Help Please! Coolant Alarm Came on Yesterday

[Bob]

Have to add there's no conflicting advice on how to bleed.

Two or three methods, all ok, but they don't conflict, just choose one.

But please get it recovered rather than top it up to drive home.

[suejj21]

Thank you Bob. Read and understood! We wont drive it until sorted. Watched youtube videos so going to bleed it this morning. Hubby knows how to check if head is damaged. What a nightmare, only had it a week so feeling disappointed. Thank you for your advice

[Bob]

Let's hope for a good result.

[Simon Jones]

What a nightmare, only had it a week so feeling disappointed.

Sorry to hear of your problems. Was it a private sale or bought from a dealer to whom you may have some recourse to help with the repairs?

[suejj21]

Private sale, unfortunately

[Northern Bongolow]

before you try to bleed it try to establish why it overheated in the first place, this is usually done by pressure testing the coolant system. the usual reason for an overheat is a pipe leak, this lets water out and air in, when enough air enters the system it stops coolant flow so a rapid overheat occurs.

i inflate the coolant system with a bike pump, then look for leaks all over the van. if a leak isnt found and the bongo is bled when running damage can occur. please take care or ask a bongo garage for advice, or shout out on here.

[suejj21]

Thank you. Did try bleeding it yesterday, couldn't find a leak. Going to start it in a bit to see if it worked. Live in a rural area and there don't seem to be any bongo garages anywhere near us. People we bought it from gave us all the receipts for work done over past two years, most recent was a bill a few weeks ago from a local ford garage near them for antifreeze and bleeding the system. Maybe they didn't do it right or there is an ongoing problem. It ran great for a week.

[haydn callow]

Thank you. Did try bleeding it yesterday, couldn't find a leak. Going to start it in a bit to see if it worked. Live in a rural area and there don't seem to be any bongo garages anywhere near us. People we bought it from gave us all the receipts for work done over past two years, most recent was a bill a few weeks ago from a local ford garage near them for antifreeze and bleeding the system. Maybe they didn't do it right or there is an ongoing problem. It ran great for a week.

You could well be right

[mikeonb4c]

before you try to bleed it try to establish why it overheated in the first place, this is usually done by pressure testing the coolant system. the usual reason for an overheat is a pipe leak, this lets water out and air in, when enough air enters the system it stops coolant flow so a rapid overheat occurs.

i inflate the coolant system with a bike pump, then look for leaks all over the van. if a leak isnt found and the bongo is bled when running damage can occur. please take care or ask a bongo garage for advice, or shout out on here.

Interesting trick Ady and I'd thought about doing something similar. Did you make up a modified header tank cap and was it simple to do? I'd love to include a pressure gauge so I could see if it's holding pressure.

[Bob]

Perhaps a U-Tube arrangement half full of liquid?

You could mark graduations to make it easier.

[Bob]

Thank you. Did try bleeding it yesterday, couldn't find a leak. Going to start it in a bit to see if it worked. Live in a rural area and there don't seem to be any bongo garages anywhere near us. People we bought it from gave us all the receipts for work done over past two years, most recent was a bill a few weeks ago from a local ford garage near them for antifreeze and bleeding the system. Maybe they didn't do it right or there is an ongoing problem. It ran great for a week.

You could well be right

Very likely, and this would explain why there's no leak.

[Northern Bongolow]

before you try to bleed it try to establish why it overheated in the first place, this is usually done by pressure testing the coolant system. the usual reason for an overheat is a pipe leak, this lets water out and air in, when enough air enters the system it stops coolant flow so a rapid overheat occurs.

i inflate the coolant system with a bike pump, then look for leaks all over the van. if a leak isnt found and the bongo is bled when running damage can occur. please take care or ask a bongo garage for advice, or shout out on here.

Interesting trick Ady and I'd thought about doing something similar. Did you make up a modified header tank cap and was it simple to do? I'd love to include a pressure gauge so I could see if it's holding pressure.

get an old expansion tank cap then cut through the bottom seal and backing disc with grinder this makes the bottom seal useless, then remove the small overflow pipe and replace this with a short length of air pipe with an old car tyre valve inserted into the end, to this fit your foot pump. inflate to no more than 1.1 bar, the valve holds the pressure in the system while you can look for leaks, if you put in line a pressure gauge you can watch the pressure drop if you have a leak. remove the modified cap and pipe for normal running.

you can remove the bleed pipe bung and replace with a suitable adapter to a length of wagon air brake plastic pipe 5-6mm 10 bar rated, then run this to a dash mounted 2 bar pressure gauge, keep the pipe rising to a level above the height of the expansion tank, this keeps the coolant running back when the engine/coolant is cooling/contracting, i put mine on one of those A post mounted pods for extra gauges.

keep it simple, it works best.