Major Repair: Injector #2

I left MrPercy for a few days at the garage for identifying the cause of the engine noise. David suggested it could be the camshaft. But after some investigation, it turned out that it was one of the injectors. The same problem had occurred with the Peugeot Expert also in other instances, as documented by several YouTube videos, for example that one below.



After injector #2 had been replaced in the shop, the engine again ran smoothly and quietly.

First Interior Upgrade

The table was covered by a quite ugly greenish wood imitation plastic foil. I removed this and placed instead a more pleasant looking marble imitation foil on that board. Cleaned the floor.

Removed the curtains, as it seemed a bit embarrassing to drive around in a van with fabric curtains at the windows. And fixed the glove compartment with a few furniture parts from B&Q. First I tried to use a magnetic catch, but the force was too little - the glove box kept opening again at every road bump. Then I used a mechanical catch with little ball spheres - and that provided the necessary closing force. Is now a bit hard to open, but at least it does not open by itself anymore.

First repair: the fan

Driving in UK without a fan is not possible: the humidity will fog up the windows, and this is then unsafe to drive. So the very first order of action was to get the fan fixed. As the very first measure I had bought a fan/heater from Maplin, so that I could at least get a temporary fix of the foggy windscreen. But then I brought the car to the garage nearby, who always have done a great job, at reasonable prices, so that they could investigate what the problem with the fan was. It turned out that the fan was there and was working fine, but the electric power connection had simply been disconnected. When the fan was working again, it made a bit of an annoying noise, but at least I could switch it on and regulate it ok from the panel.

The mechanic told me that the Diesel engine did make a very loud noise, unusual even for an old Diesel. I made another appointment to fix that issue too.

First Purchases: Locks and a Fridge

The very first purchases for MrPercy were a few things for the inside: a 12V heater fan from Maplin, so that I could at least get some moving air. Some storage bags for putting things in, and some bedding for a single bed. And: I ordered on eBay a central locking system. Quite inexpensive, from China, where nowadays all the good stuff comes from. I would have to do quite a lot of work to get this installed in MrPercy... The motorhome did not have a fridge, so I did look for fridges on eBay. I was not interested in those 3-way adsorption fridges, because they would use a lot of electricity if powered by battery. And the gas supply is limited, would be more usefully applied for cooking or heating. Therefore I had put my mind to purchasing a compressor fridge, which uses much less electricity and provides a more powerful cooling - down to -18 C. Found one, a Waeco cool box, and I was the only bidder. For a while this will stand in the house, being tested as a freezer.

Naming "Mr Percy"

When I picked up the vehicle, the seller had told me that the name of the car was "Percy", because it was a "Peugeot". 

I usually do not associate cars with any gender. Some men do this, and for them all machinery is somewhat female. Probably for these men, the reverse is also true... For me, machinery is always neutral, it is "it", not "she". But here I felt that it would be fitting to call this vehicle "Mr Percy". 

Picking Up the Car

After two days of deliberation I decided that I would buy that 1999 Peugeot Expert. Offered a lower price, because of all the various faults that the seller had described and that I had seen. We agreed on a purchase price of £ 1,900.

It was a rainy evening. I took the train, partially going on an old historic train route, which was very exciting. The seller's house was within walking distance from the train station, which was very convenient. The formalities of the sale were quickly dealt with, and then I went out into the rainy evening, where the car was parked on the road. The seller told me that they had named the car "Percy", because it is a Peugeot.

A first surprise was that the doors were unlocked. I had been told that the sliding side doors could not be locked, but now I realised that also both front doors could not be locked from the outside with the key - the key just rotated in the locks without moving any mechanism. I should have checked this when I did the inspection of the car. Well, I would fix that sometime soon. The car started well, and I drove off, onto the motorway. On the way I stopped at a service station, to fill up. It was then that I realised that the LCD-display of the mileage was dark. I could only read it (with great difficulty) when shining a flashlight onto it. So apparently the counter was still working, but the backlight illumination of that display was broken - another thing that I should have noticed earlier. It slowly dawned on me that I probably would need to revise my vehicle inspection strategy significantly. The seller had told me that the heating would not work. In fact, the heating did work, but what was not working was the ventilator. Which is much more crucial, as the front windscreen began to fog in that wet rainy weather. So I opened the side window to let fresh air in. The glove compartment did not close anymore, it just stayed open.

