Hello from Tad!

[mister munkey]

Wish I'd known about the world's worst cooling system before buying one though.

Not the case at all matey but its only as good as the attention previous owners have invested in it.

Mine had been abused but with eager wide eyes I stormed in & bought the first one I saw - in fact, I 'd only seen pics on ebay, didn't even make it home from S Wales. Well did make it home but on the back of an RAC truck as the head blew after 50 miles.

Over 3 years down the line now most pre-owner negligence issues have been ironed out one way or another purely from the advice & support I've discovered amongst this fine motley crew who contribute on here.


Stick with it.


Its worth it in the long run.

[Mountain]

LOL so you know exactly how I feel?

I checked everything.....just not the rad cap. In fact I wouldn't have noticed they were on in reverse if I hadn't removed the heater intake. Such a simple thing...loss of coolant...head gasket gone.

Its worth it in the long run

Yeah I know, just a bit of stupidity from the previous owner really......I have asked for a partial refund though and I will get it





But...... they did put the thermostat in the wrong place You would have thought the Japanese would have known better.

[Mountain]

OK,

Now quite a lot poorer!

Bongo has had head skimmed and luckily there are no cracks

Water pump housing had a crack in it too.

So, I have head gasket replaced, new water pump, new 'timing' belt, new main hoses. All done by a very good Bongo friendly garage.

Went to pick it up yesterday, left work early and spent 3hours on public transport to do 20miles

They were just putting the peripherals on when I arrived. All back together and did the bleed.
Sounded like a different engine, smooth and quiet.

The mechanic put it up on the lift and got the UV light out to check again for leaks......

And...............

Bloody cooling hose to the turbo has a pinprick leak. Bugger.

Still, better to find it now and get it all done. The guys are very thorough.

So hopefully next week all will be well.

The dealer that sold it to me is another story

[missfixit70]

Glad to hear it's getting there, best to be as thorough as possible now, then you know you should be ok .
You got a pm.

[mikeonb4c]

V glad to hear things are looking up, even if Fat Wallet is looking anorexic. Summers coming, thats the main thing. Your garage got on with it dead quick so hats off to them

[Mountain]

Yeah, things are looking much better.
And it's not as if the Easter weather has been up to much either....
-
mikeonb4c
I see you are a fellow musician

[mikeonb4c]

mikeonb4c
I see you are a fellow musician

I am as long as no-one in the audience is one

But seriously, there's a few of us on here. I'm a bit long in the tooth and don't have much of an urge to go out and play in public these days (being honest, I never really did but I like my music although what I like is becoming a bit 'old' now I reckon) but will probably do a gig or two this year. The Muso's on here come and go but maybe the major league one (regularly on here) is Jaylee who is lead singer with a band that does a lot of serious gigging, including travelling around Europe to do it (in a Bongo - of course ).

[Mountain]

Yep, I'm not exactly getting too old....just not enough time, work, family etc.
-
Still Bongoless and spending 5-6hours to get to work and back by public transport.....work being a massive 26miles away Been getting up at 5.20am
-
Just waiting for that hose.........

[Mountain]

phew......back on the road today, and now we have sunshine too
-
Hopefully, all should be well now. My coolant checking paranoia has now turned to coolant level neurosis though

[mrsdreamwarrior]

jonthebassist on here is a musician you know,from somewhere in yorkshire,harrogate,just looked

[Mountain]

The name's a clue then:)
Picked the Bongo up from Harrogate today........took me almost an hour to get out Still, at least all that queuing was a good test of the new head gasket...water pump....etc.
After 2 weeks of bus and train, I'm so glad to be on the road again.

[mikeonb4c]

The name's a clue then:)
Picked the Bongo up from Harrogate today........took me almost an hour to get out Still, at least all that queuing was a good test of the new head gasket...water pump....etc.
After 2 weeks of bus and train, I'm so glad to be on the road again.

Fingers crossed you can start that happy Bongoing thing now

[mrsdreamwarrior]

just reminded me about harrogate,mvous is a musician from harrogate as well.

[missfixit70]

The name's a clue then:)
Picked the Bongo up from Harrogate today........took me almost an hour to get out Still, at least all that queuing was a good test of the new head gasket...water pump....etc.
After 2 weeks of bus and train, I'm so glad to be on the road again.

Good to hear

[Mountain]

[/quote]
Fingers crossed you can start that happy Bongoing thing now [/quote]

I'll drink to that
(I'm still going to replace those steel hoses and the rest of the main ones though!)
-
It also appears the guy that sold it to me knew full well that there were problems...as he'd posted on *another* Bongo forum about them I will resist the urge to call him things ending in 'er' or 'at'
-
Anyway, I'm off work next week doing the second week of the Easter holiday stint with my nearly 6yr old. He was so excited about 'Sidney' and then so disappointed. So, now we get to have a father and son mini Bongo adventure while the Mrs. is working