Bongo Fury

I have received this enquiry from Joan in France:

I have a Bongo and live in France. For the last 3 months she has been at Mazda Limoges because she was billowing black smoke and loosing power; not all the time; just sometimes and without warning. So far they have changed the Cylinder head; the water pump, the air filter, cleaned the diesel filter, changed the water pump at a cost of over 3000 euros and they have kept her for over 3 months.They are now giving her back to me - still with the problem - telling me they have no idea what the problem is as they dont deal in imported cars. They have said when I pick her up they will put something in the empty tank and to fill her up then run til empty and maybe that will unblock something! I am at my wits end and scared to drive her as although she drives like a dream most of the time there is no warning when this happens and if its on a busy roundabout surrounded by French drivers you can imagine the nightmare. I would be so grateful for any suggestions you can come up with and thank you in advance for your time and help:
Regards
Joan Lautrete

No mention there of any work on the injector pump. I would lay odds thats where the problem is.
Why would they want to change the water pump?
Sounds like a very dodgy garage covering there tracks. I notice that they say they dont deal with imported cars... strange thing for a Mazda garage to say. I always thaught Mazda were made in Japan. Just my opinion.

ian,
does it do it when its just warmed up?
cos if it does, that is what mine did ,i disabled the egr and i've had no more smoke or loss of power. I think the egr thingy packed up . Worth a try .

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simon

I'm bongoing mad R U?

A seized turbo would give those symptoms, but I'm not sure that one could seize and then free itself intermittently.

I would try the EGR first. Failing that it's time for a recon fuel injection pump (or second hand).

My money's on dodgy EGR. The fault's intermittent. If turbo or pump it would be happening all the time. Get her to fit one of Allans' blanking plates to the inlet manifold EGR intake.

Yes and even if it isnt, these things are often tracked down by eliminating the usual suspects one by one. Fitting an EGR blanking plate first - even if it proved to be a waste of money - would have cost a lot less that 3000 Euros . Unless:

They saw you coming