So, this morning, and with spare ATF fluid on board in case, i made the nerve wracking trip over to Adrian. 3 years ago, i had a virtually identical experience involving (corrosion) in the adjacent water pipe, and a similarly nerve wracking drive (the cost of miscalculation in both instances could have been high!).
These pipes are exposed to road salt/spray and as they are hot in service corrosion is further promoted. It can be hard to assess the extent of corrosion with any of these pipes (it classically lurks and grows under the painted surface) and i find myself thinking it is worth having them expert inspected and maybe replaced regardless on any Bongo that is - say - more than 15 years old, because the consequences of not catching/preventing a leak can be very expensive. I had a new coolant pipe fitted when it failed, but a cheap and effective alternative is to cut out the corroded tee piece and adjacent piping and fit a new tee piece and stubs etc. With the ATF pipes i've not gone for full (expensive/tricky i suspect) replacements but have had the corroded sections cut out and lengths of copper pipe spliced in with hose and clamps.
Big thanks to Adrian as ever. And if anyone reading this can spread the word on facebook groups using a link to this BF topic, that might help a lot of people also.
Looking forward to a year of rust free Bongoing:-)
But....is that the pipe in the same location as the ATF cooler pipes as, if so, i went through a similar drama with that a few years back, and had a new pipe fitted (see my original post).
