Hi from Newcastle Upon Tyne

Thelma and Louise · Dec 21, 2012

Hi Folks, I've not long found this site...had our T4 a year now, it's a Westfalia California 2.5 petrol auto Eurovan (unfortunately bit low on mpg for my liking) and Caribbean Green.
We have named him Erik the Viking.
It's left hand drive, imported from Japan in 2006 I think so the bodywork is mint, no rust at all.
Had a few issues this past year with auto gearbox electronics, in fact ALL the electronics so complete rewire of ECU and gearbox loom and ribbon :cry: but now runs like a dream, very smooth.
Despite being in the garage for a number of months (cumulative over the year), we did manage quite a few trips...West coast of Scotland/Isle of Skye and North Wales (Snowdonia and Pembrokeshire)...although we did have to be recovered from St Davids!
Our shorter trips are usually North from Newcastle, into the wilds of Northumberland, usually coastal and the Lake District, North Yorkshire (Dales and Moors).
So hopefully that is the end of the break down shenanigans and this coming year hope to head off for some trouble free touring

Hope to see some of you on the road...Lisa and Ash

calikev · Dec 21, 2012

Hi there welcome along. Glad you now have your van sorted. I hope you enjoy the forum
And happy Christmas to you :thumb

Thelma and Louise · Dec 21, 2012

Thanks Calikev

I'm a bit technophobic so haven't really got around to learning how to post photos, but I'm on Facebook so I'll see if I can post some there if poss until I work out how to do it here.
Any clues? There probably is but I haven't had time to look around the forum properly yet.
I now have 2 weeks off work, so maybe that will give me some impetus to get cracking.
And a jolly Christmas to you all, ho ho ho! :crazy

TwentyOneThirtyFive · Dec 21, 2012

Welcome, sounds like a nice bus.

Photos can be added like this:

[ url ]http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb238/DanEgleton/Westfalia/Ashridge/file.jpg[ /url ]

but remove the spaces around the url and /url.
dan

James · Dec 21, 2012

Thelma and Louise said:
Hi Folks, I've not long found this site...had our T4 a year now, it's a Westfalia California 2.5 petrol auto Eurovan (unfortunately bit low on mpg for my liking) and Caribbean Green.
We have named him Erik the Viking.
It's left hand drive, imported from Japan in 2006 I think so the bodywork is mint, no rust at all.
Had a few issues this past year with auto gearbox electronics, in fact ALL the electronics so complete rewire of ECU and gearbox loom and ribbon :cry: but now runs like a dream, very smooth.
Despite being in the garage for a number of months (cumulative over the year), we did manage quite a few trips...West coast of Scotland/Isle of Skye and North Wales (Snowdonia and Pembrokeshire)...although we did have to be recovered from St Davids!
Our shorter trips are usually North from Newcastle, into the wilds of Northumberland, usually coastal and the Lake District, North Yorkshire (Dales and Moors).
So hopefully that is the end of the break down shenanigans and this coming year hope to head off for some trouble free touring
Hope to see some of you on the road...Lisa and Ash

Hi and welcome

Is it an american van originally as it is a Eurovan? I know you said you imported from Japan was just curious.

James

Thelma and Louise · Jan 2, 2013

Now that the festive period of manicness is over, I can get back to concentrating on my bus and camping.
I just need to get into the habit of posting stuff and of course one of my New Year resolutions is to learn to post photos...it will happen, but don't expect miraculous swiftness :crazy
As far as I know the Eurovan was a USA edition, but I don't know how this translates to a Japanese export.
All I know is it was exported to Japan when new and brought over to the UK in 2006.
Perhaps the Eurovans were made and exported to the US and Japan only...but I'm not sure, though I do think I have read somewhere about Japanese exports.
Perhaps the Eurovan were just the petrol editions...there does seem to be a lot of petrol vans coming via Japan.
The good thing about it is the lack of rust...none, I mean, nada.
The engine looks well looked after, a very smooth ride.
It had a recon auto box fitted in 2008.
It has air con and an LPG tank, so really has a lot of extras.
I had the air con re-gassed and a new regulator on the tank.
I also added Fox commercial alloy wheels and tyres...all good.
The only real problem remaining is that the idle is a bit high and when revved when stationary, can fluctuate up and down between 1.5-2000 revs until I turn off the ignition.
My garage (VW indie) has looked at it numerous times, replaced lambda sensor, coolant temp switch and replaced all the vac pipes, put a new idle valve on (but it wasn't that), cleaned out the old one, put it back on and still the problem remains.
This appears to be a common thing in T4's as have had a good root around the T4 forum...
If anyone can shed any light...
It's a bugger because the vagcom light comes on which leads to the same fault (in early T4's one may know the vagcoms aren't the most easiest to figure out).
I think the fault comes back as 'secondary air system'...but these vans aren't supposed to have that system (if I understand my garage correctly).
It may be that there is some tweak somewhere to take account of Japan's climate and it doesn't like the UK climate.
But what that may be, it is hard to figure out, especially since 2.5 petrol auto is the rare beast garages don't encounter anymore, so it's all 'trial and error'.
Anyway, any more owners oop North?