Bongo Fury

Hi i have just joined, i have had my bongo for four years and never had a prob, last friday i drove 250 miles camped till monday went to drive off as soon as the revs get up and the engine is under load there is an bad fast knocking noise coming from the engine, as well as almost complete loss of power, not drivable had to be trailer home. The rac man said it was the turbo?, i cant see how it could just go while it was parked. It will rev up when not moving and there is a small noise some times. If it is the turbo any one know where i can get a new one or recon. Thanks alot Ian.

hi ian there was a new turbo on evil bay the other day not sure if still on there or not but worth a try ?
failing that try the breakers on bongo fury or you could try 247 spares
hope this helps


you've been bongod

Hi Iggypop, sorry to hear about your poorly bongo.... Would it be possible to include a rough location on your profile so that if anybody local to you could PM you to let you know of a replacement?

(just the county would do)

Thanks for your replies but i have got the van back and the garage said it had somehow got water in the engine?, it was in quite abit of water when i drove it out of the field. No damage no bill yippee

Hope you don't regret that yipee in a week or so's time.

We had a chap at work drive his Astra van through a rather deep ford (it came in through the doors). The bow wave forced water into the engine air intake and it stalled.

Got it to the garage on a truck, and they dried it all out and got it going again - no apparent problems.

Two weeks later, the engine started sounding rough and not running right.

Bent conrod - major damage - new engine, which the bloke who drove it through the ford was made to pay for as he had been stupid enough to do it in a company vehicle. His pay packet will be £700 lighter this month.

So keep an ear and eye on things for a couple of weeks, there may be damage not yet apparent.

I sincerely hope you don't get a problem, but I would be gentle with it for a while until you are certain all is OK.

I reckon he went through that same ford twice then Lovejoy.........I've seen the results from a hydraulic lock through water and a bent conrod would instantly damage the engine.............

The car was certainly working for 2 weeks after its swim, and the chap involved was swanning around very pleased with himself that he had 'got away with' his stupidity.

I was then off sick for a few days, and when I got back I found he was driving the spare van because his had died.
I was told that the engine failure was a "delayed result" of the swim, and that the conrod had bent - unless there is some fibbing going on and the driver did indeed do something else stupid to the vehicle to cause the failure (he has quite a history of damaging company vehicles, though not always his fault).

I'll ask our garage engineer when I speak to him on Monday and get the full story given what you have said. Maybe I am being fed some bull to keep someone out of the poo. Not that having to pay £700 out of your wages for a recon engine is 'out of the poo'

I hope you are right, and the OP's Bongo is, literally, out of the water. I would not wish that kind of repair bill on anyone - unless they deliberately and wrecklessly drove their vehicle into a river

mate of mine once done this in his landrover....it stopped dead and that was the end of that...... one engine rebuild later he fitted a snorkel......

Spoke to our mechanic today about this, and apparently the head gasket went on the Astra.
As it had been swimming, they took it all apart and found that the conrods were indeed bent - hence the need for a replacement engine rather than just a gasket replacement.

He also said that he has known vehicles soldier on with bent conrods and it is possible for them to keep running like that until they cause more damage which eventually kills the engine.

I haven't a clue what I'm talking about, but he does - he rebuilds diesel engines for a living and has done for many years.

Hi Iggypop, how did you manage to get water into your engine in the first place, I would have thought that the air intake is high enough for the deepest ford you would want to cross. I reckon its about 4 ft / 1.25m off the ground.