Bongo Fury

Last Friday I was driving along and could hear a throbbing sound which seemed to be worse under braking. Guessed it might be a binding brake so when I stopped I went round and touched each rim. The front passenger side wheel was very hot.

Since then it seems to have eased off and no longer makes any unusual noise.

I took it to the garage to today (not my normal one) to get it checked and they said the calliper was shot and basically needs replacing. They also said the rear discs are heavily pitted and should be renewed. I had a couple of rear tyres earlier in the week and saw them myself and thought the same.

They quoted the following prices, these don't including fitting.
1 x front calliper - £190
1 x rear disc £90
Pads £40

Well, as you can imagine I walked away!

Just popped into my usual garage and they are also happy for me to source parts and then fit them for me.

I've checked a few places and I can pick up discs at least 50% cheaper and in most cases more. I've looked in the club shop, AVA, Bongo Bits and Mazda Bongo Bits (http://www.mazdabongoshop.co.uk) which seems to be the cheapest. Can anyone recommend the best value?

The one thing I'm struggling to find is a calliper.

I've found a re-manufactured one one ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brake-Caliper-FRO ... 3a614fc24e
Does anyone have any experience of these or info of another source.

My van (4x4) has been always scrabbled a bit on tight turns and I get the feeling it may now be worse (although it's just a feeling) so I also asked the first garage to check the viscous coupling. They said it didn't have one!

If you have the calliper off, why not take it along to a reputable motor factors and see if they can recognise it against another vehicle, a couple of years ago a motor mag did a series about compatible parts, well worth a go.

i had very similar with my viscus c,i would advice you to check your tyres very carefully.
mine had even/equall tread all round,but my front n/side had a small egg/bump on the tread, previous puncture repair, very small and hard to see.
changed to 4 new tyres, sorted now.

David; unfortunately I don't have the calliper off, I'm still using the van. There's another thread running at the moment where an MPV (possibly Mazda MPV?) is mentioned as a possible compatible vehicle for brake parts.

NB, just had two new rears the same as the front. The rears had worn heavily on the outer edges so much so that one a very small gash through the outer surface. I'll have a close look at the fronts tomorrow but I'm pretty sure they are not as you've described. The tyres I've had taken off had a max pressure of 35psi and I always thought they looked too low even at 35, maybe that would explain the outer edge wear.

I'll get my normal garage to test the coupling to see if it's still ok.

This might be another option,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mazda-Bongo-Ford- ... 3cb0a8d133

Really ought to be done as a pair though, not just the one.

One thing you could try before buying a caliper is: remove wheel and brake pads. Use a little brake fluid to lubricate the pistons, then lever them back in gently with a large screwdriver or something similar. If the pads are very worn/thin, put them back in and step on the brakes. If the pads still have some meat on them, find something else to slip in to stop the pistons coming all the way out when you step on the brakes. Repeat this process several times to get the pistons nicely lubricated, and see if the problem goes away. This method has worked well for me on my old volvos with 20+ year-old calipers. If the calipers are in really poor condition it won't work.

Just rebuilt mine with this kit; - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mazda-Bongo-Ford- ... 3cb0a8d133 very easy job, there was lots of rust under the dust seals forcing the rubber seal onto the piston. Re-painted calipers as well. Car now drives much better and has re-gained its lost mpg in the process (was 24-26mpg with sticky brakes now the normal 30-32mpg). You do however need a compressor to extract the pistons.

What's wrong with the calipers? You can try to free them up, and if they're leaking you could try a seal kit, but if the piston is totally shot, you'll need new ones. The price of the discs seems high, so shop around.

Thanks for all the input.

One of my problems is I only have on street parking so it's not really practical to work on my van. So stripping the caliper back myself is not an option.

I haven't seen the offending caliper, I'm just going on what the first garage told me.

I took your advice David and went into my local motor factors. They came back with some pretty good prices eg £14 ex VAT for a set of pads, £50 ex VAT for a pair of discs.

I had a trawl on ebay again and ended up looking a the website of the firm that was selling the cailper I listed earlier www.autopartswarehouse.co.uk Their website is pretty buggy so it's difficult to use but I found the parts I was after

Near side front caliper @ £47.99 ex VAT - http://www.autopartswarehouse.co.uk/pro ... ?ID=157821
Front discs (pair) @ £32.06 ex VAT - http://www.autopartswarehouse.co.uk/pro ... ?ID=157832
Rear discs (pair) @ £26.37 - http://www.autopartswarehouse.co.uk/pro ... ?ID=157833

Delivery anywhere in Europe - £4.99 flat rate

Add to that a £15 rebate on sending back my old caliper and it works out at a very good price.

The caliper is remanufactured by Brake Engineering and the discs are by Solid Auto.

In the end I rang up and spoke to a chap there who was very helpful.

If you want to order I'd suggest you ring, as I say their website is very buggy!

My front n/s caliper and rear discs arrived this morning

The caliper is re-manufactured by Brake Engineering and the part # is CA2289R

It was £47.90 ex VAT and I should get £15 back when I send off the old caliper so a grand total of £32.90. That's as cheap as than a seal kit on ebay and slightly better that the £190 I was quoted by the garage.

The rear disk set is Solid Auto part # M206068 @ £25.98 ex VAT per pair

I've emailed Ian the part numbers so hopefully he'll add them to the compatible parts database.

guys, justed wanted to fill you in on my experience with autopartswarehouse.

after finding this thread and needing a new caliper i contacted autopartswarehouse.

went something like this..............

1st i emailed asking for an all in price delivered to northern ireland. no reply so phoned them.

i am trying to get a caliper for 97 mazda bongo,
sorry we dont do them,
well your websites says you do.
ah ok, we can get them,
how much for delivery?
£14
how much for the caliper?
£81,
thats not what the website says
well thats how much they are on ebay, which i am looking at.
so you are looking at ebay to buy something that your website says you have?
we dont stock them but we can get them.
you're not filling me with confidence, i'll shop elsewhere. goodbye

was left feeling, did that really happen?
thats my story, avoid if you can, a joke business if you ask me

cheers
sean

hi,
does anyone know if the caliper for the bongo is the same for the mazda mpv?

its just the part no corblimey quote is reference to the mpv, ca2289
the bongo is referenced ca2378

anyone know?

cheers
sean

Yes, I believe it is.

ca2378 is a single pot caliper but our Bongos (aka Friendee) are twin pots on the front so I'm guessing that's for "the other Bongo" (Mazda E series aka Brawny) There are two Mazda vans known as "Bongo" so maybe that's where the confusion is.

The links I posted are the correct ones.
Nearside http://www.autopartswarehouse.co.uk/pro ... ?ID=157821
Offside http://www.autopartswarehouse.co.uk/pro ... ?ID=157820