Bongo Fury

ok I have spoken to the boss and approved the works. why?

It seems that he is sourcing a new cast for the head as they frown upon refurbished heads that have been used before. They used to fit them and I asked why the parts supplied here would not be considered good enough, but the opinion was it is false economy. They have agreed to fit any part that I supply just charging labour, but is that going to help me next winter if the colling system starts playing up? When you get over the shock and know you have to spend big, a bit more here or there is not that much difference.

I might be wrong agreeing with him but I like the thought that the new head is actually "New".

The warranty will cover any aspect of the cooling system for 12000 miles or one year. That is what I was after. I asked what would happen if a hose went and it warped the head, he said they would see that as their problem and cover it as they are going to take all the hoses off and inspect them before returning them to the bongo. Any they are not happy with will be replaced, at my cost of course before being refitted.

I am not happy at the cost, but I hope I am getting at the end of this what I want, a working bongo in good order with a sorted cooling system. I have decided that it is better the devil you know...

I will have a new radiator, new thermostat, new head, gasket, new timing belt, all pipes checked, I changed the water pump 6 weeks ago, all the fluids will be replaced, the alternator is 3 months old, the belts are new, the leaking steering rack has been sorted by the garage and they seem to know their stuff. I imagine they will tidy up any other loose ends they come across before I get to pick her up again. I should hope so for what it is costing me.

I asked about the rest of the engine, the bottom end, and the are happy its a good basis for a rebuilt, not knocking or smoking or rattling. I accept that if the next problem is anything but the waterworks, then its my cost, but I can only hope that I can rest assured when this is over and I will have no worries about driving as far and as hard as I can without a cooling problem.

Expertise is not cheap. I am sure I am paying over the odds; once you get to a certain stage, I have no mind to scrimp and save in the wrong places. I will reseve my judgement until after the work is complete and I have the Bongo back before I can decide if the extra was worth it.

When I see the cost of this plus my purchase price and 18 great months of ownership under my belt for less than some dealer offers, I am still not paying too much. We looked at a few vehicles in the 10K regeion, would they have been any better mechanically than mine is going to be in a few weeks?

And that is not including the next few years of fun I am sure this van is going to give me. I guess I would not spend it on our Bongo if I did not like the damn thing so much.

My Bongo is back, and its as good as new. Well engine wise.

I have just rang the garage to thank the mechanic, and ask about maintenence, and he thinks all should be well now. I ran it to Birmingham on Sunday and it runs clean and quiet. I have to track and balance the wheels as the van wandered about a bit and was pulling to the left, but I am quite happy that the mechanic paid close attention to getting the bleeding right and making sure things were as they should be before giving it back to me.

It turned out there was a crack between two valves and it was creating a huge back pressure and that split the radiator. Or the radiator split dropping the coolant and that caused the head to go, no idea which and its not important now. I asked about the general condition of the auxiliary parts and he said it went back together well and the manifold, turbo etc were in good knick. All it needs is regular maintenence and it should be fine.

So lets hope that is the end of that little sagea and I can have a few years of coolant trouble free motoring.

Hippotastic wrote:My Bongo is back, and its as good as new. Well engine wise.

I have just rang the garage to thank the mechanic, and ask about maintenence, and he thinks all should be well now. I ran it to Birmingham on Sunday and it runs clean and quiet. I have to track and balance the wheels as the van wandered about a bit and was pulling to the left, but I am quite happy that the mechanic paid close attention to getting the bleeding right and making sure things were as they should be before giving it back to me.

It turned out there was a crack between two valves and it was creating a huge back pressure and that split the radiator. Or the radiator split dropping the coolant and that caused the head to go, no idea which and its not important now. I asked about the general condition of the auxiliary parts and he said it went back together well and the manifold, turbo etc were in good knick. All it needs is regular maintenence and it should be fine.

So lets hope that is the end of that little sagea and I can have a few years of coolant trouble free motoring.

excellent - good luck and happy Bongoing

thank you

Developed a problem. It seems that I am over heating under load. Just read this topic http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=39781 and it seems a similar issue.

I am going to invite the garage tomorrow to come and collect the van and have a look at it. It has been running fine and causing no worries, we even drove to Bedfordshire to Skegness to Lincoln back to Skegness and back home last weekend. This weekend we drove to Shrewsbury, and it started to climb the temp gauge up a steep incline. I have the mason alarm, and I can see it creeping up the gauge. Very near the top of this long climb, the alarm went off just short of the H part of the gauge, and I carried on over the crest with a part throttle, cleared the top and started down the other side. The temp gauge dropped back to the middle in no time at all, about 30 seconds as soon as the load on the engine was removed. Seemed strange but I was happy that the temp had dropped and all seemed well.

