Buying a Sprinter- Need Advice?

[norcross]

Hello fellow Sprinter fans! My spouse and I have found a Sprinter that we are considering buying. (We have until Friday, when they're taking it to a mechanic for us for an inspection, to decide.) It's a 2008 2500 with 150k. I am writing all you knowledgeable people because the owner mentioned how the transmission and alternator had had a rebuild and some rubber hoses that were leaking on it a year ago. What are your thoughts on this and can you give any insight into whether or not you think it would be safe to purchase this van after having such major work done on it? Have any of you have to replace your transmission and how was it afterwards? Thank you for your input!

[jmoller99]

Alternators are not that hard to change (and often the clutch on them is jammed up - this is a bad thing), so recent work is probably good (they may have only changed the alternator clutch). New alternators come with a new alternator clutch.

Hard to say about the transmission. The 2002's thru current (2012) Sprinters all use the same basic NAG1 transmission. It's pretty reliable, but it also has some shift issues (called Rumble Strip Noise - RSN) that bother some people more than others - there is a kit to fix this, if you are so inclined (and you work on your own vehicles).

The milage sounds good.

Hoses? I have changed most of mine as a proactive step (my Sprinter had 154K miles on it when I bought it in 2010). It's likely that they needed to be changed.

Dealers are very expensive. Places like Europarts SD and online Dodge dealers (like Berry Dodge) can often save you big $. I work on my own vehicles.