Bongo Fury

Now I know this subject has been raised before on a couple of occasions and I have read through all of the threads I could find surrounding it. However, it is not clear what was the cause of the problems and I have a couple of things that have been occuring and wonder if they are linked so here goes. Are we sitting comfortably?

Ok so first off, following a routine oil and oil filter renewel all was well. Until a couple days after I noticed I was depositing a small amount of dark brown oil residue under the vehicle. This is amounting to only a few drips but due to its nature once water (or a few months later snow) is around then it looks like loads. It did have a smell of diesel (not burnt toast) to it. I figured a small diesel drip from somewhere, landing on the belly pan, which is dirty then dripping off. If im wrong tell me.

A month or so after when we had snow I had my first ever flashing hold light, this appeared following a 60 mile trip, engine was turned off for 10 mins then turned back on again to reveal flashing hold light. Turned engine off again and back on, flashing hold light gone. This has now occurred 3 other times (not necessarily following a long journey though)

Lasted all winter starting perfectly with no problems even with -15 temperatures (brrrrr the north is freezing man). However, over the last week, when the snow has melted and temperatures increased when i start her up on a morning, she starts straight away but puts out a lot of white smoke from the exhaust. The engine sounds like its running on three cylindersbut as I have read in some of the other threads after only 30 seconds of slightly increased revs she runs like a dream. Every other time she is started in that day then there are no dramas. Just that first start.

Are these linked or am I in posession of an ill bongo?

Cheers (apologies about the length, didnt think i'd ever have to apologise about that) lol.

Matty

My diesel is fussier in damp and quite cold weather than it is in very cold frosty weather. How good and what AmpHrs is your battery - I think a healthy 95AmpHr (or more) battery is a v. good investment for a Bongo. Engine should light up at the touch of the key. Mine then likes a moment or two to idle before I engage D and do a power steering u-turn. Do it sooner and I may get a misfire as engine not ready for load yet.

You may have a duff glowplug - do you know the age of your current ones?

Brown stuff could well be diesel. Lift drivers side engine cover and look for wetness on underside of fuel pump (you may even see it drip while engine is running).

Or you could have a weeping oil filter seal, but that should drop oil on the passenger side.

HOLD light - lets wait and discuss if/when it appears again. Might be worth checking ATF fluid level and condition the meanwhile, while you have the engine covers lifted.

Cheers Mike,

I do not know the age of the glow plugs but have been through all the receipts that came with her when I bought it in September and cant find any relating to glow plugs so they may need renewing. May be worth bench testing them first??

The battery is good and strong and as I mentioned actually starting isnt a problem, as soon as the key is turned it fires up, it just chugs for 30 secs to a min.

I thought about it being a diesel leak, but didnt know where from so I will check that out tomorrrow and also check the ATF aswell. Am i correct in saying that the engine should be running and the oil warm for me to get an accurate reading?

I forgot to mention one thing and that was she seems a bit reluctant to shift into top gear for the first 5 mins of the morning journey, could this suggest that the ATF fluid needs replacing and the magnet cleaning off.

Thanks for your speedy reply though, Looks like I may just get on to sorting the first few things out and see where I can go from there.

It's normal for the auto box not to shift into "top" for the first few minutes after a cold start, this is to promote a speedier warm up of the engine, and dissuades engine labouring.

It sounds like (on the surface at least) you have a lazy glowplug (a pre cursor to that plug failing completely).

I can't speak for everybody else, but i check the ATF with engine warm and in "D" for an accurate reading. (wheels chocked etc).

bigdaddycain wrote:It's normal for the auto box not to shift into "top" for the first few minutes after a cold start, this is to promote a speedier warm up of the engine, and dissuades engine labouring.

It sounds like (on the surface at least) you have a lazy glowplug (a pre cursor to that plug failing completely).

I can't speak for everybody else, but i check the ATF with engine warm and in "D" for an accurate reading. (wheels chocked etc).

I agree

I have a theory that an under par battery can cause a weakened glow when the starter motor is turning and drawing high amps, and this in turn can cause a plug(s) to get quenched so motor is hard to start. Its only a theory but all I know is having a healthy 95Ah battery has given me faultless starting over 4 years even though mine will 'do a lumpy' if I move off too quick and use power steering on cold damp mornings.

Does sound like you may have a poorly plug(s) though.

It wasn't just diesels with cold start issues in our recent mini-Siberia. I've got a high capacity heavy duty battery in tip top condition and (fortunately - considering the amount of cranking I had to do!), fully charged. I have had a couple of engine cut outs in the past, when I've hit standing water (notably in monsoon conditions in SW Ireland) and the electrics got wet. Who was the bright son of Nippon who mounted the distributor (cap-forward) and the coil on the very front of the V6 block? Damp Start every few months has since kept it going fine though, without any replacement of bits, so far.

So, all through the worst of the deep freeze weeks, she always started on the button, and was briefly run each day, whether or not going on the road - well, I've got remote start installed, so can easily do that from the warm side of our kitchen window!

However, attempting a warm up engine run on the first morning after the temperature had stayed above freezing overnight, with mucho thaw, and damp everywhere - absolutely no startee. Ah, time to get out the Damp Start again, thought I - but, no sign of external arcing on any plug leads, or around the distributor, and it was sure dark and gloomy enough to see if there had been!

So I cloth dried all the bits I could get at, including the plug "extender rods" and cavities - still no startee. Next step was to warm up all the electrics with a hair dryer, again with no result, despite much cranking. Finally, I warmed up the LPG ECU and other fuel line components in the engine bay, and it then immediately started, with no misfiring, just a normal, all six cylinders firing, petrol cold start. Gave it a very short run around the block, not long enough to reach LPG running tmperature, and all seemed fine. Concluded that rapid freezing up after LPG driving the previous day had left a fuel line solenoid and/or valve stuck in the LPG position - and, of course, they won't start on LPG.

