Greetings from a new Bongo owner as of today

[Fassi]

Hello everyone. I have been checking out the site for a few weeks but finally joined as I am now in the club It is a 4wd 2.5TD

So i picked up my first bongo today at 11am and drove home. There were several things i noticed which i didn't when first inspecting it.

The aircon would only blow out of the front vents. This was quickly remedied by the FAQs on here by putting a small metal link back where it should be. Although no power seems to get to the rear aircon controller so will need to look into that.

The coolant reservoir was empty and hard to look in. The radiator needed a litre of coolant for it to reach the top and I added some to the reservoir. Some 15 mins of driving and it all bubbled back out again. The temperature gauge sits around midway and the fan seems to be working overtime. I'm getting it checked by a specialist on thursday. I can see that quite a few coolant hoses have been replaced and there was some fresh drops of something showing on the big tray underneath the bongo which weren't there when i first inspected it. It was hard to tell if this was coolant leaking out from the replaced hoses but it might have been.

The bongo pulls to the left quite a bit but overall I am happy with what I got. The coolant is a worry, but I will try to give myself a crash course in the bongo to try and suss things out.

Would have been nice to drive about worry free but now I will need to wait to thursday I think.

Any tips would be great

[mikeWalsall]

Welcome ...did yo buy private or from a dealer .. do you know when it was fully serviced engine / gearbox / coolant changed ..??

NEVER .. remove the radiator cap when checking / filling the coolant .. only check / top up using the plastic 'header' tank..

If is does not already have a low coolant alarm .. maybe consider one as a priority ..

[BigPanzer]

Hi,

You definitely have a cooling system problem. It is vital that you don't drive it at all until it is sorted or you can easily land yourself with a big bill for a new head, plus fitting. Read up on here about how to bleed the system. and watch the videos on uTube. You can do it yourself, but if you get it done by a garage then make sure it is a Bongo savvy one. Never remove the radiator cap on a Bongo as this will allow air into the system.
Once you get it bled properly, fit a low coolant/temp alarm. Do not rely on the standard temp gauge, which is useless because it is too heavily damped.

I would also be concerned about it pulling to one side.

It might be worth taking up the problems with the vendor because these would have certainly been known about at the time of sale.

Good luck,

Peter

[mikeonb4c]

Hi,

It might be worth taking up the problems with the vendor because these would have certainly been known about at the time of sale.

Peter

Damn right. There is no way they could not have known something was amiss if they'd been driving it. But other than that, welcome and hope you get the problem sorted.

[Fassi]

Great advice thanks.

It was a private sale and the guy moves back to Australia on Monday. I asked for my money back but he wasn't having it. He seems to be a guy who would struggle to change a domestic plug. He really knew nothing about the bongo in terms of maintaining it. I should have body swerved it when all his answers were 'don't know'

Said he had never had a problem with it but i guess he was just ignorant to it.

I will soldier on with it as I'm sure these things can be remedied. It has had a new head gasket in the past according to some receipts I found. And a cambelt change just 10k ago. The guy I bought it from only had it 6 months to use in his visit from oz.

I will give the bleeding a little try. I have the workshop manual and I will check youtube as you suggest. I've got it booked in to campers scotland on thursday for a health check and service.

After bleeding and checking for leaks do you think I will be ok to drive it the 20 odd miles to get checked?

Also which coolant alarm should I get? I will use Haydn as that seems to be the preferred choice but which one?

Thanks again All.

[Bob]

Welcome aboard, Campers Scotland will look after you.

[dobby]

Hope you got it cheap enough to afford to get it fixed

[haydn callow]

Great advice thanks.

It was a private sale and the guy moves back to Australia on Monday. I asked for my money back but he wasn't having it. He seems to be a guy who would struggle to change a domestic plug. He really knew nothing about the bongo in terms of maintaining it. I should have body swerved it when all his answers were 'don't know'

Said he had never had a problem with it but i guess he was just ignorant to it.

I will soldier on with it as I'm sure these things can be remedied. It has had a new head gasket in the past according to some receipts I found. And a cambelt change just 10k ago. The guy I bought it from only had it 6 months to use in his visit from oz.

I will give the bleeding a little try. I have the workshop manual and I will check youtube as you suggest. I've got it booked in to campers scotland on thursday for a health check and service.

After bleeding and checking for leaks do you think I will be ok to drive it the 20 odd miles to get checked?

Also which coolant alarm should I get? I will use Haydn as that seems to be the preferred choice but which one?

Thanks again All.

Do as a priority fit at least a low coolant alarm and if funds allow a combined low coolant/temp alarm.
It does sound as though you may have bought a load of trouble, don't drive it until it had been properly bled and then get it to the experts. Watch the you tube vids, links on website below.

[Fassi]

Do as a priority fit at least a low coolant alarm and if funds allow a combined low coolant/temp alarm.
It does sound as though you may have bought a load of trouble, don't drive it until it had been properly bled and then get it to the experts. Watch the you tube vids, links on website below.

I will do as you suggest thanks. After looking at the video I realised my bleed hose is teed into the FICD which does not seem to be the case in the video. Is this ok?

Thankyou

[rita]

Do as a priority fit at least a low coolant alarm and if funds allow a combined low coolant/temp alarm.
It does sound as though you may have bought a load of trouble, don't drive it until it had been properly bled and then get it to the experts. Watch the you tube vids, links on website below.

I will do as you suggest thanks. After looking at the video I realised my bleed hose is teed into the FICD which does not seem to be the case in the video. Is this ok?

Thankyou

If it is you have a Big problem.

[Fassi]

Do as a priority fit at least a low coolant alarm and if funds allow a combined low coolant/temp alarm.
It does sound as though you may have bought a load of trouble, don't drive it until it had been properly bled and then get it to the experts. Watch the you tube vids, links on website below.

I will do as you suggest thanks. After looking at the video I realised my bleed hose is teed into the FICD which does not seem to be the case in the video. Is this ok?

Thankyou

If it is you have a Big problem.

I thought it was called this from a diagram I saw, but it could be the turbo??. I will post a picture.

[mikeonb4c]

Where are you based. Hopefully you got the Bongo cheap. It might be nest to have a Bongo garage look over it and give you a frank assessment. Denial isn't going to work

And as for the vendor - good bl**dy riddance and I hope he's reading this. Lucky old Oz getting him back. We don't want him here thanks.

[Fassi]

ok so the bleed hose is at 11 o'clock and 8 o'clock positions of the tee piece. The hose at 5 o'clock loops back round and into something else. Is it still ok for me to bleed with this setup?

Thanks

[haydn callow]

Probably o.k. You may have a Ford Ranger head fitted.

[Fassi]

Probably o.k. You may have a Ford Ranger head fitted.

Thanks

I've just did the first part of bleeding with filling up the header tank until the coolant comes out of the loosened radiator cap. I will wait until I can get help later today before bleeding with the engine ticking over.