What’s wrong with your van?

Shit man not good. :crazy_diz

Live and learn I suppose mate.

Best way is to offer 80 quid or whatever for HIM to put it through MOT. He knows his motor, if he is confident it will pass he will say yes. If he doesn’t agree then tell him to fuck off.

Are you getting white smoke out of the exhaust?
Start simple , check all fuel line connections are tight , check the fuel filter is tight and free from water/leaks there might be a water drain tap on it im not sure twist it untill you can smell diesel if not replace the filter then you know for sure should not be expensive.

how mech minded are you?
you could try bleeding the system to make sure its free from air this is a common problem.

White smoke from the exhaust is a sign that you are burning water either through the fuel system or the head gasket ,gives you a good indicator of where to look ,also if black smoke comes out your burning oil.

Is the problem only there on a cold start , or does it have trouble starting all the time even after a good run ?

grrrrr if after checking all that ive said and you still have no joy it will mean a replacing the fuel lift pump . Hopefully it will be one of smaller/cheaper problems to sovle ,hope ive been able to help although not much ;o)

@acidmunky 322895 wrote:

thanks for the advice- much appreciated!!! when i took it in the garage the bloke said it was fucked!!

Check this.

This has happened to me twice. Actually once. Actually, maybe never. Let me explain.

I haven’t had much need to use a mechanic, but a few times after buying vehicles I’ve taken them to my family mechanic to have them checked over. Each time I’ve done this, my mechanic said they were shagged, and I’d been done over. The first one, a 106, I was told was in a bad way mechanically, that it was essentially a write off. I was confused, as it had over 6 months MOT, and didn’t seem too bad, so I decided to immediately sell it for what I bought it for, and got another car (that was new enough to not need to be checked).
After that car, I needed a van for my two businesses (drumming, and gardening). I acquired one for cheap, and decided to get it checked. Again, I was told I had been sold a piece of crap by the family mechanic, that it was written off mechanically, and wouldn’t pass it’s next MOT without me spending more for repairs than I had paid for it.

Again fuming I contacted trading standards etc, as I had purchased this from dealer. Anyway, there was nothing I could do, and I was stuck with the vehicle. That caused me to waste a lot of time and be very stressed. I drove it for as long as I could with the remaining few months MOT. When this ran out I decided to take it to another mechanic to have the MOT done, suspecting the family mechanic wasn’t so family. I expected it to be a grim day. It was not. To my utter surprise I returned to the garage with a clean bill of health, and a new 1 years MOT certificate. Nothing was wrong with it. I didn’t have to pay for ONE thing to be done for it to pass MOT.