Bongo Fury

Went up a very steep 1/4 hill over the weekend, with 5 adults in Bongo plus luggage.
Experienced a burning smell ( a bit like burnt clutch) it's an auto
On subsequent hills of the same incline, I put it into S2, or used the hold button = no smell.
Car ran fine after all that.

Q what was that smell all about then any ideas anyone ?

Probably transmission fluid. You should inspect it/change it. It may be low which is why it could have got hot in the first place.

BongoMTBer wrote:Probably transmission fluid. You should inspect it/change it. It may be low which is why it could have got hot in the first place.

Just checked the auto trans fluid.
It is a nice red colour, and doesn't smell.
Only strange thing is that it is way over the "full" mark.
Bongo parked on level ground, shifter moved through the gate a few times prior to checking.

Any ideas

We also get that smell, from time to time, but the Bongo keeps going for hundreds of miles. Done more than a thousand miles last couple of weeks. I will get the transmission fluid checked though.

Kelv, has it recently been running?

Hot oil expands and can be airated causing a higher reading.

As for the smell then I dunno! Sure it wasn't from something/somewhere else other than your Bongo?

If it were me, I would certainly drain it down so that it is within limits.

That's interesting Not so Old.
Mine kept going for hundreds of miles afterards too, no other symptoms.
It was a VERY steep hill, and seemed to be undecided which gear it should go in because I was accelaraing it at the time, almost a kickdown situation.
It was a lot happier when I started using the hold button on steep hills, and no smell then.
Just drove it 175 miles home up the motorway too, no smell then either.
Please let me know what the transmission fluid check reveals when you have it done.

[quote="BongoMTBer"]Kelv, has it recently been running?

Hot oil expands and can be airated causing a higher reading.

Last ran at 2pm today.
Smell might have been from car in front I suppose,
There were a lot of crawling cars at the time, someone might have been slippng the clutch a bit too much

Probably unrelated but - A few years back, driving through Dartmoor one dark night, I felt a bit of a thump on the front end of my old Saab.

Nothing seemed amiss in the morning, however a strange smell started to come through the heater a couple of weeks later.

A bit of digging around discovered the slowly cooked semi rotten corpse of most of a rabbit on the rad.

Worth a look perhaps.

dip stick comes to about 1 inch of sump bottom fluid looked clean

in that inch on mine was a mire of grey crud grunge and metal fillings

suggest take it all down and clean it and filter myself

mister munkey wrote:Probably unrelated but - A few years back, driving through Dartmoor one dark night, I felt a bit of a thump on the front end of my old Saab.

Nothing seemed amiss in the morning, however a strange smell started to come through the heater a couple of weeks later.

A bit of digging around discovered the slowly cooked semi rotten corpse of most of a rabbit on the rad.

Worth a look perhaps.

Will check in the morning, next doors cat has been missing for a few weeks
So you never know.

mister munkey wrote:Probably unrelated but - A few years back, driving through Dartmoor one dark night, I felt a bit of a thump on the front end of my old Saab.

Nothing seemed amiss in the morning, however a strange smell started to come through the heater a couple of weeks later.

A bit of digging around discovered the slowly cooked semi rotten corpse of most of a rabbit on the rad.

Worth a look perhaps.

Yuk! I Not gonna look.......... Just in case My daughter had a similiar experience. She hadn't used her car for a few weeks as she was ill/hospital and when she took it out first time it was very smelly. Next day was worse, so she took it too the garage. They found a load of baby mice had been born in an area near the rad and poor little beasties had died there. She was quite upset at the thought, but glad the smell had gone.

Cheers Anna

No, it was definitely a buring ruber, or burning clutch type of smell.Pretty sure it's not the cat that has caused it.
Didn't know diesel Bongos had a cat (alytic converter )

Could it be one of the belts slipping?

jaylee wrote:Could it be one of the belts slipping?

Could have been I suppose.
They look to be adjusted OK

Is there a reason why a belt should slip only under load ?