Bongo Fury

Hello guys! We fitted a low coolant alarm last week whilst down at my parents in Norfolk, thank GOD! Anyway, we drove back from norfolk and half way up the low coolant alarm came on!! Too afraid to open the header tank cap from being steamed away we drove on. We just thought that maybe we hadn't topped up the tank enough. We topped up the tank again yesterday and after a quite short journey the alarm came on again this morning when we started up! So I decided to investigate!!! I looked underneath the drivers side and noticed the water dripping out at a fair rate! The hose which has split is the one behind the starter motor which seems to come downwards. It's split at the top where it connects with the jubilee clip. Can anyone tell me what hose to order? The mechanic wants £50 to do the job, how easy would it be for a non mechanically minded person to refit the hose and bleed the system and refill? I know there are fact sheets available but, honestly, how easy is it? If we can save £50 and it's not too difficult, I'll do it myself. I'm hoping we haven't damaged the head gasket. We didn't appear to over heat on the way back, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks for your help

BeastieBob

Coolant alarm comes to the rescue again!

You could print off the factsheets to show your mechanic,or take the job on yourself, I'm certainly not a mechanic, and would be happy to tackle such a task. It'd be easier to bleed with two people really...

I'm wondering if there is a pictoral diagram/photos which shows you how to drain the system and change hoses? Anyone know? It's easy to follow instructions if you know which part is which, but as I say, I'm not a mechanic!! But I'll have a go.. need to learn somehow!

Beastiebob

V lucky indeed you fitted the LCA Bigblackbeastiebobbongo. Doesnt sound like you boiled up so should be OK. Gotta be worth having a go at changing the hose yourself and doing the bleed. I followed workshop manual instructions and it worked out fine, and I'm not mechanic. Much easier if you have someone with you to top up the header tank while you attend to the bleed pipe ready to cap it off once engine burps have finished. Have plenty of 50/50 mix made up and ready to use. Good luck

Whose a lucky boy then

The hose should be reasonable to fit, the difficult part may be the bleeding. Try to get a silicone hoses. Replacing the lot may be a good idea as one has gone at the moment

BongoBits (amongst other places) do them for £15.98:
http://www.bongobits.com/Main.asp?PageN ... roduct=240

Glad the coolant alarm has alerted you to a problem, but I personally would have stopped straight away rather than carry on with a known problem. Sometimes you literally have a matter of minutes before all the coolant gets dumped out of the system & its by that point the damage is done. Hope the new pipe does the trick - don't forget to get the system bled properly to get all the air out.

Thanks for all your help! BigDaddyCain has given me lots of pointers so hopefully I should be able to bleed the system ok. I think the reason we didn't stop was because we thought we hadn't fitted the alarm properly or filled it up to the correct level (it was quite difficult to see because the header tank is so badly discoloured). I'm going to use BigDadyCain's method of flushing and bleeding the tank (seems like the easiest method to prevent air locks). Can I just ask one question - is the header tank the same thing as the expansion tank? Sorry to sound non-mechanical, but I have gone to only knowing where to put oil and water in a car to trying to find out a whole lot more!! I'm learning fast!!

header tank = expansion tank. Sorry, that was me using the wrong name (seem to think I'm up in the loft in my house - doh!). Good luck

Would you advise changing the jubilee clips too? or can I keep the old ones if they are ok?

If so, should I use the same sort? where can I get them from?

Cheers Esme

Nice to know to alarm did it's job as it should. Are you saying that you drove half way from Norfolk to Scotland with the alarm sounding?
The whole point of the alarm is to stop and investigate when it goes off. You were lucky.

Bigdaddycain sourced the clips that were need for Wheelquick to fit my new silicone hoses from Manflex in Warrington http://www.manflex.co.uk. He should be able tell you what size you will need. If he does not contribute to this thread you could PM him to ask.

Haydn your alarm certainly is a must for all bongo's and I don't know what we would have done without it to be honest. We were very lucky indeed considering that just before we left for our journey home, we had just paid a mechanic to give the bongo a thorough check for any faults. As we had also just fitted your alarm we thought the tank was just needing topped up above the top sensor screw as it was difficult to see the level in the header tank. This is what we did and it seemed to fix the problem of the alarming. It wasn't until it happened again back home that we knew we had a problem and started to investigate.