The picture above is the first picture that I took of the car; it was still in front of the seller's house. I arrived well at home and parked the car, pretending I would lock the doors. But in order to get into the car later, I had to leave one door unlocked... I did lock three of the doors from the inside, and that one last door (the driver-side sliding door) I left unlocked, so that I could open it and then access the driver side door from the inside. Not exactly a very safe thing to do in the crime-ridden neighbourhood where I was living... But I had no choice.

The Ads - Visiting MrPercy

A few days ago I had a look at various ads of motorhomesn in the Autotrader. And there I found a few very interesting vehicles at reasonable prices. There was a blue 2001 Renault Master van, nicely converted to a motorhome with nice specifications, for £ 2,900. But it was obviously already gone, because the seller never picked up the phone nor called back.

Then I saw the add of a 1999 Renault Expert van conversion.

The description sounded nice, and so on a Sunday afternoon I drove 2 hours to see the car. It had been standing for a while. There appeared to be some mold on the rear side windows, and I was wondering if humidity had gotten into it. But it did not smell, so this was not a concern. The Diesel engine was rattling a bit loud, the sellers said this was a Peugeot-typical problem. The overall condition was acceptable. I drove it around a block of houses, and breaks and steering felt ok. The engine seemed ok too. The conversion into a motorhome seemed a bit "home made", with wooden boards from Wickes. One of the doors fell off when the seller opened it - the hinges had come loose from the wood. Another wooden door just did not stay shut. The glove compartment was always open, did not lock. The heater fan was not functioning, so no air ventilation could be switched on. But the overall price of £ 2,200 was at the bottom of what one could expect for a functioning camper van. The black/white squared floor looked nice, and the van had the basic equipment: cooker with gas, wash basin with electric pump, leisure battery, 240V external lead.

On my way home I gave it some more thought and deliberated if I should buy it.

The Idea

For a long time I had considered to buy a motorhome. When I lived in the US, I was intrigued by the possibility to buy one of those gigantic "recreational vehicles", or build myself one by buying a bus. Maybe an articulated bus even, or a doubledecker bus.

Now in Europe I did scale down my plans significantly, due to petrol cost, smaller roads, and smaller parking spaces. But I never gave up the idea and kept looking.

For a while I played with the idea of buying a caravan. This has the advantage that at a camping site one can leave the caravan and drive around with the vehicle, exploring the area without that hanger. I once saw a caravan that cost just £ 500. But driving around with a caravan hanger is more limited: many roads in the mountains are off limits to caravans.

I prefer to drive just with one vehicle that has everything together in one package. If I feel, I can just stop somewhere, go to the back and have a cup of tea. Or a nap. And then get up and sit in the driver's seat and drive on. All within the confines of one box, not two separate boxes. It just feels somewhat better to me.

In summer 2010 I saw an ad for a camper van, Renault Traffic, that only cost £ 500. That caught my interest. I did not buy the vehicle then, because I realised that much would need to be fixed there, primarily because the annual MOT was coming up, and I saw that there was some rust which would require welding. But since that time I kept looking out for motorhomes or campervans. In particular I liked the small Romahome motorhomes, which had on a very small compact space all the necessary amenities. I began designing a campervan conversion, based on a regular van. One option would be the Ford Transit, large wheelbase, jumbo-size, high roof. Those 4 m cargo length would allow for quite a decent living space, with all kinds of equipment (gas-powered generator, underfloor central heating, fridge and freezer, dish washer, large shower with on-demand water heating, etc.).

But due to financial constraints I also began looking at something more reasonable. The Autotrader website is a phantastic resource to get an overview over the market of used vehicles, and their motorhome section has always a good selection of various offers.