Bongo Fury

Hello fellow Bongo owners!

Me and my better half have recently bought a Bongo and this forum seems excellent, so we thought we'd join and say hello!

We're outdoors people who love the mountains and have done a lot of camping over the years but we're not getting any younger and decided that a camper was the way to go. We've done one trip in the new Bongo (2.5 diesel AFT with full side conversion) and what a joy! Should've done it years ago.

We have about a million questions about all things Bongo, and I'm sure more will occur as time goes by. One is quite pressing though - I managed to set the Zig unit switches wrong when I got home from our trip and think I've been running the fridge off the starter battery while she's been sat in the drive. As a result I have a starter battery that doesn't have enough juice to start the van.

A friend has lent me a mains charger but told me it took a while to charge the battery so... Am I OK to disconnect the starter battery and bring it inside to charge or will I hit issues with the immobiliser, engine management system etc? I have the code for the stereo so that should be OK.

I thought it would be fine, but then I read this site that gives all sorts of dire warnings...

http://www.aa1car.com/library/battery_d ... oblems.htm

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Phil and Gabi

Your normally fine to bring it in and charge, if its really flat then yes you will need 2-3 days depending on the charger, if its rated at greater than 8Amps then 2 days but three would be better, if its less than 4 Amps then its really only a maintenance charger and will have a hard time getting a full charge into the battery. Its best to charge in a ventilated area and try to avoid putting the battery on or near any soft furnishings including carpets!

Very warm welcome to you both.

Do ask any questions you want, the Gang will do their best to help.

Regarding taking out the battery to charge it I've never heard of this causing problems on a Bongo. The dire warnings in that article seem to refer to much newer vehicles with fancy la-de-da electronics.

If you really want to keep things powered up then plug a booster pack into the lighter socket and leave the key in the 'Accessories' position, but this really isn't necessary.

Lot to be said for basics, but Geoff will doubtless give spot on info soon.

Ha ha, he beat me to it.

Wow! That's an amazingly fast response... Thanks guys! Some great info there.

I'm not sure how beefy the charger is as it's at home and I'm at work but will check before I start.

It's not fully flat so I'm hoping if I put it on to charge when I get home tonight, then I'll have enough to turn her over by Thursday night.

I need her running for Friday as I'm taking her up to Lakeside in Staines for a check-up. I'm still a bit worried about the immobiliser being disconnected for so long, but hopefully it'll all be OK. Thanks again for the help.

Another thought, make certain the sliding door is closed when you disconnect the battery.

The lock can sometimes stick, fix is usualy a good, hard, slap on the inside panel but easier not to have the problem.

And not connected to the battery issue but do use a Bongo Friendly garage for any work which might involve the cooling system, and lots of us will recommend one of Haydn's coolant alarms if you don't have one.

Welcome to Bongo Bongoland

Bob wrote: .....
If you really want to keep things powered up then plug a booster pack into the lighter socket and leave the key in the 'Accessories' position, but this really isn't necessary.
....

That will depend on what circuits have been swapped over to the Leisure Battery, assuming there is one given that it sounds like it has had a proper conversion. (or have I missed a vital clue )

True, Chris.

Clue is, "set the Zig unit's switches wrong...".

Main concren seems to be the imobiliser which I would guess is off the SB, but may not be, of course.

Bob wrote:Another thought, make certain the sliding door is closed when you disconnect the battery.

The lock can sometimes stick, fix is usualy a good, hard, slap on the inside panel but easier not to have the problem.

And not connected to the battery issue but do use a Bongo Friendly garage for any work which might involve the cooling system, and lots of us will recommend one of Haydn's coolant alarms if you don't have one.

Thanks Bob,

A good thought about the door - Just the sort of thing that I'd easily have not thought about! I'm taking it to a garage recommended on this site so should be Bongo-friendly

Oh, and it does have a coolant alarm fitted - nice to hear they're a good thing to have.

cmm303 wrote:Welcome to Bongo Bongoland

Bob wrote: .....
If you really want to keep things powered up then plug a booster pack into the lighter socket and leave the key in the 'Accessories' position, but this really isn't necessary.
....

That will depend on what circuits have been swapped over to the Leisure Battery, assuming there is one given that it sounds like it has had a proper conversion. (or have I missed a vital clue )

It's a proper conversion and seems like a nice job.

One thing I was wondering about was connecting the LB to the SB in parallel, then removing the SB to leave the LB powering the Bongo.Would this be a reasonable plan? I'd have to leave it like that for a couple of days while the SB charged though so not sure how safe it'd be.

I don't want to try starting it with the LB connected in this way as I've heard it can ruin the LB.

Yes that's a valid way of doing it, just jumper across to the connecting arm, and then carefully remove the SB -ve terminal and then remove the +ve terminal with the jumper still attached just take care with the exposed connections and the pull of the jumper cable!

g8dhe wrote:Yes that's a valid way of doing it, just jumper across to the connecting arm, and then carefully remove the SB -ve terminal and then remove the +ve terminal with the jumper still attached just take care with the exposed co jumper cablennections and the pull of the!

Excellent! Thanks

I'll try it tonight and see if I can find a way to keep that +ve jump-lead clip well away from anything and everything else.

I think your post got curtailed at the end there btw - what pull should I be aware of?

Well... I tried and she still won't start so I'm pretty stuck.

I'll put a post up in the tech forum with details in case any of you Bongo masters can offer any further advice - Thanks for the help so far.

Is the starter turning the engine or is the battery still flat?

A rough location makes it easier for us to help you.

Bob wrote:Is the starter turning the engine or is the battery still flat?

A rough location makes it easier for us to help you.

Thanks for the quick reply!

The starter isn't turning the engine, so could be that the battery's still flat.

Bob wrote:Is the starter turning the engine or is the battery still flat?

A rough location makes it easier for us to help you.

Oh! Forgot to say... I'm in Godalming, Surrey