Bongo Fury

I've finished the results of the Big Big Bongo Survey, and these will be published in the next quarterly newsletter. But here's some interesting stats.

In total, 1,288 people responded. When asked "Have you ever suffered from coolant loss or overheating problems?" 292 (or 22.7%) said yes. A lot higher than anticipated, certainly by me. But out of these, only 9 (or 0.7%) owned a petrol Bongo.

But then I thought, aha, the sample size of those owning petrol Bongos is far lower. So if we look at it again, we get the following results.

Percentage of people who own a diesel Bongo who have reported coolant or overheating problems: 292 out of 1142 = 25.6%

Percentage of people who own a petrol Bongo who have reported coolant or overheating problems: 9 out of 146 = 6.2%

Discuss.

The question isn't specific enough IMO, a coolant loss could be a simple hose leak or loose connection or overheating problem could be a head replacement or leak on the block meaning a rebuild, too vague to have any meaning.
What are the relative & average ages of the petrol & diesel bongos? Length of ownership will have an effect too, if you've had a bongo for 4 years, it's more likely to have had an issue than if you've had it for 2 months.
I've had coolant loss from an old hose & from the connections on the new silicon ones (repeatedly especially in the cold), but I've had no overheating issues.
I've replaced my stat, all my hoses & chemical flushed as part of what I see as sensible maintenance, which has lowered my operating temp, does this mean I had an overheating problem? Not IMO.

That is interesting, any chance of a breakdown by age of vehicle as well Ian
I'm wondering if the V6s tend to be significantly newer than the diesels ?

Good point there Kirsty, but given what we have¹ its probably close to say that if a coolant loss didn't occur from simply boiling over, than it would precede an Overheating problem if not tackled directly.

This is a problem with Surveys they raise as many question as they solve!

¹ Perhaps we ask Ian if we can make it an Annual Survey, and we can refine the questions each year a little? Do we have a Statistician in the club!!

g8dhe wrote:Do we have a Statistician in the club!!

Yes, me!

Hi,

‘fraid I’ve not been on here for a while, so I missed the survey.... .

But, today I became a statistic!

02, petrol V6, owned for 3 years, 80k, dropped coolant today.............

Fortunately, it was only on a short run, I saw the temp gauge go up, over to the 2 o'clock position. Stopped and popped the bonnet, very low in the reservoir, opened the cap. A bit of a gurgle and some coolant flowed back in to the tank. Gauge went back to normal and did the couple of miles home, only to find a puddle where I had been parked. (I had run it for a couple of minutes before setting off as I had not used it for about a week) On inspection I found a drip from rearmost rubber hose for the rear heater (I presume...) about half way down on the van on the drivers side.

I am fairly technically minded, so could probably tackle a bit of DIY, although I don’t have a hose for flushing.....
Any ideas and advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Ian

(I will start a new thread with this same post so as not to hijack this thread.)

Excellent in that case you will enjoy Annual Surveys
Better still perhaps monthly ones ...... eh no we will all get bored
I know we will leave it to you Ian to decide
Which ever you decide on perhaps we should first thank you for working on the first one!!
Thank you Ian

That is indeed a worrying statistic. I think if I'd seen that before buying my Bongo, I probably wouldn't have gone through with it. I wonder how many potential purchasers will see this and be put off (at the same time I don't think it should be suppressed neither). A bit of an eye opener!

With a vehicle up to 16 years old with 17 hoses etc, etc, is it really that surprising? Just highlights the need for sensible maintenace & monitoring IMO

dvisor wrote:That is indeed a worrying statistic. I think if I'd seen that before buying my Bongo, I probably wouldn't have gone through with it. I wonder how many potential purchasers will see this and be put off (at the same time I don't think it should be suppressed neither). A bit of an eye opener!

25% leaks with 10-15 year old hoses is to be expected How many have actually had to have their heads/head gaskets replaced is more relevant.

I had a coolant leak so "ticked" the box..... it was a seam leak on the radiator, nothing what I consider to major.....

I was being honest in the answer to the question....it the question said "have you had coolant loss and this caused a major repair bill i.e Cylinder Head"...... I'm sure the figure would be fairly low....

I would expect a degree of coolant loss to occur from "old" hoses and as the Bongo would be used far "harder" in the UK than in native Japan as well as low mileages then some Items can be prone to fail.

A friend of mine was given a Classic Car........and Austin A40, from his Grandad..... 13,000 miles from new, as new conditions....so off goes the A40....and for the 1st 6 months the damn thing had hoses,water pump and even a head gasket, which is fairly rare on an A series engine..... so little use has an effect on a vehicle and to use a vehicle on a regular basis when it has previously been parked up can inevitably show up problems.....

The key thing for Bongo is to the check the levels, don't rely on alarms, undamp the temperature gauge the manual or Mason way...... and service as per the recommended intervals......

Where I've had hose weeps from the silicon hose connections in sub zero weather (I know I'm not the only one either), the low coolant alarm has let me know it's getting slightly low before it's even dropped below the screw

missfixit70 wrote:With a vehicle up to 16 years old with 17 hoses etc, etc, is it really that surprising? Just highlights the need for sensible maintenace & monitoring IMO

Probably not surprising, but its what potential purchasers are always worried about. I remember my first "do I, don't I" post on the forum was an attempt to put the overheating issue in perspective in my own mind. Its the same post we see repeatedly by many new members. The usual response is that you only hear about the Bongos that have overheated, and that you don't hear about the ones that don't. Now we've got a tangible statistic - which at first glance is a worrying one, giving the fears substance. OK, under close scrutiny it might not be so scary, but its bound to have some impact on the newbie.

This is why that statistic should be put in context of what it actually means relative to the question asked

missfixit70 wrote:Where I've had hose weeps from the silicon hose connections in sub zero weather (I know I'm not the only one either), the low coolant alarm has let me know it's getting slightly low before it's even dropped below the screw

Never worked for me when my radiator leaked.... not a light not a beep....oh well .... but then that leaked out when the coolant was hot.....

I now personally (and I know others do too) only take notice on the LCA as an initial check when the engine is cold in the morning.........but these days since the above happened.......... mostly I be relying on my chopstick.......

In an article from OZ, "Nifty Nev" was concerned about expansion tank probes being a good way to reliably monitor coolant level, this was in general terms for all engines not for Bongo, due to the level rising when the engine is in use and the fears are that should an alarm or warning sound when the engine is hot, then It could possibly mean possible engine damage due to the volume of coolant loss before any warning(s) would be given.
Obviously the merits are there to indicate there has been a drop when the coolant is cold, before the engine is fired up.