The 3 and a half commonest Mercedes problems that can ruin your holiday.

Our beloved Mercs - the 309/310 and 409/410 pre 95 T1 Transporter chassis - are world renowned for being bombproof and good for a million. But they are not 100% perfect, neither are they maintenance free.

Over the last 17 years from my own experiences and being an active member on forums and Facebook groups, I have come to a conclusion that there are three and a half common problems that have the potential to bring a trip, or worse, a holiday, to a miserable stop. The first three are the cooling system, the gear selectors and the fuel delivery system ... and the half is the brakes - it's only half a problem with the brakes because usually they don't actually take you off the road, they just give you a fright!

All of these have been covered elsewhere in this blog, the purpose of this article is just to give a heads up to new and existing owners in case it ever happens to you.

Cooling system. 

All our vans are now over 20 years old and are usually still on their original radiators and fans. The radiators get clogged up inside and out and their efficiency reduces over the years, and the visco coupled fan gets tired and doesn't cut in when it should. Because we live in a cool country with not many mountains, you usually don't get to find out you have a problem until you are climbing up some Alpine pass in the middle of summer. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge. It it creeps up towards the red on a long hill, this is a sign your cooling system isn't 100%. A quick fix is to have all the accumulated crud blown out of the rad with a high pressure airline. This will often alleviate the problem - temporarily. Ultimately a new radiator and/or a new visco coupling mechanism may be needed to get the van back to normal performance. A system flush and fluid replacement can also work wonders. DO NOT run a Merc engine into the red or boil it over - you will crack the head and worse. The temp gauge is usually accurate - It will run to just under the red zone, but don't go there if you can possibly avoid it. Your radiator cap is also likely to be original, so if you have any cooling work done, always have a new rad cap and thermostat fitted. The water pump can also go on high mileage vans. Hoses rarely cause a problem, but should be checked.

Gear selectors.

Between the bottom of the gear stick and the gearbox is a system of rods and levers that select the gears. These can work loose, and bushes get worn leading to gear selection problems. It is rarely terminal - I have never known a Merc manual box to actually break - it is always the selectors. There are a couple of articles on here about it. Search for "gearbox".

Fuel system.

There is a gauze filter on the bottom of the fuel lifter in the tank, an inline filter between the tank and the main filter/pump, a breather pipe on the top of the tank, and the main fuel filter itself. All need maintenance and cleaning, and often have had no maintenance for 20 years. If the van is underpowered, especially on hills, or even just stutters and stops, then it is usually the fuel system. It is rarely the pump or injectors. This is a very common problem. Search for "fuel filter" for more info.

Brakes.

The back brakes on the Mercs do most of the heavy braking, especially on the 409/410 bigger vans. They need regular checking and maintenance, especially the "load balancing sensor". You don't know you have a problem until you have an "Italian Job" moment coming down 28 hairpins on the St Gotthard Pass and the pedal hits the floor. If the back brakes are not up to scratch then the fronts get overworked, get hot, and boil the fluid. Patience and engine braking will get you down safely and to a garage. Many of our vans are still on the original fluid. In extreme cases use the handbrake, which is mechanical not hydraulic. Again, this is a problem that usually manifests itself when you are a long way from the M6 - usually on holiday in the Alps or Pyrenees. Search for "brakes".



These blog articles are for guidance - I am not a qualified mechanic. There are a few other Merc related issues, but these are the main ones - not just in my own experience, but in reading the forums and blogs.

Other problems are squeaking fan belt tensioners, leaky vacuum pipes and the occasional broken fan belt - carry a spare (they are a pig to fit). Vans with over 200k can expect to need a new water pump eventually.

Have I missed anything? Please comment below.

Oyster 1 satellite dish upgrade using Zeniatech modification

Oyster 1 satellite dish upgrade using Zeniatech modification

The Oyster 1 motorhome satellite system was the system of choice in the 1990s. It was built to last, and is still to be found on the roofs of many classic motorhomes today. The problem is though - they no longer work! Well they do, after a fashion, because the dish can still be positioned manually, but this is a fiddly job. 

