Bongo Fury

Most of the rubber coolant hoses now appear to need replacing in the next few months just for peace of mind, because of all the posts on leaks and overheating here recently I spent all weekend avidly watching my temp gauge instead of enjoying the Yorshire Moors.

I have been intending to replace my bleed hose and the pipe from the header tank to the front heater feed pipe but have really struggled to obtain 10mm or 3/8 Coolant/Heater Pipe. I even sent off to some guy on Ebay who was advertising 'GOODYEAR 10mm 3/8 Heater Water Coolant hose tube pipe' when I received it it was 'FUEL/EMISSION HOSE' and I am now struggling to get my money returned.

So when I was in Scarborough last weekend I passed a little car shop in a side street and popped in to see if they had any 10mm coolant pipe. 'How much do you want the mas asked, 2 meters I said, £3.74 he said, I paid him and walked out with genuine heater hose. So thats a job to be done.

I am now looking at fabricating some bends out of 15mm copper tubing so I can replace the front heater hoses, hose from header tank to radiator and feed and return hoses to rear heater as the nearest coolant hose I can get is 5/8'' or 16mm to fit the metal heater tube which is 17 mm.

nice one Vanmanerik, I couldn't get any when mine pin holed on friday. Didn't try very hard mind.

Is it possible to remove and replace the bleed hose without losing any coolant from the system (and therefore having to rebleed the whole thing ?)

I checked my hose the other day, and noticed some chafe/wear marks. I have protected these with a larger hose, and secured the bleed hose in a safe position, but I'll only be truly comfortable with a new hose...

I did just that
I got every thing ready new hose with fairy liquid on it on stand by with clips on the had some one stood in front of the bongo with a big bottle of water.
at the command they topped up the expansion tank as I removed the old pipe and replaced it with the new, the level did not go under full and no bleeding necessary except to lower the new pipe till coolent was escaping to replace bung.

Hi westonwarrior, where did you get your replacement hose from?

well I used 10 mil reinforced fuel pipe they said it would do the job and so far has

I got it from my local motor factors

The only problem with making up your own hoses out of stright hose and metal elbows is the number of joints involved. I.E. the 28mm hose that connects the header tank with the top of the radiator would involve 2 elbows and no less than 6 joints instead of two. More chance of failure and a replacement hose only costs £20. Is it worth the risk ??

I used fuel hose last year to replace bleed pipe, I use hose clips not the original clips all fine. I think the preshaped hoses are way too expensive and I have used hose from unipart at a fraction of the cost

Hi westonwarrior and Peter, why do you thing people like Goodyear go to the trouble of researching and developing different materials for different applications for a 'salesperson' at a local car factors shop to over ride all this knowledge with the statement 'it will do the job'? I'm sure Goodyear could have saved themselves many thosands of £'s by employing this guy instead of a team of chemists, scientists and engineers.

It will do the job, for a very short time................ and the motor factor got his sale with no comebacks..... He He He.

Haydn, I am going down the route of fabricating the water coolant pipes because in my opinion all the water coolant pipes are at the end of their service life and need repalcing. If I was to use replacement hoses as sold by our Bongo spares people it would cost about £200.00 and I think this is a rip off. If you look at similar hoses for other makes of cars and vans it is nowhere nearly as expensive.

As for more joints means more chance of a leak I would rather take that chance than just leave the pipes as they are and wait for them to split eventually, it will give me more peace of mind having the hoses replaced with new COOLANT HOSE and bends where required than to leave them as they are.

I would never use FUEL HOSE as a coolant hose as in previous topics.

Well the salesperson I deal with has worked in the motor factor business for 40 years plus, I trust his judgement on hoses etc. I check the hoses on a regular basis and the replaement hoses are doing fine

So you agree that the motor factor salesperson has more knowledge about hoses than the engineers at Goodyear etc?

Of course the fuel hoses are doing fine, you can't see them disintegrating from the inside out can you? Can you see the rubber layers coming apart, can you see the polymers and reinforcing separating? Of course not, its the good old 'out of site out of mind' ain't it?

Why on earth jeopadise yourself, your vehicle and other road users by fitting a part that obviously is not intended for the job in hand? And when/if you sell the van on will you mention to the new buyer that he has a potential problem on his hands because you fitted fuel hose instead of the correct coolant hose? Answer in more than one sentence please.

Sorry I will answer in as many sentences as I choose! I am more than happy with the hoses I have fitted, I have dealt with a major overheating problem, sorted it all out, I am confident that if any hoses or other parts happen to fail, I will deal with them again.

Settle down boys

You are welcome to repair and service your van in any way you like but I think you should encourage other people to employ the correct materials to rectify a problem in the correct manner. I for one would not be very happy if I followed your lead and my hoses gave out again in short period of time.

By the way its a good idea to have a set of crutches and or sticks upstairs and downstairs then you don't have to carry them with you as you go uup and down and you have both hands free.