Bongo Fury

Hi

I am looking to buy a Bongo.

I have test driven 2 and in both cases when I put my foot down I got what I considered an excess of black smoke out of the exhaust. You could smell it as well.
Mileage in both case was around 60000 miles.

Is this normal?

I just did not expect this on a modern diesel and am trying to work out if I am being to critical. (I guess I am also concerned having heard a couple of scare stories about ex taxis coming on to the market having been well used shall we say)

Regards

Ian

I believe all will smoke under those conditions if cold. Try warming them up first

Hi Ian, there is a chance this could occur on the over-run... If the vehicles have been stood around on a dealers forecourt, (or indeed, never given a good blast) for quite a while, all those short start up's can coke the engine up, those coke deposits are emitted through the exhaust as you give it "some welly"!

I'm sure that on a longer drive, with engine up to full temp, and a few more kickdowns, the smoke would have cleared...

If you want to see smoke under acceleration just follow a modern VW Tdi, from my experience the Bongo engine smokes much less than "modern" Tdi's especially if run on a proportion of veg oil.

As BDC says it may just need a good boot up the road in hold to clean all the spiders etc. out of the exhaust.

IanEagland wrote:I just did not expect this on a modern diesel

The Bongo engine is far from modern , that's why you can run it on veggie oil.
As others have said, it's probably soot in the exhaust system - a few good blasts will probably clear it.

francophile1947 wrote:

IanEagland wrote:I just did not expect this on a modern diesel

The Bongo engine is far from modern , that's why you can run it on veggie oil.
As others have said, it's probably soot in the exhaust system - a few good blasts will probably clear it.

But if you buy bio diesel that has not been cleared properly the you get clouds of blue smoke ... other than that ours has never smoked ...

I bought mine with close to 60,000 on the clock, and had the same smoky effect when I put my foot down. It can come in handy when you have someone right on your tail -- just put the boot down and smoke 'em. But after 20,000+ more miles, the bongo won't smoke people anymore. The black smoke that you are seeing should go away in time with regular use of the bongo -- if you are worried about clocking, carefully check the cues to vehicle age: pedal and seat wear, etc.

also if your looking at fresh imports then maybe they have not been serviced yet and the air filter is old.
this will also increase smoke.

BTW put your location on your profile and Im sure a local owner will volunteer to look at a bongo with you for a second opinion.