Any Sprinter Experts

Interested in picking up a 2002-2006 Sprinter van for weekend excursions. Does anyone have a link or experience in what to watch out for? Being in the northeast rust is probably a big factor. What else is troublesome on these things?

Thanks!

I would not consider myself an "expert", but I probably know just about as much of them as anyone else here.

They are pretty good mechanically. The white ones have poorer paint than most other colors, and since these rarely ever get washed or waxed, they will rust. Try and find one from the south. Mileage is a non-issue generally.

Biggest issue is "The Black Death", which is a situation where the injector seal leaks combustion, and over time a hard, tough, black crystal (almost like black plastic) forms up and over the injectors, down in the valley of the valve cover.

This can be a HUGE job to fix. There is luckily a special tool set you can get to remove the injectors with the engine still in the van (this ruins the injectors), but the further back from #1 you go, the more difficult clearance becomes.

Parking brake mechanisms get stuck (because morons do not use them). Related, the gear selector mechanisms get all loose and sloppy, and sometimes the little grommets pop out.

Fuse boxes go bad (bus bars inside get warped, poor contact). Easy to swap, under the steering column. Usually manifests as inoperative turn signals, but can cause other problems too.

Condenser fans once in a while, which if left not working will cause the A/C to cool poorly and eventually ruin the compressor.

Alternator clutch pulleys can seize.

Charge air tube splits, and the resonator tube on the turbo outlet can split. Aftermarket has a metal replacement tube for the resonator, so it will never crack again.

Glow plug control relay can stick slightly on, causing battery drains. Behind driver's headlight.

Rarely you see an external oil leak on the head gasket. Never gets awful, but is a huge job to replace.

One of the biggest problems with first gen Sprinters is they got treated like a POS Dodge, which they were not. So they got wrong oil, crappy filters, wrong coolant, etc. The ones that are well cared for hold up remarkably well.

They are made of compressed rust held together with a little bit of paint!

The model years you are looking at cover the T1N (first generation) and the first year of the current generation. They ALL rust like nothing else on the market today.

When I was in the market for a van, Sprinter was out of the running partly because of the price tag but also because I've seen no evidence that the rust problem has ever been fixed. And they develop rust spots everywhere, including in the middle of flat panels, and that can only mean ... cheap metal and bad paint.

Here is a great place to look:

https://sprinter-source.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=14

Not sure exactly what you are after, and there are certainly lots of variations. My friend found a nice rust free 2005 144 passenger 2500 a few years ago from there. It had 240k on it at the time. Still has it. Still looks good. Still drives perfect.

The cargo vans, except for ones that have been owner converted to campers, will have been usually beaten up pretty bad. Passenger vans are typically nicer, but rarer, and will cost more.

Thank you guys!!

I will focus on getting one from the south. Ultimately it will be a 2nd utility vehichle / weekend adventure vehicle. So if I can find one without rust it will not spend a lot of time in the salt.

oilhammer said:

Here is a great place to look:
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=14
Not sure exactly what you are after, and there are certainly lots of variations. My friend found a nice rust free 2005 144 passenger 2500 a few years ago from there. It had 240k on it at the time. Still has it. Still looks good. Still drives perfect.
The cargo vans, except for ones that have been owner converted to campers, will have been usually beaten up pretty bad. Passenger vans are typically nicer, but rarer, and will cost more.

Click to expand...

Your friend found exactly what I am looking for.

If you are shopping for 1st gen Sprinters, they also sold here an even shorter, 118 inch version, that rolls on 15" wheels and has a slightly lower height. These are not very common, but just keep that in mind.

These were available in both cargo and passenger versions, but since they got the same 2.7L 5 cyl engine, they actually are pretty peppy. Unloaded they'll run fender to fender with an ALH car, and can tag 30 MPG on the highway. Most of these "shorties" would have been 4 cylinders elsewhere.

2nd gen did not get any shorties. But we did, eventually in 2014, get a 4 cyl, which they took away after 2016. Mine is a '16. But that would cost substantially more than a 1st gen, so probably not what you are looking for.

Thank you Oilhammer. Any idea what to expect to pay for passenger versions of the 1st gen? I see a huge variation in price that I assume is related to condition/commercial use.

The older something gets, the more varied the condition gets, the more varied the mileage gets, and the more varied the price gets.

I would say spend the most you can for the nicest one you can, and go by condition and proof of care moreso than mileage.

There is a shorty passenger van in CA with almost 200k on it, decent shape, for $13k. I would say that is the high side, but would obviously be higher in his area (everything is).

These hold their value so well, I ended up buying a new one, since I was originally looking for one that was within 3 years old of current model year due to wheelchair installation restraints on funding. Turned out all the 2-3 year old passenger vans were the tarted up models that MSRP'd for $50k+, and were selling used for $35k... so I bought a new base model for $42k instead.

Obviously any first gen (aside from some really fancy RV model that has barely been used) will be much, much less. You could probably score a decent 144 passenger for under $10k now. Look in places like Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, etc.

Thank you! So my thought process is on key. I was hoping to find something clean and rust free for $10k or less. I don't want to buy a $4,000 beat pan because it will take a ton of time and money to fix.

On the plus side I can do most of my own work so small things are not an issue.

And remember when looking, the 1st gen Sprinters while mostly sold under the Dodge brand, they were also sold under the Freightliner brand. Although the passenger van versions are even rarer than the Dodge branded ones are.

Other than the badges, they are exactly the same. Lots of folks put a proper Mercedes-Benz grill and badging on them, though. Those are good ones to buy, since those were generally better cared for. The knuckle draggers that honestly were dumb enough to think they were a Dodge usually treated them poorly.

My dad had one for his business drove it to 350,000 miles until it got rear ended.

It was one of the white ones so it had its issues with rust.

Glow plug relay was changed but its a very simple job.

It had a oil seal leak I think it was behind the oil filter housing. So it would leak oil all over the place and then the serpentine belt would snap. It took us about 3 belt changes to figure out the correlation.

It would also go into limp mode sometimes which I don't know it if was because of a tubro seal or a bad DPF.

It had a CEL for the DPF for the majority of the time we had it. The code never went away after we finally changed the DPF.

Alternator, A/C compressor, Water pump were changed.

I also cracked the oil pan by over tightening once during an oil change.

Door locks were starting to fail one by one.

Most of this stuff can just be attributed to the mileage.