Should I buy it?

Wanting a long cargo van for stealth camping/living in. Want the I5 for reliability, gas mileage and low price. Found just what I am looking for; 03 2500 158" with under 100K miles for $12K. My searching says thats a great price. Drives great and really strong. Even though it is an empty cargo van it ran a lot stronger than I thought it would. I was quite impressed. The tranny shifted well and no vibrations. Drive shaft 'looked' okay, for what thats worth, it wasnt cluncking anyway. A couple of concerns however. No AC/heater fan at any setting, the center vent selector rotary knob doesn't spin, and most importantly the glow plug light stayed on while driving. AC problems are not deal breakers and hopefully not too expensive but I fear the worse with the glow plugs; like siezed in the head. I gather from my quick forum search its probably a shorted glow plug that has screwed the controller as well. Are these expensive? If they do turn out to get broken in the head is the only way to remove them by removing the head? I'm pretty mechanically inclined, aircraft mechanic, would this be to much of a headache to take on myself? any and all advice is apreciated.

First let me extend you a hale and hearty welcome to the forum.

It does sound like a good price.

Glow plug changes aren't the end of the world. Here's what I found when I changed mine.

https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?p=117395#post117395

Did you check for injector leakage under the black plastic cover? There's some info here in case you haven't run across it.

https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5174

There is a glow plug repair which Ciprian discussed fairly recently.

https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?p=163149#post163149

There's more info in that thread also. Good hunting. vic

"if the ride is fly....then you must buy"......

As for the glow plug issue --- my glow plug light on my '02 stays on most all of the time while driving. When I first turn key on, light comes on and then goes out. But after engine starts it generally comes back on. However this has never presented a problem with cold weather starting. Has started easily at 10 degrees F. I intend to check this out some day (not at the top of the list as long as it starts well). All this to say --- it may not be a big problem.

While problems detailed in forum postings (and entire threads!) are real and quite unnerving, they are not necessarily representative of everyone's ownership experience.

If you like the van, buy it.

-Jon