Loss of coolant

[Roy748]

Hello fellow Bongo lovers
Just discovered I have a coolant leak which I hope is coming only from the rear heater unit.
Having had my bongo parked up for a month, I thought I would just take it out for a short drive. It's a 2001 2.0lt, with digital heating controls. Started great and off I went after about a mile I could hear water sloshing around and thought it was a water bottle half empty in the passenger foot well. Fortunately my run out was only about 5 miles and the engine temperate gauge was normal throughout.
Once home I was checking levels etc and found the coolant reservoir empty.. oh no.. topping it back up I checked for leaks with the engine running. No engine leaks could be found and all the pipes were only warm to the touch. Checking under the van I found first pipe (engine side) of the rear heater unit to be leaking and a noticeable wet patch on the drive.
Now I am concerned I may have damaged the head although hoping that as the temperature remained normal and I could hear water sloshing aroun, which I assume was in the front heater unit I may get lucky and avoided head damage. Having checked the oil and filler cap no signs of water ingress were present.
After refilling the reservoir only half way so as to check for a leak I have found it has emptied again in 5 minutes yet the leak was only dripping.. Any advice?
I am now thinking of either replacing the rear unit if its not to difficult a task or blanking off the heater with a kit I believe is sold in the fury shop.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[Bob]

The 2 ltr is much less prone to head damage than the diesel so hopefully it will be ok.

If you blank off the rear heater you can always replace it at a later date.

[Roy748]

Thanks for your reply.
Hopefully I will be lucky. I think I will blank it off, it would seem the shop on here does not sell kits for 2000+ models. Also having read some past comments it would seem blanking off offers no less than re looping the feed.

Do you know how to bleed the system after topping back up as it seems this needs to be carried out.

[Bob]

Thankfully the bleed process is not required on the 2 ltr.

Just top up, run at idle, top up, put cap on, switch off engine.

[Roy748]

Really that's great news..
Think whilst the reservoir is empty I will fit a coolant alarm..

[Bob]

Good idea.

I have one of Haydn's, few quid well spent.

[Markas]

As has been said the 2.0L engine is resilient and easier to bleed than other engines. Still worth carrying ready mixed coolant on board and monitoring under bonnet levels frequently, as you would with any older vehicle.

[Roy748]

Just to confirm, do I plug the two hoses under the drivers side that go into the rear heater. I.e just pull them off and plug them.
Or do I need to join these two pipes so as to keep the water flowing in a loop. Only the more I rear tends to confuse me.
Thanks in advance

[Bob]

I'm pretty sure either method is fine, but hopefully one or two of our very good techie peeps will confirm this.

[Roy748]

Thanks for your advice and help. Hopefully someone will soon be able to confirm which method is best to do.

I have some 15mm copper pipe in the garage and fitting some brass end plugs is a doddle. I suspect releasing the old rubber pipes off the heating flanges will not be such a doddle mind.

Sadly mine appears to be leaking around the flange not the pipes so I suspect I will need a replacement heater unit. If any one has one going I would be interested in purchasing as going forward I would like to replace the unit.

[Flanners]

try Bongo Spares found them ultra fast postage and good prices too, there is a complete rear heater on the site for £120.

[Roy748]

Thank you.. I will check it out.

[Northern Bongolow]

the rear heater unit/ heater matrix has plastic spigots, the bit where the pipe clamps onto, these dont usually fail unless they are roughly handled then they can crack, there should be enough length on the stubs to dry them off and see if the coolant is running down from a split coolant matrix up inside.
make sure its not the rear aircon unit that is letting out its excess water as part of the refrigeration process, this is perfectly normal for aircon, the rear unit drain is often known to scare people into thinking they have a leak in the cooling system when all is is actually well.

[Roy748]

Hello Northern Bongo.
Thanks for your message. I have done as you suggested and dried off the spigots and can confirm the leak is coming from the heater unit it's self as moisture appears around the spigot not on them.
The air conditioning part is perfectly dry.
Do you know if it is OK to blank the unit off by plugging each of the two rubber hoses, only the club shop sells plugs for models up to 1999 and mine is a 2001 model making me wonder if it's not possible to do on my model.
Kind regards

[Northern Bongolow]

does the aircon work ok, if it doesnt and needs regassing i would replace the matrix unit, the aircon is relavant only because you would have to remove the whole unit to replace part of it so splitting the aircon.

i have replaced em or in emergency ive linked the 2 ends to each other but ive never blanked em off. if your not going to reinstate it later it maybe better to link the 2 pipes higher up the system.
simon jones gave a good pic of it here but the pic doesnt exist anymore. I THINK ALL THE WATER PIPEWORK FOR ALL YEARS IS THE SAME SIZE, BUT THE AIRCON FITTINGS/PIPE SIZES AND SEALS DO HAVE A YEAR CHANGE.

GEOFF.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=71634&p=674060&hilit=rear#p674060.

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html.

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html