Bongo Fury

My bongo reaches the top part of the temp gauge on start up, but then when the thermostat opens it then reduces down to the normal working temp ie 11 0clock position.
It does not overheat at any other time.
IS THIS NORMAL ?
Or do I need to fit summer/winter thermostat ? which will open sooner before it can go up to the upper end of the guage.

Welcome to the forum

in answer to your question no this is not normal the system may need a bleed if you have air in it anywhere there is a fact sheet on this in the members area.

also if you put your location in by clicking user control panel top right on here people local to you might be able to help you more.

How quickly does it "overheat"? are you sure it's overheating & it's not just the instrumentation?
No this isn't normal, normally the temp gauge will slowly move up to 11oclock & stay there (even if it's actually overheating) as it has been electronically dumbed down so it doesn't scare people. We seem to have a spate of similar wierdness with the temp gauge - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... er#p331548 (Link edited - original thread linked to "disappeared" )
I would suspect the temperature sender as suggested in the threads I've linked to, but I'd get it investigated thoroughly, as I suppose it could be a sticky stat or something more serious.
Welcome to the forum BTW

Our bongo also overheats on start up, but I've looked on forum and can't get a definitive answer as to what the problem is. Any ideas?

As above - is it actually overheating Deb or is it just telling you it is? if it is actually getting very hot very quickly - my money's on the stat, but check the temperature sender if it's not actually getting that hot.
If all these bongos are getting this hot, it needs sorting asap, if they are getting hot enough to move the chocolate fireguard of a temp gauge, then there's potential for expensive damage to the engine, don't drive em til it's sorted IMO.
Is this an epidemic? is it catching?

I wasn't really specific enough! No, it doesn't overheat. The first time it happened I pulled over and checked the engine - cold. But within 15 minutes the needle is on 'H'. A recovery chap camping opposite us in France assured us it was quite normal since we would often hear the cooling fan ( Ian suggested the scavenger fan?) kick in noisily (something it hasn't done before) and the needle would return back to the '11 O Clock' position. However, upon returning from Plymouth this process happened a couple of times, which was quite worrying. I am taking it to the mechanic tomorrow and will inform you of the results!

Mine did that time and time again when I got stuck in a traffic jam on the North Wales coast road behind bigdaddy on my way back from the Dafty Daffy Bash in March. I bet Bigdaddy's did too. No harm at all it was just the cooling fan doing it's job.

Tony

MountainGoat wrote:Mine did that time and time again when I got stuck in a traffic jam on the North Wales coast road behind bigdaddy on my way back from the Dafty Daffy Bash in March. I bet Bigdaddy's did too. No harm at all it was just the cooling fan doing it's job.

Tony

Have you got a Mason Alarm Tony? If you read it through it seems this is happening on startup - not after sitting in traffic - & in Deb's case the engine is cold when the gauge is saying hot - - very different scenarios I think.

Deb wrote:I wasn't really specific enough! No, it doesn't overheat. The first time it happened I pulled over and checked the engine - cold. But within 15 minutes the needle is on 'H'. A recovery chap camping opposite us in France assured us it was quite normal since we would often hear the cooling fan ( Ian suggested the scavenger fan?) kick in noisily (something it hasn't done before) and the needle would return back to the '11 O Clock' position. However, upon returning from Plymouth this process happened a couple of times, which was quite worrying. I am taking it to the mechanic tomorrow and will inform you of the results!

So when the needle is on H, is the engine hot then? I take it you were the person that Ian posted the query on behalf of that I replied to & linked to above that now seems to have mysteriously disappeared?

I've got the lot Kirsty. Might have missread the post a bit but is seemed to me that it was the same occurance only happening sooner. Perhaps it was due to the hot weather in France.

Tony

Deb, the clue could lie in the words "France" and "Plymouth".

Did you by any chance have to drive slowly up a boneshaking ramp on the ferry?

In which case a connector could have been shaken to shuggery.

Most of the faults I have enjoyed were brought on by the ramp on the Commodore Clipper.

I now wait at the bottom until the top is clear and then zap upstairs like taking a cattle grid fast rather than slowly.


Frank

MountainGoat wrote:I've got the lot Kirsty. Might have missread the post a bit but is seemed to me that it was the same occurance only happening sooner. Perhaps it was due to the hot weather in France.

Tony

A Mason alarm modifies the temp gauge so it actually moves & uses the whole range of the gauge, so if it rises to the H line, it's not a bad thing, it will do this while stuck in traffic with an already warm engine, but if an unmodified temp gauge does this - either the engine is cooking or it's an instrumentation problem, normal behaviour for an unmodified bongo temp gauge is rise slowly to 11oclock & stay there

I'd have to look up how to do it, but if you put a zener diode in the meter circuit you can expand the scale to read only the range which matters. Rather than being electronically dumbed down, the existing circuit already comes dumbed down by its lack of sophistication.

A good comparison would be a meter installed to read battery volts. You dont really want to read 0 to 15 Volts.
You want to read say 10 to 15 Volts over the same scale. That's where I've seen the zener trick before.

Frank

I'm guessing that's basically what the Mason alarm is, except it's got a settable alarm too. I have in my possession the instructions on how to modify the temp gauge as provided by a learned member who would prefer to remain anonymous

Thanks for all your posts! Took our Bongo to the mechanic today (well the chap we bought it off) and he very kindly checked and emptied all hoses, checked fans - no problems. Will be out and about in it today and see whether it continues to happen. Maybe it's just the warm weather, but it hasn't happened before and occurs when the engine is cold. We'll see after today.

Deb