Damn wish that had come up afew weeks ago. Great price
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Damn wish that had come up afew weeks ago. Great price
If it wasn't clear, I now own Paul's sprinter. Its an amazing machine, I can second just about everything Paul said. The motor is incredible, it makes up for any pitfall this vehicle may have. I'm at 187k at this point and things are going great. I still reach out to Paul with questions time to time, but I'm slowly learning quite a bit about this thing, so I'm happy to help.
You own a T1N sprinter and you have a NAG1 transmission.
The rumble strip noise (RSN) that you hear from the transmission is standard. It occurs most commonly when either slowly accelerating or cruising at an rpm between gears. The fancy electronics want to shift you into a higher gear too early for fuel economy. If you drive it with a heavy foot you'll notice it basically goes away. If you mostly highway drive then this is nothing to worry about because it only happens in the lower gears. There is a fix. It takes a bit to read through the strange sense of humor that is the Sprinter Source Forum, but the fix is actually just a small hole drilled through a plate that holds the transmission torque converter solenoid.
Doktor A RSN Fix REVEALED!!!! - Sprinter-Forum
The transmission fluid change interval is 60k miles. Thankfully, Paul and the prior owner were meticulous with records, so when I got to the 60k I made the change. The RSN definitely got better with the change. Changing the fluid requires dropping the transmission pan, which is also required to do the fix noted about. I haven't done that fix yet, but I think I will give it a go next tranny fluid change...55k miles from now. I spent a lot of time researching and this is the best walk through for the tranny fluid change. You will need to buy a transmission fluid dipstick (just the piece to check the fluid level) as the vans do not have one installed. Most auto parts stores stock the gasket/filter kit you need and its only like 30-40 bucks.
NAG1 Transmission Fluid Change - Sprinter-Forum
I can't believe you found one without rust! Just about every one of these you see on the streets is falling apart.
FWIW I am currently on day 3 of trying to diagnose a problem with a OM651 4-cylinder diesel on a 2014 Mercedes GLK250 with 90k. The same engine is in the newer Sprinters and a few other models.
Apparently the water pump has a vacuum-actuated bypass that blocks the impeller from circulating coolant on a cold start. The vacuum supply is also used to feed the turbo wastegate, the high/low pressure turbo bypass valve, and the EGR cooler valve. Each of those components has an electric solenoid that is pulsed by the computer to provide vacuum or vent vacuum from each vacuum actuator. The problem is that it takes 15 inHg vacuum or more to actuate the water pump bypass and the computer is also commanding the other components at the same time, which is preventing the system from building enough vacuum fast enough.
In my research into the problem I have read/heard horror stories of vacuum leaks and coolant leaks into the vacuum system (gee, really?) causing issues but I have disproved those on this particular vehicle.
Looks like Monday I'll be taking a closer look at the vacuum pump.
/rant