Glowlplug light flashing

[ColinDR]

Glowplug light flashing. First began when overtaking up a hill. Light now comes on when driving for a while at about 70mph on the flat. May come on after 15 minutes or 2 hours or not at all. When the light flashes there is power loss when accelerating to overtake and when going up hills. When engine cools all is good again.
Diagnosed with 'fault code 1228. Had new waste gate solenoid fitted but problem still there.
Mazda Bongo Diesel 2499cc. First registered 01/01/2002.
Any help would be appreciated.
Colin

[samuel]

Hi Colin

I have a 2001 2.5 turbo diesel which had the same problem and I cured it with the following method. Firstly check all the vacuum hoses under the passenger and drivers seat. Make sure they are all a tight fit. It is sometimes possible to cut the offending pipe by removing about 8mm but you can buy this from Halfords. It has 3.2mm internal diameter. Once happy go to the next stage below.

Under the passengers seat you will find a pair solenoid valves. Remove the electrical plugs. With a mulitmeter check across the connectors on the solenoids. Should measure between 30 and 60 ohms. If you are not getting a reading clean the connectors and try again. No reading will indicate a faulty component after a good clean.

Do the same with the solenoids under the drivers seat (4 of them). It was one of these that I found so dirty it didn't give me a reading. However after giving it a good clean it gave a reading and I have not had a problem since. I used a flat needle file to scrape the connectors clean along with a piece of emery.

My Bongo has never driven so well after sorting this. It pulls like a ruddy train now. Best of luck

Tim

[ColinDR]

Hi Tim
Thanks for the info. Appreciate it.
Will look at the problem again over the next couple of weeks and check out the things you did.
Will let you know how we go.
Colin

[Mountshannonman]

Hi,
A new addition to the Bongo owners club. Recently bought a ‘96 2.5 TD in need of a little TLC. Some of the vacuum hoses had been disconnected/ removed/ blanked. I’m hoping some here can tell me where the vacuum hose routes to downstream of the solenoids and check valve item 13-995 in attached diagram, http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... f02.html#4
Any help would be appreciated.

[Bob]

Hi, and welcome aboard.

If you like you're welcome to start a new thread with your question.

You may get more answers with a title like 'Vacuum Pipe Question'.

Sorry I don't have the techie knowledge to help with this one.

[Mountshannonman]

Thanks Bob,
I’ll give that a go

[BongoDansk]

Hi Colin

I have a 2001 2.5 turbo diesel which had the same problem and I cured it with the following method. Firstly check all the vacuum hoses under the passenger and drivers seat. Make sure they are all a tight fit. It is sometimes possible to cut the offending pipe by removing about 8mm but you can buy this from Halfords. It has 3.2mm internal diameter. Once happy go to the next stage below.

Under the passengers seat you will find a pair solenoid valves. Remove the electrical plugs. With a mulitmeter check across the connectors on the solenoids. Should measure between 30 and 60 ohms. If you are not getting a reading clean the connectors and try again. No reading will indicate a faulty component after a good clean.

Do the same with the solenoids under the drivers seat (4 of them). It was one of these that I found so dirty it didn't give me a reading. However after giving it a good clean it gave a reading and I have not had a problem since. I used a flat needle file to scrape the connectors clean along with a piece of emery.

My Bongo has never driven so well after sorting this. It pulls like a ruddy train now. Best of luck

Tim

Hi Tim

I have this problem and have just followed your advice. I do not have access to a multi-meter right now - so disconnected the power from the two solenoid valves under the drivers seat near the handbrake...

I provided direct power from the battery, via jump leads, to the two solenoid valves. The one on the left clicked open and closed as you would expect, but the one on the right did nothing. Could this be my problem??

Thanks

Chris

[mikeonb4c]

The two that i know of are there to (1) raise tickover when engine is cold and (2) raise/hold tickover when aircon is on and the load wants to drop the tickover. Neither are working on mine but it makes no difference to how well the engine runs and no difference i can't live with to the tickover! But we may not be talking about the sames solenoids. Samuels advice is the best i can think of. And (just in case) have you tried running with the fuel filler tank off, to exclude possibility it has a blocked breather. V unlikely its that but simple to check.

[samuel]

Hi Chris

It would be worth getting a multimeter. They are quite cheap. I say this because the contacts on the solenoids get covered in crud and even though you have used a battery to listen for the solenoid click you may not be making a complete circuit due to the crud on the other solenoid.

Give the contacts a good clean and then test with multimeter before changing solenoid.

I recently suffered the glowplug flashing and loss of power again recently. However I also changed the fuel filter recently which meant removing the air intake pipe off the air cleaner. Low and behold i discovered a tee piece in the space under it only to discover that the connections were very slack. Trimmed them off and hey presto problem gone and back to full power.

I'm going to produce a tech sheet on this very subject as I truly believe poor connections on solenoids and slack fitting of vacuum pipes is the root cause of the flashing glow plug light and loss of power are attributed to this frustrating problem.

[Gandalf The White]

Hi there.

I had a longstanding problems with our 2002 Diesel Bongo with the dreaded going into limp mode and glow plug light flashing once engine was warm and sat in traffic. I cleared all the old fault codes and found the two fault codes being displayed were P0400 and P1228. Spent hours researching this trawling for answers through the forums, FB groups and it's also well detailed on the Wastegate Actuator factsheet in the members section. It's obvious people have spent hours on this, but nothing seems to give a permanent guaranteed long term fix. After much head scratching I discovered Mark at The Bongo Master in Leicestershire, really good, decent, honest bloke, who knows Bongos inside and out, he has great reviews from all his customers. Mark immediately knew what the problem was. It's a known issue with later Bongos, due to combination of a change of turbo design and poorer quality grade diesel in the UK. Mark charges £600 to retrofit an older turbo from an earlier model and changes the relevant ducting and piping to go with it. The van then ran as sweet as a nut, with no loss in performance at all. Just thought I'd share, as it could save somebody alot of time, money and hassle in the future.

https://www.thebongomaster.co.uk/