Bongo Fury

Trouble at t'Mill wrote:Hi Andy.

Bit hard to diagnose from here, but I would have thought it was unlikely to be anything major, if the car runs well at other times and once warmed up.

In cold weather, the glow plugs become very important - a dash light comes on for a few seconds after you turn on the ignition to show the plugs are being heated. If one plug has failed - something that'll happen every mow and then - then the engine will initially only fire up properly on 3 cylinders, and it will sound pretty rough! After running for a few seconds, it should settle down and the 'missing' cylinder starts to ignite properly too.

A garage will be able to check in minutes whether a glow plug has gone - they seem easy to access in these cars.

Damp doesn't affect diesels like it does petrol engines, since diesels don't require a spark to ignite the cylinders. Therefore, they are pretty immune to wet conditions. It's possible it could affect other control electrics, though - I'm not familiar with how complex the Bongo's management system is.

Meanwhile, something I think is worth trying is a good quality fuel additive such as Millers Power Plus/Sport. As well as generally improving the quality of combustion, they will thoroughly clean out your injectors which can suffer especially if run on cheap 'supermarket' fuel. I use it fairly regularly, adding a double dose when my Zafira started playing up - service light coming on, and car going into 'limp home' mode. A brisk drive with some of that in the tank seems to have cured it (can't be sure it's all down to the additive, of course!)

lizard wrote:Cheep supermarket fuel , bloody stuff costs over a £ a litre

francophile1947 wrote:

lizard wrote:Cheep supermarket fuel , bloody stuff costs over a £ a litre

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bigdaddycain wrote: Open oil hours?

missfixit70 wrote:Thought it was a bit of a crude attempt myself.

Aethelric wrote:with nurse "Glad it's a manual"?

Nevets wrote:Sounds definitely like a dodgy glow plug fault.

As it only takes 1 to not fully glow properly on a colder morning..

You could try working the glowplugs 2-3 times before you crank it over as this helps..

bigdaddycain wrote:

Nevets wrote:Sounds definitely like a dodgy glow plug fault.

As it only takes 1 to not fully glow properly on a colder morning..

You could try working the glowplugs 2-3 times before you crank it over as this helps..

Yep, i only had one lazy plug which made mine a bugg3r to start...