Bongo Fury

I blew the fusable link on mine which stooped the glow plugs working at all.

It turned over as good as ever, just refused to start easily

If its refusing to turn over its not the plugs



unless they are shorting and draining the battery I suppose

Sorry but it seems I’ve misunderstood what you were saying . You are correct, the Glow plugs have nothing to do with the engine turning over, they are just heaters.

The Great Pretender wrote:

dandywarhol wrote:No 3.............sounds like the start of a starter solenoid contacts problem - slipping it into neutral momentarily cuts the connection and it catches in neutral. I know this cos mine did the same..................

Had me going back to look at No3 untill I realised the time of your post, r u dixlexik or full of scotch mist?

Ah.......I am/was lexdysic but I'm ko. now. Number 2 I meant...

Maybe you just need to eat more prunes if you're having trouble with your number two's Dandy

Alexknill.

Did you buy the car privately or through a dealer? If the latter, then you have more protection depending on how the car was described.

Rear axle whine indicates wear or low oil level. However, it might not be as bad as it sounds...

Rear axle whine is very distinctive - it usually appears under light or heavy 'load' (ie: accelerating or going up hill) but often disappears on over-run (when you lift off the accelerator). It also often starts at a certain speed, but will usually continue when you go above that speed. If you are in any doubt, take it to a local garage and they'll test drive it for you. Try and find a Bongo-friendly garage if possible, but any should do.

Good news: axles will go on forever even after showing this kind of wear. Bad news: the noise will drive you nuts...

The rear axle oil level is a doddle to check - crawl underneath (no need to lift the car) and you'll find 2 nuts on the bulbous rear axle casing: one is slightly to the offside and just below half way down the back of the casing, and the other (the drain plug) is underneath in a slight recess. Usefully, they are different sizes...

With car on level ground, remove the upper plug. Listen for a suction noise when you remove it - that's normal (the breather valve poking out the top of the casing is one-way: it'll allow air pressure to escape the axle casing, but not allow air back in - so it's often a partial vacuum in there!). If oil begins to trickle out the plug hole, then the level is spot on. Test a little on your finger to see the colour - hopefully it shouldn't be jet black...

Most likely, nothing will come out as some oil will have been lost over the years. So, make up a dipstick (a short piece of bent wire will do) and try and get an idea of the oil level in there - it really shouldn't be significantly below the plug level. Also see what colour it is.

You might very well be able to reduce the noise by adding good quality (GL5) gear oil of a more viscous grade - I put 80W-140 in mine - along with an additive such as Molyslip (completely drain the existing oil first. A 2WD Bongo axle takes less than 2 litres.) This helped my noisy axle but didn't cure it (my niece decided she could accept the slight whine at over 55 mph so as to save money).

The above is obviously assuming it IS axle noise of course!!

If it needs repair, then new parts are not available. However, Bongo axles are usually pretty robust so good 2nd-hand ones are readily available. Expect to pay between £150-200 for a warranted axle. Fitting will come to around another £150...

Bell Hill Garage will take a slightly different approach and will keep your axle but replace the innards with good 2nd hand parts - a fully warranted repair is around £360 mark I think - but confirm. (Bear in mind if you buy a separate warranted axle which is fitted by your local garage and turns out to be faulty - the supplier will replace it, but you'll have to pay for the 2 fittings...!) So, I'd go 'BellHill' if possible!

If the car was bought from a dealer, and it turns out to be a worn axle, then that is a major part and should be covered (unless the car was dirt cheap and sold as such). You even have protection with a private sale provided the car was described as 'free of major mechanical faults' or similar, and was also priced accordingly. (You cannot reasonably expect a cheap car to be perfect...! Unless, of course, the foolish vendor described it as such!!!))

...Or the "whining" could be a rear wheel bearing? (good write up by the way Ti'tM)

bigdaddycain wrote:...Or the "whining" could be a rear wheel bearing? (good write up by the way Ti'tM)

2nd that - a superb write-up

Good indeed, but I seem to remember something about not using Molyslip (or similar) if it's a limited slip differential - is that right?

The whining could also just be unevenly worn front tyres. Mine started whining at 25-30mph and also at 50-60, (harmonics) and could have been a wheel bearing, propshaft, axle or gearbox at fault. Rather than spend potentially thousands and not resolve it, I waited until I changed the unevenly worn tyres (from when the tracking was miles out) and now it's like a different vehicle.

PS, it was a strain trying to drive and avoid those speeds

francophile1947 wrote:Good indeed, but I seem to remember something about not using Molyslip (or similar) if it's a limited slip differential - is that right?

Hi John,
you are probably right,but I believe that WYNNES have an additive that can be used in LSD and Auto Boxes.
They probably use a Modifier.(adding an additive to an additive)

Cheers Malc

thanks all

My comments are obviously based on it being the axle at fault - clearly there are a number of things that can cause 'whine', and fingers crossed it's a simpler cause. Axle whine is pretty distinctive, tho', and should be confirmed by a decent time-served mechanic (one of the 'old school', ideally, as axle wear was common in t'old days!)

Fair point, too, about using additives in LSDs. Again, without writing an essay, my comments were aimed at the 2WD beasty that I'm familiar with.

If the car has any warranty with it, I'd suggest to the OP they get the noise diagnosed properly so that it can be brought to the seller's attention asap.


In any event, an axle oil change should be on everyone's cards!! Easy, cheap, DIYish, and should hopefully prevent any potentially expensive problems down the line.

Thanks for all your advice!

I've checked the main levels, etc and they seem fine - there are a couple of months of warranty left so I'm going to use that for full diagnosis and repair.

Thanks again

alexknill wrote:Thanks for all your advice!

I've checked the main levels, etc and they seem fine - there are a couple of months of warranty left so I'm going to use that for full diagnosis and repair.

Thanks again

Make sure you get any jobs done within the two months you have left, a friend of mine booked his vehicle in within warranty,(it was only 3 days to go) but when they got round to do it the warranty had expired, and they said he would have to pay.

Thanks again for all your advice!

I swapped front and back tyres and that seemed to cure it! Clearly, it's tyre noise!

One thing I did notice however is that with the swapped tyres, there was a little bit of tyre noise(?) under acceleration - could this be driveshaft noise? It goes away if you lift off accelerator.

Any views would be helpful

Thanks again