Bongo Fury

Any of you out there with a V6....does the tepm gauge sit at 11 o'clock all day same as the deisels??
No Mason or Mod fitted ??

haydn mine sits just slightly above 11 oclock i have been told thats right

haydn callow wrote:Any of you out there with a V6....does the tepm gauge sit at 11 o'clock all day same as the deisels??
No Mason or Mod fitted ??

Pretty sure this is the case, I think a few V6ers fitted Mason alarm mods.

Yes 11ish or cold. Another waste of space like the diesel.

You need one of those useful TM's to tell what is going on The V6 runs fairly cool though. I have mine at 86 and even crawling through central London or stuck on motrways it never goes near that.

Thanks...thats all I need to know....just want to know what to expect

Mine doesn't - but I applied the mod on your site, 100Ω 1/8 Watt has been fine.

g8dhe wrote:Mine doesn't - but I applied the mod on your site, 100Ω 1/8 Watt has been fine.

For a complete novice how hard is this mod

Its more mechanical then electrical, I just followed the write-up, but shorted out the Zener by twisting the leads together, didn't even solder, then fitted the resistor leads under the screw terminals on the back, used a much smaller resistor than stated but have checked it since and it seems fine, no overheating, but I'll do another check when it returns back from Lancashire in the next couple of days as it will have had a much longer time switched on by then.

It's a very simple mod.
Go to the webshop below....the instructions are on the home page and I can supply the correct resistor...

The small resistors are fine.....

Thanks Haydn, got the resistor ,i've just got to fit it.

haydn callow wrote:It's a very simple mod.
Go to the webshop below....the instructions are on the home page and I can supply the correct resistor...

The small resistors are fine.....

I can't really see the point of this mod. (apart from it costing pence) since it has no alarm feature. Likely to distract worried eyes from watching the road (or not, in which case you just miss the overheat as usual). Better to fit a Mason alarm in my opinion. Sorry to be a party pooper but...

It's gotta be better to have a gauge that actually works than nothing at all. (as in the case of a standard gauge). And it is free.
If you want to spend £40 on a mason or more on somthing else, then so be it. (that would be better, but ! if you haven't got £40)
The mod is certainly better than doing nothing.

senario No 1....belting down the motorway at 80mph (sorry 70mph) and unbeknown to you you are losing coolant or whatever and the temp is slowley increasing...suddenly the temp reaches 110C and the gauge finally decides to react (you probably don't notice co's it happens fast) and you are almost at critical point.

senario No 2...belting down the motorway with the gauge fluctuating between 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock...temp starts to rise for whatever reason...the gauge starts to slowley rise (90C) and moves gently across the scale. (you may not notice it) you have a much longer timespan to notice somthing is amiss.

No brainer !!

haydn callow wrote:It's gotta be better to have a gauge that actually works than nothing at all. (as in the case of a standard gauge). And it is free.
If you want to spend £40 on a mason or more on somthing else, then so be it. (that would be better, but ! if you haven't got £40)
The mod is certainly better than doing nothing.

senario No 1....belting down the motorway at 80mph (sorry 70mph) and unbeknown to you you are losing coolant or whatever and the temp is slowley increasing...suddenly the temp reaches 110C and the gauge finally decides to react (you probably don't notice co's it happens fast) and you are almost at critical point.

senario No 2...belting down the motorway with the gauge fluctuating between 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock...temp starts to rise for whatever reason...the gauge starts to slowley rise (90C) and moves gently across the scale. (you may not notice it) you have a much longer timespan to notice somthing is amiss.

No brainer !!

But take a step back Haydn. How many people (especially those not mechanically inclined) scan their temp gauges (standard or otherwise) when driving. The important stuff is happening outside the window (as the glider pilots say) and that is where the drivers focus is (or should) be. There is a good case for saying that the addition of any new device that increases the risk of driver distraction should require type approval before being allowed to be fitted (the issue over mobile phones and use while driving serves as an illustration). At least with an alarmed system you can forget about it until/unless the alarm goes off (not that they haven't yet made it illegal for your mobile phone to ring in the car - you must just pull over before answering it).

I happily recommend people to spend £80 or so on one of your low coolant alarms because it makes very good sense to fit one. I think the Mason alarm deserves similarly to be brought to owners attention as being a simple water temperature alarm system, priced below the other options (the last time I looked). I think the suppliers of both these excellent devices offer something of real value to Bongo owners and each deserves to make a living from sales of the (not overpriced) product.

I thought my post above made it clear that a fitted Mason or anything else is the better option....All I am saying is ...a gauge mod is better than nothing.....you don't have to look at it anymore than you don't have to look at any of your other informative dials (speedo/fuel etc). The peeps above who have fitted it seem to think it's worthwhile....
each to his own.

Low Coolant Alarms are £70 delivered to forum members...Not as stated above.

haydn callow wrote:I thought my post above made it clear that a fitted Mason or anything else is the better option....All I am saying is ...a gauge mod is better than nothing.....you don't have to look at it anymore than you don't have to look at any of your other informative dials (speedo/fuel etc). The peeps above who have fitted it seem to think it's worthwhile....
each to his own.

Low Coolant Alarms are £70 delivered to forum members...Not as stated above.

Apologies for the misquoted price and good to hear you've managed to peg prices back at £70 for members.

Regrettably, I think I'm about to make myself very unpopular by suggesting that a mod. without an alarm is arguably worse than nothing.

I appreciate that some have simply undamped their gauges and (presumably) find it worthwhile. I've posted really to provide an alternative argument for those considering doing this without also fitting a temperature alarm or some sort.

In the light aviation incidents involving gliders and light aircraft, time and again the reports have confirmed it is the light aircraft pilots - busy scanning their instruments or dealing with radio traffic and not looking out of the window enough - that have failed to take the see and avoid action that prevented something serious. I think it's for that reasons that I prefer audio alarms to instruments alone.