Bongo Fury

HI
CAN ANYONE HELP ME LOCATE A NEW HEATER MATRIX PLEASE.
Mine has started leaking and it's partly stripped down in the garage, the mechanic says he's been quoted nearly £300 for a replacement but i will have to wait for it to arrive from japan. He also says that he is having problems removing the old one and was going to wait to see if i could get some help from you guy's before he stripped the whole of the dash out
I've just spent loads replacing the main radiator and am worried that my head is cracked and causing too much pressure in the system, still look on the bright side allthis money i'm having to spend helps the recession recover
ROGER

Front heater matrix comes out from under the bonnet, do not strip out the dash
Haven't taken it out myself, but once you remove the front intake & then the heater fan & cowling it's right in front of you, looks easy enough to get to, there are some benefits to not having the engine under the bonnet . Factsheet here in the mmebers area - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/member ... repair.pdf that should help in getting access.
PM Harry on here, he's breaking his bongo, it shouldn't be hard to find a used one, they don't seem to go very often.
Make sure he's ok with the bleeding procedure on the bongo, it's not like anything else.

There's also a members factsheet on the bleeding proceedure.

apparantly thats the condenser, I emailed ypur reply to my mechanic and got this reply today

This mans getting confused. The one under the bonnet is a condenser for the air con (It has aircon pipes attcahed to it. The heater matrix comes out under the dash. I have managed to get it out without stripping the whole car. I have found another matrix of the same dimensions that will fit,(Peugeot 504-classic tin!)& having the outlet pipes professonally modified to fit the hoses on the bongo tomorrow.
Rgds,A.

hope this help anyone with similar problems

My mistake, this WOMAN stands corrected but it is the evaporator - the condenser is the rad part sounds like he knows what he's doing though

Roger - whereabouts in the country are you? There are plenty of breaker round the place that specialise in Bongos. This is a picture shows the aircon condensor which I think is the silver pipe in the foreground. The mini-radiator is in the background & I would have thought it comes out from the front. However, if he's taken it out from inside, then then he must be correct.

Looks like he's right Simon, that's what I'd assumed, must be another one lurking in there - http://www.lushprojects.com/bongopartsm ... no=.html#8

i live near Banbury just of the M40, Judging by Andew's email he seem's to have sorted it with this other matrix, and beside with our wonderful climate who needs a heater anyway, i could just isolate the front matrix and nip into the back for a warm up every so often if i got cold, even better i'll ask him to move the steering wheel to the rear seat.lol

I don't think i'll be laughing when i get the bill though, anyway of to bed, thanks all for your help. i'll let you know the out come when i get the bongo back.
roger

Just had a check of mine compared to the link Kirsty posted - they look identical. The whole plastic assembly that contains the heater matrix is in front of the bulkhead under the bonnet. I can see no sign of coolant pipes passing into the van, so I'm intriqued about it being removed from under the dashboard. I'm sure you'll be glad to have it back working. especially during the current cold spell.

Simon Jones wrote:Just had a check of mine compared to the link Kirsty posted - they look identical. The whole plastic assembly that contains the heater matrix is in front of the bulkhead under the bonnet. I can see no sign of coolant pipes passing into the van, so I'm intriqued about it being removed from under the dashboard. I'm sure you'll be glad to have it back working. especially during the current cold spell.

That's what I thought as well - I wonder what he did remove from behind the dash.............

All I though was inside the bulkhead was the air distribution unit.

Hi folks;- just nipped in on Roger's signon.
Got his bongo heating malady sorted today. The photo posted further up this thread is of an aircon rad(no cooling system pipes attach to it). Just off the picture to the right are 2 rubber cooling system pipes that attach to the inlet & outlet pipes of the actual heater matrix(rad) that protrude through the bulkhead from inside the car. The matrix & its position in the big plastic heater box under the dash are almost identical to that of most other cars. With the glove box removed,the matrix can be pulled of of the heater box into the nsf footwell. EXCEPT that the 2 moulded feed pipes stick thru the bulkhead into the underbonnet space about 2.5inches & prevent the thing from being slid out.However,with all the 10mm fixing nuts removed,the heater unit can just be levered back into the cab enough to allow the feed stubs to clear the inside of the bulkhead. With the leaking matrix out,mop all the green water out of the heater unit.
I spent quite some time scouring the web & phoned 4 Bongo parts suppliers,plus a bongo specialist recommended to me in Coventry. One drew a total blank(cant supply/never been asked for one), 2 never called me back, the Coventry bloke never came back to me despite me chasing him 3 times.One came up trumps & quoted me £280 quid & a 3week wait from Japan.I also posted a request on 'Parts Gateway' which circulates requests round several hundred breakers with not one response. Not very inspiring all round.
I had found a cooling system specialist in Birmingham that makes copies of rads/matrixes on a 2day turnaround.But at quite a cost.
As the matrix appeared to be to fairly familiar/standard dimensions,I went to a local radiator specialist & we combed his catalogues. He had several units in stock.Although the original is a modern non-servicable plastic/ally type,we found a (new) metal/soldered brass unit of the same dimensions.The outlet pipes were not ideally aligned with the bulkhead access holes.Kindly my supplier called in at Wickes on his way home last night & bought some yorkshire fittings.This morning we decided the ideal angle/alignment for the feed pipes & he drilled the end tank of the unit & soldered them in.(He still builds/repairs old-school rads for a living).With the new matrix in position(& the addition of some window-draught-excluder foam to seal it in the heater box),I used some 'Gates' pipe joiners to extend the rubber feed/return pipes thru the bulkhead to the new matrix. I then refitted the blower unit & trunking under the bonnet(which actually needn't have been removed) & topped up the coolant. Bleeding & testing tomorrow.
Dont worry Roger-I shant be expecting you the fork out for all the man hours internetting/phoning/head scratching expended.You know I like a challenge......
Hope this is of some use to forum members(although thankfully it seems these dont fail often!)
Best Regards
(PS/I drive a '76 aircooled VW camper & so am immune from these problems.....although my heating is pretty rubbish though!)

missfixit70 wrote:My mistake, this WOMAN stands corrected but it is the evaporator - the condenser is the rad part sounds like he knows what he's doing though

Does he take the red pill, or the blue.

..Nice one Morpheus....

Nice one sorry I misinformed you on the underbonnet removal I don't feel quite as silly, as others thought the same, but at least we now know the score if it happens again.