Bongo Fury

Hi

I am hoping someone will be able to offer me some advice so I can make my mind up about what to do.

I have a 1996 Mazda Bongo Auto Freetop 4WD and the head gasket has gone or there is a cracked head, not sure which. The mileage is approx 160k. There are a few other things wrong with it eg one electric window doesn't work and the steering rack is leaking, and the central locking doesn't work. However until the current problem it ran well. My dilemma is this: Do we spend the money to get it up and running and then sell it as we no longer need it, or do we just sell it on for spares/repair as it is? I know it will cost quite a bit to fix but have no real idea of how much, or whether it would be worth doing to sell on. I also have no idea how much it would be worth as it is. Also, are they selling as well at the moment with the current financial climate?

Any advice, costs or experiences would be most gratefully welcomed.

Thank you

Welcome to the madhouse
If you put your location in your profile, it will help us to give you a more accurate idea as labour rates tend to vary around the country. If it's the head cracked, you're probably looking at around £1100-£1200 to fix it.

Thanks for that. I have put my location in my profile now. My next door neighbour said that he would work on it for us but this won't be for a while so we have got to make a decision. If we spent that much on it would it be worth it in terms of getting the money back?

Tricky one. If you wanted to still own a Bongo I'd say get it fixed. If you did the work just to sell it you'd probably spend more or less what you might get for a high mileage Bongo. You'd probably do better selling it for spares or repair by someone handy who wants to get one on the cheap. You could break it yourself and hope to make more but its a big hassle unless you have time and a suitable place to do it (plus have the remains taken away).

What caused the head gasket/head to break by the way?

Good luck whatever you opt to do

There seem to be a lot more people trying to sell now, compared to this time last year. For an idea of price, look at the Bongos for sale here and check out the Autotrader website. They allow you to search nationwide, so you can compare prices throughout the UK, or narrow the search down locally.

becky@thebeer wrote:Hi

I am hoping someone will be able to offer me some advice so I can make my mind up about what to do.

I have a 1996 Mazda Bongo Auto Freetop 4WD and the head gasket has gone or there is a cracked head, not sure which.
Any advice, costs or experiences would be most gratefully welcomed.

Thank you

If your not shure, how do you know that the problem is the head?

becky@thebeer wrote:Hi

I am hoping someone will be able to offer me some advice so I can make my mind up about what to do.

I have a 1996 Mazda Bongo Auto Freetop 4WD and the head gasket has gone or there is a cracked head, not sure which. The mileage is approx 160k. There are a few other things wrong with it eg one electric window doesn't work and the steering rack is leaking, and the central locking doesn't work. However until the current problem it ran well. My dilemma is this: Do we spend the money to get it up and running and then sell it as we no longer need it, or do we just sell it on for spares/repair as it is? I know it will cost quite a bit to fix but have no real idea of how much, or whether it would be worth doing to sell on. I also have no idea how much it would be worth as it is. Also, are they selling as well at the moment with the current financial climate?

Any advice, costs or experiences would be most gratefully welcomed.

Thank you

As said
The head gasket cracked/head would cost upto 1200 or more (mine cost more) depending on who does it, if it over heated, why? a new rdiator is probably wise another £150, pipes ?

steering rack would need doing and a refurbished one would be about £200 then there is labour

the window and central locking are also against you

then there is the time scale to get these things fixed and the effort etc
there are plenty of bongos on sale at the moment so prices are not good

What is the body work and interior like

If I were looking and saw one with things like that not working I would walk away as there is plenty of choice

What I am trying to say is you could be throwing good money after bad and it cost more than you would get back taking off its value as it is now.

The choice realy is yours, is it worth spending time and money on getting back about 3 -400 extra If you sell it quick? and nothing else goes wrong.

Rob's made a good point here, if you go for a repair you must find out what caused the head/gasket to fail, and rectify that problem as well, not just repair the head.

It has happened on here before where someone has spent big money on a head repair, only to have it fail again as the root cause wasn't addressed.

Good luck, whichever you decide.

Thanks for all your responses. I am told that it is one of the two things mentioned as there is oil in the water.

Does any one have any ideas about where would be the best place to sell it as it is. Are there any companies that buy them for breaking and is this the sort of thing they might be interested in?

Thanks for all your help.

You could try the Member's 'For Sale' section, otherwise Bell Hill sometimes break, so does Phil at JAL.

Spot the odd breaker at Allans too.

becky@thebeer wrote:Thanks for all your responses. I am told that it is one of the two things mentioned as there is oil in the water.

Does any one have any ideas about where would be the best place to sell it as it is. Are there any companies that buy them for breaking and is this the sort of thing they might be interested in?

Thanks for all your help.

Is there water in the oil? And this thread should be in the tech section...............Mod?