Bongo Fury

everyone so far has said about the engine over heating due to lack of coolant, just checked mine can not see though the bottle so looked though the filler cap could not see any water so filled with just water until the water I can see looks level with the full mark as I have no choice at the moment is this ok???
What coolant should I use?

or am i over reacting

No such thing as overreaction with the bongo coolant system. How much did you have to put in? Have you bled it as per instructions? Why did it lose the water? it must be going somewhere. I hope you're not just hoping it'll be ok to drive if you have a coolant problem that you haven't figured out yet. If you do I can almost guarantee it 'll be expensive

You shouldn't be using tap water, you should be using the correct mix of de-ionised water and antifreeze. If you use tap water, you can fur-up the galleries in the water jacket which will eventually lead to the demise of the engine.

You also need to establish where the rest of the coolant has gone - is there a leak somewhere?

....even though you aren't in Wales

missfixit70 wrote:No such thing as overreaction with the bongo coolant system. How much did you have to put in? Have you bled it as per instructions? Why did it lose the water? it must be going somewhere. I hope you're not just hoping it'll be ok to drive if you have a coolant problem that you haven't figured out yet. If you do I can almost guarantee it 'll be expensive

not sure if it has lost water as i did not look when i got it i took their word they filled it. I only put in a liter of water which filled it right up. i just put water in so no no bleding as i thought you did that when you have to do a full fill up from empty? can not see any water any where round the Bongo i will have to drive home a keep a close eye on it.

Any good quality antifreeze that includes an anti-corrosion inhibitor - that is the important bit.

Running on plain TAP water is a bad thing as tap water down south is full of the stuff that makes "fur" in kettles and that is not good in an engine either, as it can settle out and block the radiator.

It sounds as if you need to change your coolant and flush the system through before refilling and bleeding it in accordance with the instruction in the fact sheet available in the "member's area".

Check your hoses at the same time and replace any that look as if they are failing.


For more info do searches on "bleeding" "Cooling" "coolant" "Hoses" etc

scanner wrote:Any good quality antifreeze that includes an anti-corrosion inhibitor - that is the important bit.

Running on plain TAP water is a bad thing as tap water down south is full of the stuff that makes "fur" in kettles and that is not good in an engine either, as it can settle out and block the radiator.

It sounds as if you need to change your coolant and flush the system through before refilling and bleeding it in accordance with the instruction in the fact sheet available in the "member's area".

Check your hoses at the same time and replace any that look as if they are failing.


For more info do searches on "bleeding" "Cooling" "coolant" "Hoses" etc

I am having a full service and i will have the system emptied and refilled correctly next week. only using a small amount of tap as i have no choice at the moment. will buy some correct stuff later today.

Ok looked over car did not find water but did find power steering fluid and found the level to be low so need filling what do I use?

Engine oil looks like there is no water in it but is black so needs changing but that is being done next week I hope!

The more I look the more scared I become

Are you sure that the water level was low in the expansion tank? I scared myself (a lot) when I looked at the coolant level through the "plug hole" and saw that it was not only empty but dry. I topped up with a small amount of water and realised that I was over filling because the coolant level was on the main (lower) tank and my brain had gone on holiday

P.s. make sure that the garage that does the service knows what they are doing with the coolant draining and refilling - take a copy of the fact sheet with you just in case.

as said in an earlier post get a HAYDNS COOLANT ALARM , he is on this forum , it tells you when the coolant is low and also warns you to stop if your driving and you lose coolant. around the £70 but a lot cheaper than a new engine.
click on the link below and save it.

http://www.enginesaver.com.au/Bongo.html

ok will do

KennethB wrote:Ok looked over car did not find water but did find power steering fluid and found the level to be low so need filling what do I use?

Engine oil looks like there is no water in it but is black so needs changing but that is being done next week I hope!

The more I look the more scared I become

With regard to power steering fluid,what you need is automatic transmission fluid.
Dont worry too much about the engine oil being black!! Oil in diesel engines goes black very soon after changing!!

Use any decent quality hydraulic fluid (red)for the power steering top up kenneth.

The level of the fluid should be adjusted to suit the temperature at the time,if i remember correctly, there are hot/cold leve marks on the bottle.

If the level has dropped to such an extent that the top of the pump is partially on show, bleed the system after the top up by steering the wheel from lock to lock 5 or 6 times repeatedly. This should purge any stray air that may have been introduced,correct hydraulic pressure cannot be acheived with squidgy air in the system.