The situation was created when the Astra satellite people upgraded from the old analogue TV system to digital, and they changed the way the satellites identified themselves. Unfortunately for the Oyster 1 this rendered them obsolete overnight, and there were many many really angry customers as a result. Oyster did everything they could to make the best of the situation, but even the most basic modifications they could come up with cost well over £500. In the end many owners decided to scrap them and buy new, and vowed never to buy Oyster again. This was a a bit unfair on Oyster, as they had no warning from Astra about what was going to happen, as this would have been commercially sensitive information. Such is the cost of progress.

I acquired a 1993 Hymer that had an Oyster 1 fitted. I knew it wouldn’t work automatically, and the seller said so - so I basically got it for nothing. But I knew it would work after a fashion. I changed the LNB for a more modern one for £40 and bought a cheap digital satellite box from Maplin. Using the compass built into my Iphone, and a satellite location app from the app store, I soon learned how to position the dish manually. But it takes about 10 minutes, so I only ever used it when something big was on like a cup final or Wimbledon, and in an area where I couldn’t get normal Freeview from the local TV transmitter. I also knew it would be useful when traveling in Europe, because the Oyster 1 dish is quite big, and would receive Freesat down as far as the south of France.

But I always thought at the back of my mind, that it should be possible to modify the control unit and bring it back to life. Sure enough a year or so later, I read about a guy in Ireland who had done just that, and I immediately entered into correspondence with him, and a few weeks later I had his kit delivered at a cost of €200 inc delivery. It comprises of a small box about the size of half a paperback book, and it simply plugs into the existing RJ45 network interface socket on the Oyster 1. It has a display and a keyboard, but the unit comes pre-configured for Astra 2. It can be re-programmed if Astra make any future changes. It can also be programmed to seek out other satellites, such as Hotbird or Eutelsat, which is useful if you are a long way abroad.

Well I love things that work straight out of the box, and this one was an absolute joy. We are talking about 20 year old equipment here - it hadn't auto seeked a satellite for over 10 years! I just plugged the new into the Oyster box and pressed the on switch. The dish started to whirr on the roof, it did a few 360s and then locked on. BBC1 HD appeared immediately on my TV. Since then it has worked without a fault. I get a rock solid signal - even occasionally when trees are in the way, which I think is down to the fact that the dish is quite big by modern standards.

I had the added bonus that although my Samsung TV was HD ready, it did not have a Freeview HD tuner. It could only display HD pictures from an external source such as a DVD player or an HD sat receiver. I had never had HD TV in the van before and I was well impressed with the picture.

But there was another slight problem. Although I had access to over 200 Freesat channels from Astra 2, plus at least another 300 or so of other weird channels, organising them was a pain, and worse still, the EPG would only display “now and next”. This was because my cheap Maplins satellite receiver was a generic unit, not a dedicated Freesat box. After a bit of research online I discovered that in order to have a full UK EPG, similar to what I was used to on terrestrial Freeview, I would need a dedicated Freesat box. So I decided to ditch the Maplins receiver (it will be useful abroad in the future) and I ordered the entry level Humax Freesat box for £95. A Freesat box is programmed to receive only the UK Freesat channels, and ignores the rest, and it has a full 7 day EPG. It is a joy to use - even better the than the Sky+ box I used to have when I lived in a house!

I am very impressed! The box will connect to the internet, so if I have a wifi connection, I can play BBC Iplayer and a whole host of other on demand services. I have also plugged an old 500gb USB hard drive into the back of it, and that gives me a live pause and record facility. Of course this is of limited use in a motorhome, because the dish will not be up while driving, and so recording will not always be possible, but I can take this into consideration. It is a very useful facility to have. And it is also extremely useful to have live pause when watching TV.

So for about £300 I now have a pretty sophisticated satellite HD TV system in the van, with recording and live pause. Of course this is no different to most modern systems, so I am not claiming anything special, but what is particularly satisfying is to be re-commissioning what was an obsolete piece of kit, and in particular, an extremely well built piece of kit. Modern van satellite systems are not cheap!

If you have one of these old Oyster 1 dishes on the roof of your van, you now have the opportunity to bring it back to life. I am well chuffed.

Contact - John Gibbons of Zeniatech - zeniatech@gmail.com

Technical footnote. Sophisticated users can install dual or even quad LNBs to enable multiple recordings. If you pay more, then you can buy Freesat boxes with built in HDs up to a Terabyte. If you are streaming TV over the internet, make sure you are aware of how much data you will use and what your tariff is. I also have seen some forum comments that you can use an old Sky+ box and get similar results.