dealer / garage service. These guys just haven't got a clue. I had the clutch replaced, when I took the van in for what I described as a noisy alternator. Having been fleeced for the work, guess what, the noise was still there. A week later I replaced the alternator - noise gone!!

I now try to do as much work on the van myself. I would rather not have to, but the motor trade are second only to politicians in extortionate practices, or are they just inept? Rust is a problem too.

That said, the Vito is a nice van to drive, and is very economical on fuel.

31st Jul 2010, 07:07

Hi.

I have recently bought a 51 plate Vito 110CDI. I drove it home one night and all was fine. Went out to it the next day, and no clutch!

So I bought a new concentric slave cylinder and master cylinder, and replaced them. Also checked the clutch when doing so, which appeared to be fine, then pressure bled the clutch, and still don't have any clutch.

Can anybody help? Or do I need to replace the clutch, even though it appears to have plenty of life left in it?

Thanks

Kev.

25th Oct 2010, 17:28

Well this is really good reading all these comments, but read this, this is too unbelievable to be true, but I can assure you it is.

I bought a 53 plate Vito 108CDI. As we were bringing the vehicle back from the garage where we bought it from... it stopped! Phoned the garage, they came out, full of apologies, got it going and we set off once more. One of my smelly, smokey ex employees drove it around for a while with starting problems, which meant the vehicle had to go back to the garage for attention, starter motor changed and everything re-calibrated, whatever that may mean!!

All was well for a while, then the vehicle became so unreliable that the smelly smokey employee wouldn't drive it any more, and used his own vehicle. Shortly afterwards, he thankfully left; it was a pity he didn't take the van with him!!

I inherited the day to day trauma of using the van myself. Oh what joy.

This is where the fun started. After I'd sorted the random flat tyre problem out, the starting fault appeared again, only this time it was far worse. I sent it to a garage on a couple of occasions, had to be towed in once. The garage couldn't find anything wrong with it, as it would know when it was being looked at and just start!. The only winner here was the garage, who charged me handsomely for not fixing my van. Great isn't it.

The best is to come. I was sick of the van cutting out, then starting and running for a while, then not starting. I set off one day on a journey that would normally take me 45 minutes tops. The journey took me about 3.5 hours!!! I laugh now, but at the time I was pretty damned...d I can tell you. There was a pattern emerging though about how the vehicle behaved.

We timed the engine running time to be about three minutes, then it would stop for about two minutes. It did this repeatedly until we had got to about 15 minutes from our destination, where we came to a downwards hill, the engine cut out again and we were coasting down the hill. I decided to drop the clutch and in effect bump start the beloved vehicle. After running for about a hundred yards with nothing happening, the engine gave an almighty cough, splutter, clunk, thud, another cough, then it was away with a jolt. The vehicle ran all the way to our designation without missing another beat. Unbelievable. I stopped and started the vehicle a couple of times to see if it would start. It did, I thought great happy days are here again...

The vehicle was stationary for approximately 2.5 hours. I was confident the lovely van would start again... Wrong the b... Never even tried to run, I was gutted. We got a tow to start the engine, but it had to be towed about a quarter of a mile before it actually woke up, coughed, spluttered clunked and jumped into life, and boy what a life it's had since then.

It has been since that cold night a full eighteen months, yes eighteen months and it has NEVER EVER let me down. I would say that it has been the most reliable van of the fleet. It's been all over the country, including Scotland, and has now completed 150k plus miles.

On a downside, the body work is rubbish, the trim is... Rubbish and the interior is not much better, this is due to the smelly smokey ex employee.

I was about to sell the van to get a much wanted due liner, but now after reading all these comments, I'm not so sure.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my dear Vito van... it was desperation that led to that fateful 3.5 hr journey, but it was worth it..

On a serious note, I know that there is a limp mode that the vans switch to, which is what obviously must have happened in this case. I don't know what happened when the van finally decided to run effortlessly, but I am very glad, as one story above, listing all the costs he's had to endure, would have made me suicidal.