Today returning home, the gauge started climbing again, also on a incline. The alarm went off and I stopped on the hard shoulder. The temp dropped quickly, and we limped onto the service station. I called the rescue people, and a nice chap came along to have a look.

We determined the fans were not kicking in so the sender was disconnected and the fans came on in full force. Took it for a spin, and the first hill we came across caused the temp to rise again. Again, over the crest, the temp dropped and stayed fine till we got back to the services. So I got it Relayed home, and here I am.

The Rescue man had an IR temp gauge and it was interesting watching him use it. He pointed out an oil leak on the drivers side at the front of the new head, it looks like the wrong gasket might have been used. I am going to query that for sure. But also we were looking at the temp of the block just under the head and I was getting 95C across the block except where the temp sender was, which showed 65C. Very strange, the Rescue man suggested a wrong head gasket might be blocking the flow of the water around the areas of the temp sender. I have no idea, but will be raising the issue for query. It might be nothing, but does not hurt to ask.

The pipe to the rad was showing 104C when I was near hot on the gauge, and the middle of the gauge was 90ish. It was good to have numbers to go with the gauge positions. So I guess I need a genuine Mazda temp sender and probalby a genuine thermostat, as the thread I linked earlier Kirsty is clearly indicating the problem of patent parts not sealing and allowing the temperature to climb unchecked.

(Kirsty)Did you fit a Mazda original stat, if not that could be your issue, a few people recently have cured problems by fitting a Mazda stat, do a search. They may open at the same time but at the top end it has to seal against the inlet into the thermostat housing from the engine recirc, if it doesn't do that you'll run too hot as it won't force the coolant flow through the rad. I seem to type this every other day

So I will let you guys know how I get on, but one last thought was that I paid a lot for my radiator, and they use a bolt and cir-clip to blank off a pipe coming out of the rad cap and that was not what I expected for the cost of the job. I paid plenty for a genuine radiator, but there you go. Maybe these people should not be on the friendly garage register. But maybe I will wait until they have fixed it first before getting cross.

Sorry to hear about all the problems you are having, at least you it sounds like the labour and parts are covered by the garages own warranty so shouldn't cost any more to put right. I will be following this thread closely as I've only just bought a bongo and had already noted this garage as being my closest from the bongo friendly garages list, might look further afield now if/when I need work doing.

I rang them up and the mechanic who did the work has left, and so has the receptionist. Have no idea what is going on down there, but I got to talk to Les who owns it and he was good to chat with. He thinks the gearbox together with the engine are overloading the system. I am okay with that to a point but they are collecting it on Thursday to have a look.

I think the fan issue and thermostat should be sorted under the warranty, and then we can talk about adding an extra inter-cooler for the gearbox, which I am in favour of anyhow, and I have just bought a caravan.

But he seemed willing to help and is collecting the bongo so all I can do it wait and see now.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. The genuine Mazda radiator wont have the extra pipe that needs to be blocked off (as far I know), so it would suggest you have an after-market rad.

There is (should be) a gearbox heat exchanger in the bottom of rad & this should be sufficient to keep the ATF cool. There are plenty of Bongo owners who tow caravans & have found the stardard cooling setup is adequate.

A slight oil leak on the side of the head / block is quite common & is probably caused by the gunk leaking from round the EGR system.

He thinks the gearbox together with the engine are overloading the system.

??????????? What on earth does that mean? I can't see how the engine and/or gearbox can 'overload' the cooling system? The only way the engine can 'overload' the cooling system is if a head gasket has gone or the head is cracked, I would sincerely hope this isn't the case here after all you have had done. As Simon correctly points out, the radiator should have an oil cooler for the transmission built into it, but this cannot possibly cause a properly functioning cooling system to mis-behave, it just doesn't work like that. Be very wary here.

I don't quite agree with towing without additional cooling - unless what you are towing is very light. An additional cooler (not inter-cooler, that is for the turbocharger charge air) can be supplied for around £100.00 & takes about 1 - 2 hours to fit. Cheap insurance compared to the cost of a rebuild & a no-brainer as far as I am concerned.

