Bongo Fury

Poor Bongo has been getting steadily sluggish over recent months particularly after really warming up (50 miles or so), until on Friday afternoon I thought it was going to breakdown completely with a serious loss of power,no acceleration, jerkiness and white smoke if I tried too hard to accelerate. In the end I had to stop for 15 minutes as this usually seemed to clear the 'fault' for a while. (Note: short 17 mile trips to work and back were ok). I really though it was auto gearbox related! This time no chance of clearing the problem, so after much scratching of head, a couple ciggies and a cup of coffee I tilted the seats to 'have a look!' Couldnt find anything obvious and for want of doing something positive I opened the air filter canister only to find it was completely black with thick deposits and even a non mechanical bod like me knows Bongo needs air! So took it out and binned it and started to drive off. Whoo Hoo! Bongo completely back to her original nippy self, problem solved and its not the auto gearbox! Just been speaking to my local garage man and he said it must have been there for years to get to that state and to cause the engine problems. This means that the 'FULL' service that the garage I bought it from was supposed to have done wasn't carried out properly. Just though I'd let you all know and beware/check after you first get you new Bongo!
regards Lochan2

the egr can cause it to age prematurely I believe....

might be worth disconnecting the egr as well



John

I don't see how the EGR can affect the air filter, the entry point for the recuirculated exhaust gas is directly into the inlet manifold. It looks like the air filter had not been changed for a very long time or the Bongo had been used in a very dirty/polluted environment.

Have you checked your fuel filter and oil filters as well? Its not too much of a job to change the fuel filter, the oil change and new filter a bit mnore difficult but very worthwhile in the long run.

Great news that you solved the problem, are you replacing with a paper filter or a K&N. ?

Whizz a K&N in.....

aahh.... that's fine then....

leave the egr alone

sorry for the bum steer, I was given a bum steer too then....

I fitted a K&N... more expensive, but washable and therefore cheaper in the long run



John

Bongo in for service at the moment , ordered filters online, still waiting for K&N filter to arrive from 'FastFilters' Its taken 2 weeks since order so far!
Cheers Lochan2

I had a similar episode with my bongo last week, gradual loss of power,with a rise in engine temperature.... A few minutes before the episode, a big sheet of plastic sheeting blew accross the road,i drove into it and dragged it along for a bit, the plastic sheet fell to the floor when i stopped at the lights. That's when the loss of power occured..... It turned out that a section of the bag had ripped off,and got sucked into the intercooler intake,it was pretty well wedged up there, and took a fair amount of delving to free the blockage,my bongo instantly reverted back to normal from that point.

Gonna have to fit some mesh over the intake ducts i reckon....