Bongo Fury

Have you had a catastrophic coolant problem and had to change the head gasket/head/engine?

This isn't a "nah, nah, you have and I haven't" question - I'm trying to find out just how big a problem this is.
I know everybody who HAS had problems will vote but in the interests of accuracy it would be good if as many peeps as possible vote

Sorry, but to avoid tempting fate shouldn't "No" be "Not Yet"?

Very relevant to me dandy.

Bought mine blind off ebay pretty cheap but with an advertised "water leak"

Being keen & not knowing anything about potential weakspots, I joined the RAC - just in case - made the 250 mile trek to pick him up & promptly cracked the head within fifty miles.

If only I'd known then what I know now. Just a bit of research on here beforehand could have saved me over a grand.

Ho Hum. . . . .

No I have not yet. Got my Bongo from Jal who prepared it quite well. All the same I am about to have the radiator flushed out and new silicone hoses fitted with both Hayden's and Mason's Alarms for peace of mind.

hi all,
I've had a new head which didn't fix problem so after i broke down at higher longford meet , i was told that my block had cracked so i bought an engine from tom at Bellhill .
bongo now driving like a goodun..(well chuffed), price:- £750 +vat for engine + £65+vat delivery.

We had a replacement engine, I have not fit any alarms, I just keep an eye on the coolant level and will do a regular coolant change

I haven't and hope will not in the future, although I have a 1995 low milage 27k (allegedly) bongo, and don't do much milage at the moment as it is used as my other car only and of course for camping, but/if when the time comes I hope Mason/Haydn will pick it up before any serious damage is done. Here's hoping.

Manny

replaced mine due to constant overheating probs. when the head was removed the problem could clearly be seen as water was seeping through the head casting in various places. a new head fitted by myself and no probs since.

I didn't realise there was a similar poll alpha - do you know where it is?

scanner wrote:Sorry, but to avoid tempting fate shouldn't "No" be "Not Yet"?

I don't share your cynicism scanner.

"Not yet" is a distinct possibility with any incorrectly maintained vehicle.
I still see this as a maintainance problem rather than a design error. If any design error is to be found it's the inaccessability of the engine for minor weekly checks - chaffed/bulging/perished hoses can be spotted in conventional engine layouts by popping the bonnet catch and having a squint. It surely must be more than coincidence that the major sufferers of head failures are vehicles like the Bongo and Estima where, unless you're technically minded, the engine bay never gets looked at between services because of the hassle of lifting seats etc. Especially Bongos with full side conversions where the seat has to be removed to access the right side of the engine bay. and where's the hose which causes most problems??? Yep, under the driver's seat!

I genuinely feel for a the folk who have had problems and I do my best to make sure my own van doesn't go down a similar route but I'm lucky to have some knowledge in the workings and an interest in the mechanicals. Owners shouldn't have to worry about the cooling system giving up the ghost or have to guddle about in the engine bay unneccessarily but it's imperative that they entrust their pride and joy to someone who knows what they're doing.

I hope the major players who import/sell Bongos are reading these threads and tales of woe and at least carry out some preventative maintainance before the vans are sold, as Mike mentioned a few weeks back.

I hovered around this forum long before I bought my Bongo and the advice over 2 years ago was to carry out an extensive road test to check for water problems. Bumbly1 had serious problems with his and advised 18 months ago that the radiator is thoroughly flushed/replaced when the vehicle arrives at our shores and we're getting problems through LACK OF BASIC MAINTAINANCE.

Have a look at the BUYING TIPS page of the Estima website - says it all really

Have you ever looked at other car club sites?

Owners with problems (the vehicles not the owners!) will almost always search out a site if they have a certain problem and hey presto that make now appears to have a real problem in one or two areas.

I'm really not sure the Bongo in the uk has a huge problem with crack heads. This site rather highlights the problems of a few, fingers crossed.

The internet is a funny old place. It gives us knowledge but at the same time makes the Bongo look like a bad 'un at times. Hope the value of my lovely Bongo doesn't drop by all this.

I belong to the Renault forum, mainly to see if other have had the same problem as me. Sure enough, many have. But what now worried me was that I now have another potential problem with my mirror switch so bad that Renault are recalling the cars in April for a fix. My car is likely to catch fire if I leave the drivers door open in the rain. Jeeez, I only wanted to see if others had the same ignition problem as I keep getting.

So, I have a Bongo about to crack a head (sympathy to those that have had it go), and a Renault about to catch fire. I now walk a lot just in case.

Lots of great folks on here who theorize as to the problem, also the weaknesses in the design but my thoughts are that as soon as the coolant temp rises by a blockage, leakage or pump problems the result is a lot of rust, crud loosens and blocks the head. Instant destruction.

Not sure a poll will tell anything other than how many BF folks have had a head go rather than the thousands who have had nothing go wrong who aren't BF members or board contributors.

Merry Christmas all.

Bonza

As others have noted, the poll will not give an accurate indication of the likelihood of head problems because there is bias in who responds to the poll -- people are probably more likely to respond if they've had a problem. A better way to do it would be to send a pm to around 100 or more randomly selected BF members, then calculate the percentage who have had a problem with the head and/or head gasket.

nfn....now that is a good idea....and the larger the poll the better.

I was thinking it would be interesting to see where the problems lie in terms of age of vehicle.....

I'd bet a mince pie most problems occur with M and N reg, probably a few with P and R and then next to none....

I suspect this because I think as mentioned it is a preventative maintenance issue, after 10 to 12 years there are issues with the hoses, and because of the engine position and limited airflow, this is made worse....

I know this will be distorted by the numbers imported... but it strikes me there is nothing inherently wrong with the bongo, has anyone had a hose fail on a 10 year old car elsewhere... ( I haven't, that I can think of!)

if it was a front engined vehicle with more airflow over the engine, would we get away with it?


John

John's right -- the age of the bongo may be important. It would also be good to have information on how many kms the owner has done in their bongo, and the total km on the bongo's odometer. This way we can look at the risk as a function of vehicle age and mileage.

I'm sure the real key is vehicle maintenance and the environment that the bongo is kept in -- which is unknown for the first 10 years or so for most bongos in the UK, and which is something we can't measure. A couple of weeks ago I was at a children's christmas play with another bongo owner. Ignoring our children, we checked out each other's bongos -- which are only a few months apart in age, and only a few thousand kms apart on the clock. However, hers has had cooling system problems and mine has not. The general condition of hoses and engine compartments was remarkably different: hers looked much worse, with swollen hoses and corroded metal in the engine bay.