Any ideas?

- Aye. Don't go to Kwik Fit! I wouldn't really trust a company that can't spell properly anyway!

As advised above - find a local aircon specialist. These guys tend to be very knowledgeable as they only 'do' aircon. As ever - try to find one who comes recommended by someone you can trust.

What's the construction of the petrol Bongo engines, 2.0 and 2.5 ? All alloy?

Sound advice. Some ally heads are surprisingly solid - I cooked a Passat TD once, to the extent that I had a partial seize, followed by a 30 min cool down, drove to a nearby garage, accompanied by thick white smoke coming out of the wheelarches (!). When I put oil in it (it was empty!), it sounded l...

higher compression

The head gaskets in diesel's are certainly under more stress generally due to the higher pressures involved. Lots of wee air-cooled petrol engines don't even have head gaskets (2CV, GS etc)

Alison, That's just the issue I'm trying to get my head round - what is the genuine proportion of TD's which suffer overheating 'episodes' compared to v6's / 2l's. It's always the same problem on fora such as these, that few people post when there is no problem, and almost everyone posts when they h...

Still trying to make my mind up as to which of the many variants of Bongo to try to buy. I recently hired a petrol v6, which was excellent, but I also have a bit of a preference for 4WD. So, to help (or confuse?) me - is there any evidence to suggest that the 2.0, 2.5 v6 or 2.5TD are more or less pr...

(lighter weight & all that?)

Lighter than what?

Stainless is heavier than mild steel. A full stainless system is going to be a lot heavier than a standard one.

All you ever wanted to know about tyres etc.

Fairly comprehensive, but should answer all your wheel/tyre size questions.