Sorry for the long delay in answering. My garage has been all around but can't seem to be able to fix the problem. His conclusion is that it sadly comes really from the gearbox itself. #-o

He gave me a number of a company in Bristol who specialises in auto gearbox but I thought I'd send an email ...

@Alacrity: what do you mean?

I drove the Bongo a bit yesterday and the problem is still there. Maybe not as prominent (less random switching between gears) but quite a bit of revving because you need to push further to go to the next gear.

I've got an update form the garage. He didn't have much time to dig deep as he's going away for a week but he took some of the transmission fluid away (suspecting something is leaking into it) and had a look at a few vacuum pipes that he replaced because they were in bad shape, thinking that they ...

Thanks for the feedback.
It is now with the garage. I'll see what he says. Thanks for the TPS direction. That's another thing to check before worrying too much about replacing the whole thing.
Hopefully it 's just one of those two!
I'll keep you updated as soon as I know more.

So we got our dear Bongo back from the garage with a "new" camshaft, head gasket, belt, etc. Changed a suspension arm 2 weeks later for the Mot and everything was fine.. Until it started acting weird with the gearbox.
The engine revs for no reason and seems to go up and down between gears a bit ...

Late reply on the subject but thanks for all the messages. Camshaft has been sorted with the rest and everything has been fine... For a couple weeks.

I gave a ring to the mechanic this morning to tell him to proceed with the repairs and he told me that he found out that the camshaft and valves were the same parts used on Ford Rangers so he has managed to find second hand parts that will do the job nicely. :)

I can't wait to get the Bongo back ...

Thanks for all the feedback!

To explain a bit, the camshaft is not broken as in broken in 2 parts, it's damaged, so it's not pressing on the valves the right away (so they need to be replaced as well) so the engine was misfiring. I'll still ask the mechanic if he knows what could cause that because ...

Hi,

Last weekend, en route to Bristol started making a very loud noise 5 minutes before our destination at Ikea Bristol.
We spent most of the day on the carpark waiting for Road Assistance's mechanic, then tow truck…
We thought it was maybe just the exhaust but it turns out that the camshaft is ...

I followed your advice and found this dreadful thread: https://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=74440&hilit=Classic+Campers .

Like some people said, I think they're not proper crooks, but on our Bongo there was a lot of welding underneath too and now that we've had it for a year the ...

Hi,

Yes, looking back to that post, it was a bit cryptic. Sorry about that!

So this is a Automatic Diesel Bongo from 1996 with 190 000km on the odometer.
We bought it last Summer from Classic Campers, a Bongo reseller from Pontypool.
We had the MOT in Winter and it was alright, bit of melding here ...

Hi,
We're really happy of our little bongo but (among other things) there is a vibration that occurs only from 1st to 2nd gear the first time after starting it and putting into gear. After that it's usually fine.

Any idea where to look?

Thanks!