Bongo Fury

I've just had my first service and the mechanic reports that the wheels (steel) have a gap of around 2mm (yes, 2mm) between the centre boss and the wheel centre hole, meaning that the steel wheel is resting only on the studs and not the spigot. My mechanic thought that was unusual as the studs are usually intended to hold the wheel onto the spigot and prevent lateral movement, not to support the weight of the vehicle.

I've spoken to the mechanic in the dealer who sold me the Bongo (well known firm and I have no reason to distrust them) who told me that on the petrol version this is normal. While I tend to trust the dealer, my wife feels a bit nervous and argues (quite reasonably) that why should there be any difference between the wheels on the petrol and diesel -- i.e. if the spigot is supposed to take the load on steel wheels, is it it safe to have the load resting on the studs?

I do need to get a definitive answer to this because the consequences of a wheel failure are too awful to imagine, at speed on a motorway and I have a less than comfortable wife!

Many thanks.

Hi,this might help you..

http://www.lushprojects.com/bongopartsm ... mgno=.html

What you need are a set of spigot rings to fill the gap and make the wheels sit correctly on the spigot. Cost around £24 for a set from eBay and will fix the problem.

My V6 petrol Bongo had this. It came from Japan with a fancy set of granite alloys, with the same gap. Obviously added to the Bongo from some other vehicle. Somehow the wheels had been balanced in Japan with the gap and I only found problems after new disc pads were fitted and the Bongo developed a spectacular shudder at 63mph.

No idea if this was a Japanese bodge or someone pinched the original wheels during the trip over. Since the wrong sized wheels are a really nice set of 17" alloys, I would be surprised if they were put on as part of a strip, since every other bit of kit was left on.

I`m waiting for one of our very learned techies to reply to this one it seems very odd

This was my post on the subject last time someone posted with a similar problem..

"Do you have wheels that are non Mazda? I have 17" granite alloys which produced the same symptoms and turned out to have a larger hub diameter than the correct Bongo ones 7.2 instead of 6.9.

Fitting a set of spigot rings cured the problem by filling the gap and enabling the wheels to be balanced correctly.

It was a pig to diagnose , a tyre specialist and Discount Trucks failed to get it first time as someone in Japan had somehow balanced the wheels despite them being the wrong ones, so the Bongo felt fine on import. The shaking problem only emerged when I had the front brake pads changed for a MOT."

Search under spigot rings and you will find a lot of posts from the teccy experts. Its a common problem, there are a lot of nice wheels around from Mitsubishi's and similar that get put on Bongo's but only fit with the spigot rings added.

Id contact Mike at Wheelquick,not only are they Bongo dealers,but they are also wheel specialists,and as they put new alloys and tyres on their Bongos (ive just bought a 2lt petrol) they should be able to sort you out with a definate answer regards your problem

Brian

Bongoplod wrote:Id contact Mike at Wheelquick,not only are they Bongo dealers,....
Brian

Thanks Brian and everyone else who replied. Spoke to Mike -- sounds like a very clued-up guy with modesty and knowledge in equal proportions. Mike says that the wheel should be resting on the spigot but could be that it is tapered so I need to vernier it and check. Apparently the spigot is 67.1mm and it would be possible to get rings to adapt but need to vernier the ID of the wheel first. Mike was not very happy about leaving it alone..."should be right", he said. Then again he didn't think that I am likely to get a serious problem in the short term unless I get vibration, so I will measure up when I get back to Spain and then order any spacers from Mike when I know what's what. Really nice to have made the contact at Wheelquick. Sounds like a top firm. Nice one, Bongo Fury.