Bongo Fury

Received by email from a Bongo owner in distress:

I’m having a reoccurring problem with my 1994 Mazda Bongo and wonder if you could help.

It started when my battery went completely flat and the RAC told me I needed a new alternator. I had the alternator replaced and set off to drive 60 odd miles at night, whilst driving I lost all power to the speedometer, headlights windscreen wipers etc (whilst on motorway) and my battery was completely flat. RAC again told me problem with alternator which I had changed again and had alternator checked by auto electrician and seemed to be working fine.

After setting off to work I called into a garage to get fuel and again battery was flat and RAC jump started me home. Had alternator checked again by auto electrician and found no longer charging properly and pieces of solder were found to have fallen out. Had another alternator fitted and checked by auto electrician alternator found to be charging ok however when all lights on and then I switch the aircon on the headlights noticeably dim.

No warning lights have come on during these last 2 failures and the lights are working and go out on start up

After 3 alternator failures I’m worried the problem will reoccur have you any ideas or seen anything similar to my problem

Thanks very much, Doug

It sounds to me that you may have a bad connection on the
main feed wire from Alternator to battery alternators take
a dim view of being run without a battery connected.

when all lights on and then I switch the aircon on the headlights noticeably dim

Mine has always done this - I assumed it was normal

Rhod

There bound to dim a bit especially on tick over but
if it's ticking over with every thing on and you rev
it up a bit you should see the lights brighten.

Hi Ian Where is Doug located ? is it near us .... / Sheffield ?
If local i can prob check the alternator out.
Doug Check The :
Battery , total voltage, running and stopped get the tops off and check the SG in each cell check terminals and earth bonding on chassis and engine, and check the belt ?
Is the light going off when started ? is alternator hot ? any smells ? is it noisy ? terminals ok ? is your speedo ok ? ( SQ output) Check the spec ? was you given the correct exchange ??? if you are local to me i will clamp it and see what's happening FOC of course.... Bigh Rich

was the replacement a service exchange or NEW ??? if it was a service exchange alternator, its possible sense/ Sq output was not checked properly let me know

had a similar problem on a cavalier a few years back,turned out to be a bad earthstrap connection.worth checking

Big Rich wrote:Hi Ian Where is Doug located ? is it near us .... / Sheffield ?

He didn't say where he's based unfortunately.

Also, someone has been in touch to say that, if Doug kept getting the alternator replaced by the same company he bought it from in the first place, it may be part of a bad batch. A few months ago there were some cheap Chinese alternators knocking around that had bad solders.

Message from Doug:

Thanks for the information on Bongo Fury alternator failures. The battery has no problem holding a charge,the earth terminals on chassis and engine are good and also belts not slipping. The light goes off on start up.

The alternator works fine when on a light load. When everything is switched on including Aircon, lights heated window etc. the alternator starts to get hot. If you switch off the Aircon the load is reduced and it starts to cool down.

The last three alternators have all been new units probably made in China. The last two failures have been replaced FOC but they will probably not do this again as they say there is something causing them to fail on my vehicle! The output of the alternators is 90amp. I will try to establish who manufactured them.

Thanks for your offer of help but I am in Bromley Kent and do not risk driving to Sheffield.

I am only using it for short journeys at the moment without the Aircon.

Will keep you informed with more information as I get it.

It's a strange one this. Can you thank him Ian and tell him we'd be really grateful to get feedback on the cure when he finds it. Out of interest, you'd think an alternator was a pretty standard kind of thing and that it should be possible to buy ones with different ratings that would fit more than one vehicle type?