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An update after a weekend away in sunny Perthshire; the reduced pump presssure has partially reduced the water surging, though it is still there and we've still to be careful when using hot water and every use means wiping up around the sink or handbasin. I've video filmed the thing in operation lest the dealer still maintains that it's useable in it's present state and thinks twice about the offer to replace the pump.

 The reduced pressure means that pressure to the shower is also down and the water spray barely reaches me when in the shower, and I've to use the thing in my hand. I'm not brave enough to try the shower in hot mode in case it 'coughs' and goes too hot, and used it mildy warm just in case. Luckily the weather was warm enough to make a cool shower preferable anyway.  

Pump noise is still there, to the extent that the owner of a 'van two spaces away mentioned it to me this morning. Of the three one year old and two 2009 vans on the site neither has any sort of pump noise to match ours, and one 1992 van has one which is nigh on silent. The reason I know is because I checked after the lad spoke to me this morning. None were Sterlings, but were mixed Eldiss, Rangers, Lunar, Bucanneer, Avondale and a Swift or two, and I didn't ask which pumps were fitted, but did ask to hear them in action. Concensus of opinion was that ours was noisy, and that the owners wouldn't have them in their vans. Nor would they have endured the problems we've had.

Our pump now has an occasional noise which sounds like a dry bearing, but that might just be me being paranoid. AND we've now got squeeky brakes!  

As I said in an earlier post................ "Sterling? Rubbish"

hi jake, i am sorry to see you are having a few probs with your van, regarding the pump and the taps spitting when you run the hot water, I have a swift con.... 645, mine did the same, when i was using the aqua roll thats all i got, after running the hot water for 15 seconds or so, you will find this is caused by air locking in the pipe work, I put my van on the mains water, ran it for a while, I ran the water till the hot water had all gone, I then reverted back to using the aqua roll and everything was fine, I know this isnt going to help you in anyway really, But i thought i would just try this, yes you will be fed up filling the aqua roll up, but try filling the aqua roll up with a hose pipe at home,see if it does clear up. regarding the pump it`s self being noisey, I have seen posts on the fourm that members say some on board pumps are loud, most of the time the pumps arent mounted properly or at all.mine was a nosey pump, sounded like a machine gun when you ran it!, so i remounted it myself with neopren, (like  rubber), now it is exceptable, also i put a little smear of vasaline round the o ring were the water pipe fits in the van from the aqua roll.also does your tap in the toilet compartment have a nozzle that dosent spray like your kitchen tap? I swapped the nozzle`s so now it dosent spray all over the cooker etc.must admit though, a pump to run dry after all that time what you say, I think it will be rather better for wear by now.I think we can all except a few teething probs But it looks like you have had a fair share. makes you wonder if some vans are checked before they hit the road.why do we have to pay nearly £495 to have it checked before it`s handed over to us when it`s brand knew?When i bought my van i told them to stuff this payment then we can have a sale, plus broke there arm abit.

hope you get things sorted jake and get faith back in your van soon.

good luck.

As I said in an earlier post................ "Sterling? Rubbish"

You have made me smile, I think that is a very reserved reply, Good luck

I've had an email from the Cookstown Caravans MD and will meet up with him tomorrow (Tuesday) in Kirkcaldy when he comes across from Ireland. Hopefully he'll resolve the outstanding issues. 

We'll have to consider if we're really at ease with the the caravan or if we should just sell up and that'll be the end of our caravanning. We love the time away with friends, the company we meet at sites, the scenery and the peace and quiet, but we've both accepted that it's a lot less fun when things have gone the way they have. 

Perhaps that was because we had high expectations from spending money on a new 'van which meant no worrying about things going wrong, or if things did go wrong we could rely on the experts to sort it out quickly.

After our weekend away we were just glad to be home and parked up with no further problems, which is not how things used to be. I'm worrying already that the squeeky brakes are a result of the problems we had with them early on, and if I could strip them and check them myself I'd be happier (I have an engineering background and service vehicles at work) but there's the warranty to think about. To consider going abroad with the caravan is now out of the question, and the autumn trip to Ireland is cancelled for us, friends will go but we'll get B&B and fly across instead.

I regret ever going into the dealership and seing the Europa, and I reckon if we'd still had our old Ace Airstream we'd be happier today, and a lot better off! We can have a few good holidays with what we sell the caravan for.

Sorry to hijack this thread with all my grumbles, but "I've started so I'll finish....." to quote old Magnus.........

Meeting with the MD from Cookstown/Kirkcaldy Caravans yesterday may have eased our minds a bit, as he's offered to have the pump on our Sterling Europa 460 changed for a less noisy and more efficient SureFlo pump, which he assures me will solve the problems we're having. Why this was not done when we complained originally and it was found that we still had the problem (after the dealer had two attempts to rectify it) was discussed; "New caravans, like any other item, may have teething troubles and issues and it's not those issues but how we deal with them that's important"  he said, and he intends to deal with it to our satisfaction. That's proper dealer service as far as I'm concerned, and he seems genuine in his desire to see the matter resolved and if the workshops do as he intends we may have the problems solved.

The squeeky brakes will also be checked; dust from the friction material in the drums is the likely cause he reckons, this possibly caused by the previous braking problems we had is what I reckon.

We're still undecided as to our next move as regards the caravan, but we'll give the dealer and the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt and after they do their bit we'll have a weekend away and see what the outcome is. 

What an awfy stooshie though over such a small issue!

Janbo25, we have a dealers special 2009 Europa 520 model which looks to be the same weight as the 495 you mention you are looking at, we also have a 2.0 VW Passat TDI estate 140bhp Sport model and hubby says it tows without a problem, he looked into it quite a bit as like you was finding different specs but he founf the right info and I am sure we are well within the correct match limit with ours, I am sure you will be good to go!

-------- oops just realised that this is a really old post, brought back to the top with an update about dealer issues,,,,,,ignore me, its Monday! ------

Sorry, I kinda hijacked the post with my comments, but as the original post mentioned Sterling caravans I thought it best to warn others of our problems.

I should really condense the posts I made and re-post them under their own title I suppose.