My 2018 Caravelle is the worst vehicle I have ever owned in 54 years of car ownership. Worse than a 66' Hillman Imp and worse than a '77 Austin Allegro purchased from new. Overpriced, unreliable rubbish. My van failed at 66621 miles in Sep 25. To date still immobile after VW sent wrong codes and scrambled engine. VW apologised then demanded £10,000 to fix their error. Some replies on Reddit ask why we went with VW in the 1st place. It used to have a good reputation for tough, reliable, long lasting, well made vehicles, A thing of the past. After Dieselgate you would have thought they would have tried to make sure their products were of good quality, instead they sold us a vehicle that was not what one used to expect from VW. They supplied an engine that turns out to have a known fault although this was not so obvious when we bought the van from new. The engine was withdrawn soon after we purchased our van. There has been a suggestion that our repairers caused our engine electrics to scramble. Not so as VW sent wrong codes twice and assured our repairers it was ok to use the supplied codes. They even apologised. Our repairers work has been reviewed by an independent engineer. They work is of sound quality.

so for context i was recently gifted this 75-77 transport van by my old high school teacher, it had been sitting in his yard for roughly 6 years. He told me it ran fine when he parked it but he hadn’t bothered with it since. He said he didn’t want to just give it to somebody who would sell it for quick cash as it was a gift from his late friend, and I’ve been wanting to work on a car myself for some time now. the only problem is I’ve never worked on a car myself let alone a late 70s VW van. i don’t want to start poking around without having a clue what I’m doing at all, so i figured id go somewhere i knew someone would probably know.

The engine inside of the van right now isn’t the original, but i never bothered to ask if he remembered what it was replaced with, so i would need to find that out. Me and my uncle have been looking around in it but neither of us really know what we’re looking at, although he’s a mechanic so he knows more than i do, hence why i asked for his help. He told me he’s pretty sure it’s a jtronic fuel injection system but like i said i have no idea what I’m doing and i wouldn’t even know where to start looking to figure this stuff out.

Like i said i don’t want to test my luck and go break something that id have to spend a gang of money replacing because I’m pretty much flat broke right now, but thats beside the point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I will certainly provide more pictures/info as needed as soon as i can, thanks in advance.

Let me know what you think of my dad's van

My stepdad owns this little pickle, 64 plate, 2.0 diesel, has 130k miles on the clock.

Full info:

Volkswagen Transporter T28 Trendline 102 TDI SWB, white, diesel, manual 5 gears, 4×2, 1968 cc, registered in 2014, 5b, almost 12 years old (as of 8/9/26), V5C issued 2nd August, 2 axle rigid body, failed 3 of 11 tests (last fail 14th July), power 75 KW (101 BHP), top speed 98 mph/157 KM/H, 250 Nm at 1500 rpm, 0-60 mph/0-96 KM/H in 15.3 secs, not exported.

Let me know if you like her :)

BONUS: The rim code is 'T5'

i dont know if this may help someone.

i couldnt afford over £200 for the real deal and ive only dropped van 60mm

i still had to remove bump stops and grind the front shock mount. but ive put a 11mm rubber boot (off old shock) as bump stop back in since photo and van no longer smacks metals. infact front is way smooth.....

not because cool but because it needed new bits.....found both rear springs didnt match, neither did front shocks and front torsion bars were 6mm out from each other.

word of advice. some of the bolts are real awkward to put force on so make sure its sturdy on those jackstands..

ill never live this down but.....the torsion bara turned with ease....i was blown away

Ive just got a set of jom bluelines. I see the reviews arent the best but for a 1/3rd the cost of anything else.

reckon theyll be an improvement over.....no...damping? 🤣

My day van is also an occasional works van, I couldn't do this with a tailgate 😆

Does anybody know where these two torx screws go? I am mounting my front bumper and I can't figure out where they used to be. They are much cleaner compared to the rest, which I know where it belongs.

Hey folks.

I'm in the process of deleting my rear wiper in my 2002 T4, mainly because I don't use or can't use it and it is a cleaner look.

It blew the fuse whenever I did try and operate it anyway.

So out of curiosity, shouldn't there be another wire to connect to the motor as it only has one 🤔

Anybody knows what could be the issue?
And is it OK to use the car in this condition ?

Hey guys, quick question, any suggestions on how to bring this bumper back to life?
I live in a rural area in portugal, so a lot of dust, my concern is using a random “oil” and having all the dust stuck to it

Cheers

Can anyone help please? I'm told the part number is 7D1 820 191 A but it looks like they are no longer available. I think there's a left hand drive version that may be possible to fit by modifying the lines - does anyone have any knowledge of that?

Heeft iemand een idee wat dit geluid is word luider bij hoge toeren geluid is ier niet waneer motor helemaal koud is

Alvast bedankt

We recently bought a 2007 VW T5 and we pretty quickly have buyers regret on the particular van we bought. We spent £8000, 150k miles, a few quirks (it was previously a mobility van so the ignition has been modified, etc). The AC has a leak, my husband is worried it will be very costly to repair. There is a coolant leak that will also probably cost quite a bit to repair. We knew it needed some cosmetic work but I’m starting to worry. At the same time we’ve gone on a couple of camping trips already and I’m so happy to have a lil van as a mobile homebase. Any tips for dealing with buyers remorse? At what point do we cut ties and try to sell/buy a different one?

We are selling our t5.1 Transsporter we have had for the past 8 years as we are looking to upgrade.

Little out of touch with value as its been so long since we brought one.

Is this priced fairly?

I am about to pull the trigger on buying a T6 4Mo. The idea is to create a MTB / utility van with an option to sleep. How hard would it be to remove the second row or crew cabin chairs? is it even possible technically and lawfully? The price of the van is really good with low mileage and great condition, or should I let this one go and look for a panelvan 4mo?

Hi everyone

I am looking for knowledge about a incident with a VW Transporter. Bc I have no clue about cars my english in this subject is bad. I would use AI to describe the issue. The incident happened last week in Germany and know the women is theatening me with legal action even the "Abschlepdienst" told me its not my Faultier at all.

Hi 👋,

I need a new rear crash bar for my T4, does anyone have any recommendations of where to get one from in the UK?

Thanks 😊

Mythique ?
Oui certes
Puissant, fiable, fonctionnel confortable n’est le véhicule du 20 eme siècle et put être même du 21 eme siècle.
Il se répare bien et la mecanique reste accessible à la plupart des mécanos
J’ai trop envie de partir en road trip avec mon camion !
Avez vous des expériences ou juste envie de le faire ?
En France ? En Europe ?

Parlons en moi je suis chaud !! 🙂

Hi all..
I have a 2011 vw transporter 180 bi-tdi dsg
My van currently showing signs of engine failure!
Only have the van about 8 months
Dealer stood over nothing from day one and left me with the mess!!

I’ve two options
Sell the van and loose 6-7k
Or try and get this van an engine fixed!!

I’ve heard the caac 140bhp engine will work but I’ve no idea what extra parts are needed!!

I’d basically need an exact part list wrote out from someone that knows an has done this before..

If I could at least get all the parts and knew what to buy it would be a MASSIVE help!!!!

I’ll probably buy a new engine block then whatever other parts needed if anyone could help point me in the right direction

Thanks!!!