I have not got a genuine Mazda radiator, and when I queried this he seemed to think there are only two types available and no genuine Mazda parts. I told him I reckon I could get a genuine part just by ringing Mazda and asking for it. But I am going to see how it pans out. I want a genuine Mazda thermostat in there I told him today, and the sender for the fan actuation. If the radiator is not up to the job of cooling the water and gearbox oil, then it should not be my problem to pay for the extra radiator to cover the extra. But his first words were that we would need to install that to fix the issues. I might insist in the long run that he changes the radiator at his cost and put the right part in there if the copy part is not man enough. At what he charged me, he could do it and still be up.

The problem is when you are beholden to the garage, his only concern is making a profit. My only concern is a good job (in this case cost was not top consideration). I let him take the job and over charge for the warranty and now we see the worth of that. I just want it to work without causing worry, and adding the extra cooling would give me peace of mind.

If the head is cracked, or the gasket gone, its not my problem as that is covered by the warranty and it would be their problem to fix that. I can only hope that I judged the character of the man correctly when I trusted him to do the work. And with others watching and waiting for the results apart from me, he has business to win or lose.

I had a radiator develop a leak from the top tank earlier this year & got a new rad from Brighton radiators. It is identical to the original one & bolted straight in with no mods or blanking off required, it cost £147.00ish if my memory serves me right. The temp is running as normal but I have the original damped gauge as I haven't fitted my Mason alarm yet.

I towed a fairly heavy boat for 5 hours (2.5 each way) over Easter with no problems, but I do have an extra tranny cooler fitted.

Alacrity wrote:

I don't quite agree with towing without additional cooling - unless what you are towing is very light. An additional cooler (not inter-cooler, that is for the turbocharger charge air) can be supplied for around £100.00 & takes about 1 - 2 hours to fit. Cheap insurance compared to the cost of a rebuild & a no-brainer as far as I am concerned.

Can you give me a bit more information on this? I got quoted for a fan assisted radiator and it was steep, I have asked for a cheaper solution. I told him I could get it done for £100 so lets see what happens.

Well I got home from work yesterday and there was my Bongo on the drive. Result!

I had no idea they were returning it, and so I jumped in a took it for a run. It was much quieter and ran sweet, and the temps seems fine. I have not run it with the caravan attached yet, that will be its next test, to see if that is still an issue.

When I rang to ask what was wrong, I was advised that the old stat was operating at 89C, and they replaced it with a genuine Mazda one (which I had been insisting on putting in) and it now worked as it should at 82C. As the Stat was no more than two month old, that was interesting indeed.

I got back form work late yesterday so did not get to drive the Bongo much or have a nose about, but will do so over the weekend and report back.

I have to say I was feeling a little bitter and twisted towards the garage, and the Bongo, and the world whilst I am at it, but they came and collected it, fixed it and even put a bit of diesel in there. So I would say that they have been good overall so far. listened to my rants and did a professional job.

Let hope this is the end of my troubles. For real this time....

Hippotastic wrote:Well I got home from work yesterday and there was my Bongo on the drive. Result!

I had no idea they were returning it, and so I jumped in a took it for a run. It was much quieter and ran sweet, and the temps seems fine. I have not run it with the caravan attached yet, that will be its next test, to see if that is still an issue.

When I rang to ask what was wrong, I was advised that the old stat was operating at 89C, and they replaced it with a genuine Mazda one (which I had been insisting on putting in) and it now worked as it should at 82C. As the Stat was no more than two month old, that was interesting indeed.

I got back form work late yesterday so did not get to drive the Bongo much or have a nose about, but will do so over the weekend and report back.

I have to say I was feeling a little bitter and twisted towards the garage, and the Bongo, and the world whilst I am at it, but they came and collected it, fixed it and even put a bit of diesel in there. So I would say that they have been good overall so far. listened to my rants and did a professional job.

Let hope this is the end of my troubles. For real this time....

Fingers crossed for you. I must admit, just having my AFT raising mechanism fail on me has made me look at the Bongo with a jaundiced eye. I'm trying to work out how to fix something I can't even get at!

The £100.00 I quoted was to supply a cooler & it isn't including fitting of course. See HERE for a previous post on the subject including a couple of small pictures of the installation on my Bongo.

We have been fitting this style of cooler here for 26 years with no problems at all. Some on this board have concerns about overcooling when not towing & warm up issues. Please believe me when I say there isn't anything to worry about in these area's, & I have all those years experience to draw on as proof! (unfortunately )