autosleeper duetto 1995

hello, Richard here i have the chance of buying a automatic, diesel 1995 2.5. auto sleeper duetto for £4,500...any comments please. what should i be looking for.?. ...i would like to know what mileage i am going to get on town driving , and motorway driving ..before i go any further......any comments please , much appreciated ..Thanks ..Richard

magnificent wrote: what should i be looking for.?

Rust! And bodged repairs to rust. Check the inner wheel arches at the front - I looked at soemone elses similar aged Duetto a few weeks back and both were so bad they could barely hold the two battery trays up!

Corrosion is biggest problem. My 1994 Duetto failed its MOT this year because a large hole appeared on the front NS under the leisure battery, and also the rear OS under the kitchen unit. It cost me £390 for the welding. I had to cut out a section of the chipboard floor under the kitchen unit, and and disconnect all the gas pipes, before the welding could be done. Since then I have spent several weeks under the van patching other holes I have found with glass fibre resin, and applying underseal. There were large areas where the original underseal appeared to have failed. It looked sound but the underseal was not attached to the metal and I could peal it away exposing rusting metal underneath. It was a horrible messy job but I feel confident now that I have slowed down the corrosion process.

Hi


As an Ex Duetto owner avoid it like the plague. You will be in a constant battle to fend off the dreaded rust beetle. I used to play a game, called spot the Transit Pre 2002 with no rust. Never did see one


Andy

Thanks for your time.....cheers.. R

andygump wrote:Hi


As an Ex Duetto owner avoid it like the plague. You will be in a constant battle to fend off the dreaded rust beetle. I used to play a game, called spot the Transit Pre 2002 with no rust. Never did see one


Andy

Then you missed mine!!!

Registered May 2000 even the MOT tester commented he'd not seen a Transit of that year in such good condition, due mainly (in his opinion) to excellent undersealing which appears to be non-standard.

But in reply to the OP.....yes rust is a known Transit problem, but nothing that cannot be overcome. £4.5k is very cheap so even if you need to spend a couple of grand 'sorting it', you have still got yourself a very cheap Duetto.

Looking at the situation in a more positive view, Ford parts are easily sourced from anywhere and cheap. Wheel arches which are the usual rust areas cost as little as £25 per arch panel. The bottom edge of the rear doors are also prone to rust but if beyond repair, a pair of used doors can easily be found through breakers yards or searching the Transit Owners forum. As an example, i replaced the passenger door on an old 93 Transit i used to own. Cost me just a fiver and took minutes to remove the old door and replace.

As for economy. My Duetto is a manual with 2.5Tdi engine and returns around 30mpg so an automatic would be slightly less.

Bulletguy wrote:
As for economy. My Duetto is a manual with 2.5Tdi engine and returns around 30mpg so an automatic would be slightly less.

Agreed - around town with my auto and the same engine I expect to get around 28mpg. However, on motorway runs they are about the same, as it has a lockup fourth, so once in top gear the torque converter losses go away. I exceeded 34mpg for the first time this year, but that's because most of my driving was either motorway or fast A road. With a mix of more winding and hilly roads it does around the 31-32mpg mark.

Mine (based on a 1999 SWB Transit) is also still in good nick underneath, as I sprayed the whole underside + sills & doors with Waxoyl when I got it.

I have a 1995 duetto and apart from a bit of rust appeari g at bottom of back doors and a slight bit under the toilet cassette door, its immaculate. Agree with previoys reply, look after them well, underseal and they will go on and on. I have not come across any up to date campers that have to offer what the duetto does. If you can get one for that money, grab it with both hands!

I am a new Duetto 2.5 auto Transit based owner too (1999).
Rust is a problem - not on mine I am glad to say although one must be aware of the rust hotspots - lots of info elsewhere on this forum.
The single thing that annoys me most when driving is that it lacks guts - OK on the flat but show it a hill and it struggles. And yes, I have had my trusted own garage people look at it - there is no fault to be found in the motor - In fact they said it is good for 300,000 miles - so 256,000 to go!
Second (much smaller) niggle.
The auto is plated to tow the vast weight in total of 200Kg! - Don't bother.

All that having been said, the build quality of the interior is impressive and, like the mechanics, bomb proof.
At £4500 or thereabouts you are looking at a bargain provided that you don't have to spend more that say around two or three thousand on getting it in good shape.
Good luck

Duetto 1999 wrote:I am a new Duetto 2.5 auto Transit based owner too (1999).

The single thing that annoys me most when driving is that it lacks guts - OK on the flat but show it a hill and it struggles. And yes, I have had my trusted own garage people look at it - there is no fault to be found in the motor - In fact they said it is good for 300,000 miles - so 256,000 to go!

I agree with you on this. Much of it is due to the weight and fully laden with full fuel and water tanks, it's pulling a fair amount. However last year my fuel pump developed a fault in the electronics putting the engine into limp mode. That the fault was erratic and unpredictable plus occurring at the start of a trip (i was in Belgium at the time), meant the only answer was to return back home to get it sorted as the Lucas Epic pump is no longer available.

I knew that some owners had fitted Bosch mechanical pumps but to work correctly with the Turbo they need modifying and setting up correctly. I found a guy local to me who does this conversion and must admit the Bosch pump is way better than the Lucas. I now have more torque and excellent bottom and top end power. It 'feels' an entirely different engine. Oh, and another plus is because it's a mechanical pump, the stupid electronic throttle pedal is replaced by a cabled throttle.

Bulletguy wrote:

Duetto 1999 wrote:I am a new Duetto 2.5 auto Transit based owner too (1999).

The single thing that annoys me most when driving is that it lacks guts - OK on the flat but show it a hill and it struggles. And yes, I have had my trusted own garage people look at it - there is no fault to be found in the motor - In fact they said it is good for 300,000 miles - so 256,000 to go!

I agree with you on this. Much of it is due to the weight and fully laden with full fuel and water tanks, it's pulling a fair amount. However last year my fuel pump developed a fault in the electronics putting the engine into limp mode. That the fault was erratic and unpredictable plus occurring at the start of a trip (i was in Belgium at the time), meant the only answer was to return back home to get it sorted as the Lucas Epic pump is no longer available.

I knew that some owners had fitted Bosch mechanical pumps but to work correctly with the Turbo they need modifying and setting up correctly. I found a guy local to me who does this conversion and must admit the Bosch pump is way better than the Lucas. I now have more torque and excellent bottom and top end power. It 'feels' an entirely different engine. Oh, and another plus is because it's a mechanical pump, the stupid electronic throttle pedal is replaced by a cabled throttle.

Interesting!
Who, when, how much etc?
If you don't mind me asking 

Duetto 1999 wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:

Duetto 1999 wrote:I am a new Duetto 2.5 auto Transit based owner too (1999).

The single thing that annoys me most when driving is that it lacks guts - OK on the flat but show it a hill and it struggles. And yes, I have had my trusted own garage people look at it - there is no fault to be found in the motor - In fact they said it is good for 300,000 miles - so 256,000 to go!

I agree with you on this........

Interesting!
Who, when, how much etc?
If you don't mind me asking 

In total it came to £630 which included a new cambelt, the modified pump, injectors and replacement throttle. The guy who does the pump 'mod' posts on the Transit Owners forum and lives in Stoke-on-Trent so as the Garage i use is based there also, it worked out well as he used their equipment to get it set up right. 

You can read his thread about how he began modding the pumps here; http://fordtransit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=158318

Thank you Bulletguy.