I finally got a BOV.

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JOE90

I finally got a BOV.

Post by JOE90 »

Well i had been looking to get a second car as my wife was using the family car more and more. I was made redundant in July and got an new job right away. But unlike my old job it wasn't 5 minutes from home. So last Friday i got a Vauxhall Frontera A. Its a 2.5 turbo Diesel,it has the bare minimum of things to go wrong and I'm very happy with it. It cost me £750 from a Mitsubishi dealer, it had been traded in and they put it up for sale. Its only done 75000 miles and came with wad of invoices for services so i know its been looked after. I had looked at Land Rovers but got fed up of being told over the phone that i was sold or more annoyingly that it was mint and when i went to view it, it clearly was not. So i looked at other brands and had narrowed it down to Isuzu, Jeep or Mitsubishi. Well my Frontera is a License built Isuzu Wizard. The engine is made by VM Motori in Italy, it has been used by numerous car manufacturers. I was very worried about the engine as it has a lot of people who are not fans of it due to it cracking heads. I did my research and found it not as bad as the haters say. I plan to get up to scratch on a few things and start building a discreet BOV. I want it to blend in so all or most of my kit must fit inside. It has a useful storage compartment in the rear seat so i have put some spares and tools in there. The boot will then be carefully organized to take my kit. I will get some pics up soon of what i do to it and hopefully get an give some ideas to you guys.
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Quercus-robur
Posts: 297
Joined: Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:35 pm
Location: Cumbria

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by Quercus-robur »

Sounds good. My friend used to have a Frontera. It was a great vehicle and I know it has a lot of potential as a BOV. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

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unsure
Posts: 1365
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:53 am
Location: st.helens , area 9

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by unsure »

they`re not a bad old bus if you keep on top of the servicing .
a friend of mine owns the frontera owner group forum , so if you need any info on it just let me know .
YES i walked away mid sentence , you were boring me to death and my survival instincts kick in .
jonb
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:25 pm

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by jonb »

Hi

A friend of mine had a 16v petrol one and I use to service it for him.

Quite a heavy vehicle , in a good way , solidly built.

As mentioned its Isuzu based , in my view Jap stuff is excellent ( my L200 has just done 152,000 on just service items) , the only thing I found was the petrol Frontera version was a bit gutless but drove ok.

I'm sure the diesel would be fine , as with any vehicle servicing is the key.

I seem to recall it had locking front hubs ?
JOE90

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by JOE90 »

Yeah the diesel has a decent amount of go to it, it cruises quite happily at 60 and thats enough for me. I had it in for its MOT yesterday, it passed so i was very happy. I spent some time today fixing a few issues, the dash lights only half were working so i could not see half the dials. Also fitted a stereo which while it might not seem prepper like does mean i can find up to date news while TSHTF. I also fitted some brighter headlight bulbs as the ones in it were dim to say the least. Aldi had a boot tidy bag on there promotion this week so picked up 2 of them and a set of jump leads for the winter preps. Next job is to sort the fuel pipes as they let air in somewhere and to fit my jerry can holder to the boot. I also plan to tint the very rear windows so the no one can see into the boot. Lots to do but I'm nibbling away at the jobs, bring on the snow!!!
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unsure
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Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:53 am
Location: st.helens , area 9

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by unsure »

the best place to start looking for an air leak in the fuel system is at the tank end . were the pipes go into the sender are prone to rot . if not then work your way down , under the drivers side rear seat a long the chassis they go as well . be care full along there ,the brake pipes are clipped in with the fuel pipes .
YES i walked away mid sentence , you were boring me to death and my survival instincts kick in .
JOE90

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by JOE90 »

It looks to be over the rear axle as that's where it looks a bit grotty. The rest of the pipes perfect, so i might look to splice it rather than replace the whole lot.
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unsure
Posts: 1365
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:53 am
Location: st.helens , area 9

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by unsure »

just be sure when you push on the rubber pipes that you use a sealer of some sort [ rtv ] as you slide them on and good quality clips
YES i walked away mid sentence , you were boring me to death and my survival instincts kick in .
JOE90

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by JOE90 »

I spent yesterday fixing the fuel pipes at my parents place. Its a good job as well as it was looking like iminnant failure. Also gave it an oil change and a once over, all looks good. Now i know its all good i can sped time on other preps.
JOE90

Re: I finally got a BOV.

Post by JOE90 »

So the last 2 weeks I've been using the Frontera nearly every day. A couple of occasions off road have highlighted a couple of issues. The first 1 being the need for better tyre's as it caused me to get stuck and made driving in mud a bit of a chore. The 2nd nearly did some damage to the engine, after fording shallow river(1 foot deep) the engine cut out. At first i thought the electrics had got wet, but what had happened was that the water had made its way into the engines air filter. It started but steam had come out the exhaust for a few minutes and miss fired as well. It now runs good again but caused a bit of a scare. I found the reason why, the air filter has a pipe that runs from the air filter to inside the drivers side wheel arch. Its only protected by the plastic wheel arch liner. Before i go in a river again with it I'm going to blank off the pipe to the wheel arch and re route the intake. I'm surprised by the design fault on a 4x4 but then nothings perfect. I also did some rounds on the local scrap yards and came up trumps on a roof rack. Its for a Citroen Berlingo van but brackets aside its a perfect size for the roof. So my next project is to get the brackets cut off and make and weld some new ones on. I also spent some time today cleaning electrical plugs and sockets and applying a liberal coating of silicon grease to prevent water ingress. I will try to get some pics of the roof rack build very soon.