Next day, a normal start on petrol but it then failed to switch over to LPG at the normal coolant temperature level (TM-2 measured), and cut out altogether half a mile later. She re-started easily though, and then began to switch to LPG, although misfiring and badly unbalanced (I think, just one bank of three cylinders firing), taking an age to complete the full transition to smooth LPG operation. Possibly there are separate switch over fuel line valves for the two cylinder banks(?), and just one was sticking. Anyway, I then did 40 odd miles of mainly motorway driving, manually switching back and forth betwen LPG and petrol every couple of minutes. All worked normally, and it has continued absolutely fine over the (warmer) period since then.

Anybdy else had similar cold damp weather LPG system problems, and how have straight petrol Bongos been coping, anyway?

Thanks Big Daddy cain. I have read elsewhere that in the cold its sluggish to sleect higher gears for the warming issue, i just would have thought I'd have noticed this when it was very cold and not just in recent couple of weeks.

Mattylad wrote: I have read elsewhere that in the cold its sluggish to sleect higher gears for the warming issue, i just would have thought I'd have noticed this when it was very cold and not just in recent couple of weeks.

Seems like the gearchange isn't the only thing that's sluggish

Ron Miel wrote:It wasn't just diesels with cold start issues in our recent mini-Siberia. I've got a high capacity heavy duty battery in tip top condition and (fortunately - considering the amount of cranking I had to do!), fully charged. I have had a couple of engine cut outs in the past, when I've hit standing water (notably in monsoon conditions in SW Ireland) and the electrics got wet. Who was the bright son of Nippon who mounted the distributor (cap-forward) and the coil on the very front of the V6 block? Damp Start every few months has since kept it going fine though, without any replacement of bits, so far.

So, all through the worst of the deep freeze weeks, she always started on the button, and was briefly run each day, whether or not going on the road - well, I've got remote start installed, so can easily do that from the warm side of our kitchen window!

However, attempting a warm up engine run on the first morning after the temperature had stayed above freezing overnight, with mucho thaw, and damp everywhere - absolutely no startee. Ah, time to get out the Damp Start again, thought I - but, no sign of external arcing on any plug leads, or around the distributor, and it was sure dark and gloomy enough to see if there had been!

So I cloth dried all the bits I could get at, including the plug "extender rods" and cavities - still no startee. Next step was to warm up all the electrics with a hair dryer, again with no result, despite much cranking. Finally, I warmed up the LPG ECU and other fuel line components in the engine bay, and it then immediately started, with no misfiring, just a normal, all six cylinders firing, petrol cold start. Gave it a very short run around the block, not long enough to reach LPG running tmperature, and all seemed fine. Concluded that rapid freezing up after LPG driving the previous day had left a fuel line solenoid and/or valve stuck in the LPG position - and, of course, they won't start on LPG.

Next day, a normal start on petrol but it then failed to switch over to LPG at the normal coolant temperature level (TM-2 measured), and cut out altogether half a mile later. She re-started easily though, and then began to switch to LPG, although misfiring and badly unbalanced (I think, just one bank of three cylinders firing), taking an age to complete the full transition to smooth LPG operation. Possibly there are separate switch over fuel line valves for the two cylinder banks(?), and just one was sticking. Anyway, I then did 40 odd miles of mainly motorway driving, manually switching back and forth betwen LPG and petrol every couple of minutes. All worked normally, and it has continued absolutely fine over the (warmer) period since then.

Anybdy else had similar cold damp weather LPG system problems, and how have straight petrol Bongos been coping, anyway?

Even in this recent bad weather our V6 'LPG' has performed beautifully, switching to LPG at its normal 30 degrees and running smoothly . No issues with starting either first turn of the key and we're away .

wishmaster wrote:

Ron Miel wrote:>
>
Anybdy else had similar cold damp weather LPG system problems, and how have straight petrol Bongos been coping, anyway?

Even in this recent bad weather our V6 'LPG' has performed beautifully, switching to LPG at its normal 30 degrees and running smoothly . No issues with starting either first turn of the key and we're away .

Good news IZZY. Hopefully, my problems were a one off, and not afflicting other LPG users the same way. I wondered if a small amount of water/ice had got into one or other of the two fuel lines but I've not otherwise had any rough running, and it's fully back to normal now. One of the local places I fill up at is a very experienced LPG conversion firm. Next time I'm in, I'll ask them if any of their conversion customers had problems during (or, as in my case, just after) the freeze. Apologies to the white smoke chuggers, BTW - bit off topic, I know

Cheers

David

No, 'twas nowt to do with LPG controller. Had further start from cold problems last week, and then found a post from Paul at lpgimports saying that a stronger spark is needed to run on LPG. Hence, I then suspected, problems at one point in switching to LPG running even after starting (with difficulty) and running apparently fine on petrol.

So I bit the proverbial bullet and changed distributor cap, rotor arm, and king cable. Hasn't been very damp since but the rotary contacts and carbon top contact were clearly well worn and so far it's been starting fine since the changes and, also to the point I think, long standing radio intereference has gone. Musta been sparking/loss of H.T. voltage in the dizzy, and a resulting weak spark at the plugs. As the radio interference was long standing, and so was poor mpg (probably started about the same time), I filled up with LPG yesterday, and am now re-checking LPG mpg, with fingers, toes and dangly bits crossed. Will check that first and, depending on outcome, might then also fit new plugs I've got up my sleeve.