Spotless Air Filter and Dirty Banjo = Lumpy starting?

[tallbongo]

Last week I changed my glow plugs because the Bongo had symptoms that seemed the same as last time two of them were faulty, only not quite as bad. It was lumpy and smokey sometimes when starting - though not every time. I had assumed that only one glowplug was dodgy, but on testing them they all seemed ok (so I've kept them as spares). The lumpy starting continued.

Today I changed the air filter, fuel filter and cleaned the banjo filter. Although it has been ~9,000 miles since the air filter was last changed, there was hardly a speck on it. The replacement (a K&N E9280) seemed a much tighter fit in the housing. I therefore assume the old one was not doing much filtering. Could this cause the lumpy starting (possibly due to an accumulation of dust when the vehicle is idle when then gets taken in upon starting)?

P.S. Thanks to all who contribute to the forums, fact sheets and the Bongo wiki. This is the first time I've ever serviced a car and can't believe how straightforward it was. The confidence it has given me will save me a fair few quid in future servicing of all our vehicles, and it's probably as quick as, and certainly more convenient than, getting them to a garage and back.

[Northern Bongolow]

what brand of plugs did you fit.

[tallbongo]

what brand of plugs did you fit.

NGKs again. The old ones were fine so it's definitely not the plugs. Could be the cold start solenoid playing up, but I was just curious regarding the state of the air filter in particular. As stated, I've never serviced cars before, but I'd expect a filter to be coated up with some dust if it's being doing its job. What would the consequences of it not filtering?

[M 80NGO]

Take a 10mm spanner and a small flatblade scew driver when she's stone cold, lift the drivers seat and turn the ignition on so the dash lights illuminate but don't start her, when you turn the ignition on you'llsee the cold start mechanism activate near the fuel pump, turn the ignition off and slacken the 10mm locking nut for the coldstart idle adjustment, wind the screw out till there is just 5mm poking out the business end, now with the seat still raised go through your start up proceedure and fire her up then adjust her so she's ticking over between 800 and 850 max and see if that makes her start better, sometimes fitting new parts shows up slight faults in other areas but with a little adjustment should get her starting with the best of us, i'll copy and paste my full report for ya

[M 80NGO]

Have a read through this http://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/view ... rack+Obama

[M 80NGO]

IMPORTANT, THIS NEXT POST IS TO BE READ IN THE STYLE OF BARAK OBAMA !

Good people of Bongoville....... Today at pecisously 12.15 European time....... My team and i made a break through that has the potential to change Bongoing forever !

Today good people... we made a discovery..... a discovery so profound and so important to those Bongoers that have suffered the fate of cold lumpy gas chugging start ups .......

Today of all days we, the nation can stand proud and tall......... proud in the knowledge that a scientific breakthrough so unique has come to ease our lumpy start up pain.

Today we discovered that when a Bongo is started from cold....... the glowplug curcuit will kick in and it will warm your cylinder bores......... and even........ when the relay clicks off....... the water tempature sensor will tell the glowplugs...... via the ecu...... that the glow plugs need another surge of heat....... and...... this heat is supplied...... supplied until the water temperature sensor deems that the glowplugs....... are needed no more...... for the time being.

This good people is how its always been...... and....... how it always should be...... But !...... and there is a but...... if the throttle exceeds 950rpm..... the glowplugs..... will be switched off !!!!!! The ecu.... will think.... that your Bongo... is being.... driven... there for...... if....... your coldstart mechanism..... is set....... to lift the revs to 1250rpm whilst cold....... the glowplugs...... Ladies and gentlemen..... will be switched off ....... and with the plugs switched off....... and with the coolant cold....... the lumpy chuffin startup gremlin...... will creep in to your Bongo.... and...... it will make you pay........

So to sum up good people of Bongoville...... if you have..... a badly adjusted..... coldstart idle screw...... i emplore you to rectify this issue...... and come over to green and pleasant land of the lumpy free startup..... Today good people of Bongoville..... the Lumpy startup Gremlin counted on us Bongoers being passive ..... Today he counted wrong !!!!!!!!!!

I salute you all

[Northern Bongolow]

just as an add on to the above, some motors dont hold the vac too long, so you may have to start the engine to get the vac pump to create the vac before it will act on the fuel pump, so it can be adjusted as above.

good advice though .

[tallbongo]

Take a 10mm spanner and a small flatblade scew driver when she's stone cold, lift the drivers seat and turn the ignition on so the dash lights illuminate but don't start her, when you turn the ignition on you'llsee the cold start mechanism activate near the fuel pump, turn the ignition off and slacken the 10mm locking nut for the coldstart idle adjustment, wind the screw out till there is just 5mm poking out the business end, now with the seat still raised go through your start up proceedure and fire her up then adjust her so she's ticking over between 800 and 850 max and see if that makes her start better, sometimes fitting new parts shows up slight faults in other areas but with a little adjustment should get her starting with the best of us, i'll copy and paste my full report for ya

Thanks for outlining the procedure so clearly. It's the next thing I was going to investigate if the problem still exists, but I must admit I was not at all clear on the adjustment process from searching through previous posts. I do think the cold idle speed is around the 800 mark already though. I'm sure after a few more runs I'll know if the problem is still there. The initial start has always been fine, just after about 15 seconds it may start to run a bit lumpily until driven/revved.

With all the techies on here, someone must have changed a fair few air filters. How many miles before you expect to see a build up of dust on them, and what would the symptoms of not filtering the air be?

[mikeonb4c]

I doubt v much the air filter is the cause. Even with a dirty old one in my Bongo ran fine. You could try starting it with no air filter to rule it out/in as the culprit.

[Northern Bongolow]

I do think the cold idle speed is around the 800 mark already though. I'm sure after a few more runs I'll know if the problem is still there. The initial start has always been fine, just after about 15 seconds it may start to run a bit lumpily until driven/revved.

the left hand solenoid operates for about the 1st 15 secs, then drops out, then the white plugged right hand one continues (half choke) until warmed up. do the revs drop as this point?. if yes the white plugged solenoid is poss stuck or the pipes have snapped off.

you could swap the lecky feeds just to test.