Rattling & Juddering Bongo

[JosephD23]

Hello!

I've been having some issues on my Bongo of 2 years (2004, Automatic 2 litre petrol). It typically spends the majority of it's time on the drive but I drive it on average once a week for a 15 mile commute (round trip). Then whenever we decide to go away, which is probably once every 6 weeks.

The two main 'worrying' issues are as follows;
- Rattling/Ticking sound at approximately 2000 rpm - Anything over that is fine and no issues. This mostly happens from a standing start or crawling but isn't specific to a cold or warm engine.
- Juddering on start-up. This is most noticeable on cold mornings, I tend to allow the Bongo to warm up for a good 5/10 minutes which helps but doesn't completely remove it. It only really happens for a short period and revving the engine gently does prevent it. It occurs when in park, neutral, reverse and drive.

A bit of context, we took the van to a specialist in Derby that suggested it was all gearbox related and could've led to a complete change out! But upon speaking with the team at JAL (whom we bought it from) they recommended doing a gearbox flush which we did. This did help, however I'm now finding the issues have started to reoccur. There are no issues in changing gear and the change in drive whilst out and about is smooth!

I'm booked in for a service next week which will hopefully help but any advice would be appreciated!

[g8dhe]

The juddering on start-up tends to make me think your not firing on all cylinders ?
Have you checked all the leads and distributor cap, perhaps give them a clean and check the spark plugs themselves.

[Bob]

Juddering on start up could well be glow plugs.

[Ian]

Won't be glow plugs. It's a 2 litre petrol. There's a comprehensive fact sheet about juddering in the members area.

[Bob]

Oops.

[JosephD23]

Hi all,

Thanks for that!

I've checked and cleaned the distributor caps and leads. But no real improvement. I've bought replacement spark plugs for the service on Thursday so hopefully this will help!

I've looked through the fact sheet on juddering too but maybe I'm being too picky but it only really for a few minutes, if that! So I don't know it's as severe as the things mentioned on the fact sheet.

[Northern Bongolow]

Do a search on the forum for 2 ltr exhaust manifold.
They are double skinned and can split on the inner skin, this can make a ticking sound as the escaping gasses get through the inner and hit the outer skin.