Bongo Fury

I recently have been pulling a medium size trailer loaded with logs up and down steep hills.
On descents i use S and engage the hold button goes down nicely with just a touch on the brakes. On ascents I do the same just keep the revs constant at about 2000 and the diesel engine just gently powers up, no drop in speed, no over revving, brilliant! Then back to D when it levels out.

Spot on info is that D P Just what i do

Izzy

Just been for a blast and instead of using just 'D' I got brave.

Floored her up the bypass, and broke with 'HOLD' then dropped to 'S' and flew round roundabout.

Back to 'D' 'HOLD' off and foot down - 'HOLD' again to drop a gear - foot down more - 'HOLD' off.

No idea if it made any difference, but it seemed much more fun.

Ok from the owners manwell!

Hold Mode Operation.

Shift lever position D. Press the hold mode switch ....When driving slippery surfaces....When driving winding roads....Using an engine break when driving at high speed.

Sift lever position S. Press the hold mode switch when....Using an engine break when driving down hills.... When driving winding uphill roads.

Shift lever position L. press the hold mode switch when....using an extremely strong engine break when driving downhills.

To avoid over-reving the engine do not exceed the speeds shown in the chart below when hold mode is operating.

FE engine.....S .... max 80km/hr. L..... max 40km/hr

J5 engine (v6) S...max 90km/hr. L....max 40km/hr

WL engine (2.5td) S...max 65km/hr. L....max 35km/hr

(no max speed listed for D )
(page 72 and 73 of manual)

People are talking out of their rear end I'm afraid if they say do not use hold. It's an electrical switch for goodness sake, you could say the same thing for the headlights!!

It is there to be used. It will NOT hurt the gearbox to use it, and as another people have said here, you cannot damage the engine or the gearbox using it, the electronics stop you doing anything silly. I tow a lot & use mine all the time, to pop it down a gear when labouring uphill or to give engine braking when going downhill. If you use it in S & L you will get much better engine braking but it can be a little abrupt when it comes in at higher revs, whatever range the selector is in.

Using the hold feature along with the different drive ranges is all about correct driving of the vehicle. Why else would all manufacturers provide similar features?? Or do they know nothing as some people are eluding to here.

Believe me anyone who has experienced brake fade when laden going down long hill will be a fan of anything that allows you to use engine braking.

Remind me.... what do you do for a living sir?..... nuff said!

Thats pretty much what I meant too!

mister munkey wrote: Dive in, that button is there for a purpose, gearbox problems on the Bongo are extremely rare. Its one of the most over engineered parts of the design.

Alacrity wrote:People are talking out of their rear end I'm afraid if they say do not use hold. It's an electrical switch for goodness sake, you could say the same thing for the headlights!!

It is there to be used. It will NOT hurt the gearbox to use it, and as another people have said here, you cannot damage the engine or the gearbox using it, the electronics stop you doing anything silly. I tow a lot & use mine all the time, to pop it down a gear when labouring uphill or to give engine braking when going downhill. If you use it in S & L you will get much better engine braking but it can be a little abrupt when it comes in at higher revs, whatever range the selector is in.

Using the hold feature along with the different drive ranges is all about correct driving of the vehicle. Why else would all manufacturers provide similar features?? Or do they know nothing as some people are eluding to here.

Believe me anyone who has experienced brake fade when laden going down long hill will be a fan of anything that allows you to use engine braking.

But just what is the point of using HOLD and the lower ranges when going up through the gears?

Surely the box will change up at the best points revs wise, depending on how hard you are booting it?

No point at all unless you are in stop start traffic. Some drivers get fed up when an auto is hunting up & down all the time so will use hold or just select a fixed gear till the driving returns to normal.

If I'm going down a medium hill, in D, and feel the need for some mild engine braking, is there any real difference between dropping to S or pressing Hold? Seems like the result is the same - drops a gear and you slow down.

Same question if you are going from, say, 40mph to a crawl using the gears. You could go D->S->L->Hold, or D->Hold->S->L, or D->S->Hold->L. In each case you end up in the lowest gear crawling along, and have gone down in 3 steps. Is there any difference in these sequences?

dave_aber wrote:If I'm going down a medium hill, in D, and feel the need for some mild engine braking, is there any real difference between dropping to S or pressing Hold? Seems like the result is the same - drops a gear and you slow down.

Same question if you are going from, say, 40mph to a crawl using the gears. You could go D->S->L->Hold, or D->Hold->S->L, or D->S->Hold->L. In each case you end up in the lowest gear crawling along, and have gone down in 3 steps. Is there any difference in these sequences?

If you put the trans into S from D you will go into second (assuming you are not going too fast for second gear, if you are the electronics wont allow a downshift to take place until the vehicle slows enough to allow it), if you use hold when in D (& you are in 4th), then you will drop to third (again assuming you are not going too fast for third gear, if you are the electronics wont allow a downshift to take place until the vehicle slows enough to allow it). If you put it into S and use hold you will notice a big difference.

You will get better braking if you go D > hold > S then hold > L then hold. If you leave hold in all the time then fine but the manual shifts down will be firm. I usually take the hold off as I manually shift then apply it again once the trans has changed down, but that is just the way I do it.

Best to find somewhere to experiment, as we have said, you wont hurt anything as it all electronically protected.

Ahh, that sounds clearer.

I'll have an experiment when I'm driving next. TBH, I had thought that going from D->S (at, say 50mph, in 4th) put you in 3rd, and going from D -> D&Hold also put you in 3rd, and so on down the box, so S=3rd, S&Hold = 2nd, L=2nd, L&Hold =1st. I suppose it's not a simple as that, with speed / load coming into the equation.

Happy to have a play safe in the knowledge that the electronics will do their bit and remove any stupidity. Discovered that descending an alp, when changing down did nothing, until I had used the brakes to reduce speed to an acceptable level - then the box down-shifted.

Alacrity wrote:No point at all unless you are in stop start traffic. Some drivers get fed up when an auto is hunting up & down all the time so will use hold or just select a fixed gear till the driving returns to normal.

The only time I use HOLD in that situation is in D - to force the box to use 2nd, so I trickle along slightly faster than when not using HOLD.
My box doesn't hunt up and down that much anyway and at stop/start traffic speeds changes are virtually unnoticeable.

dunslair wrote:I regularly use the hold button to allow the engine to assist in braking in conjunction with the brakes. I don't understand why this should be a problem with the autobox on the bongo Could somebody give a bit of explanation as to why this would be a problem or detrimental to the box. It feels far more 'controlled' than only using the brakes in certain circumstances.....

Agreed..