Bongo Fury

At some point during my short drive to work today, could have been when I first started engine, the modified temp gauge was at maximum. No sign of overheating, no fans on, coolant tank on normal. I guess that somethings wrong with the gauge itself? Any ideas? Thanks in advance, Patrick

When you say modified, do you mean with a Mason alarm??

No, have modified the temp gauge with the resistor to make it more sensitive, has been working fine for 18 months

ptatham wrote:No, have modified the temp gauge with the resistor to make it more sensitive, has been working fine for 18 months

OK, cool.. Thought you may have..! No mention of an alarm going off!!)

ptatham wrote:At some point during my short drive to work today, could have been when I first started engine, the modified temp gauge was at maximum. No sign of overheating, no fans on, coolant tank on normal. I guess that somethings wrong with the gauge itself? Any ideas? Thanks in advance, Patrick

Header tank level check OK from cold & given a chance to kind of settle?

(Just checking the usual before looking at the resistor mod.)

ptatham wrote:No, have modified the temp gauge with the resistor to make it more sensitive, has been working fine for 18 months

First thing to look for is a short circuit to ground on the sensor cable. The Mazda gauge itself is normally very reliable. If you can't find a short then try disconnecting the sensor on the engine, the gauge should read Zero.

Other tests require removing the instrument panel.

Ben.

Scrub all that, just been out to the carpark to find my Bongo has done a big wee wee. Rear heater hose has gone by the metalpipe t piece. Will stick it up on the ramp at work this afternoon to replace and bleed. Thanks for help, know what to do now!

Hi there after a bit of fiddling about the sourse of the leak has been found, Initially I thought it was the hose, upon further inspections it is the metal t peice itself which has gone (for the second time) The rubber hose from the block over the starter motor goes down to a t peice which has a welded bracket on it...where the bracket was welded must have affected the integrity of the metal and accelerated corrosion and created a 2mm hole.

My Bongo isnt worth much and only has one or two mots left in it, but very highly valued be my family and myself, my question is has anyone modified/simplified overly complex cooling system by bypassing ...living in mild Cornwall I would gladly by pass the heater matrixes to keep the rusty old girl going.

For the record our Bongo has had the main hoses replaced with norma clamps (the t piece metal hose was second hand and what a swine to retrofit), new stat and a new rad. By far the best vehicle I have owned.

Rear heater can be blocked off completely (as some versions came out of the factory with no rear heater), or bypassed, whichever is easier for you. just make sure you bleed it properly afterwards. Just make sure there is flow around the heater circuit through the front part of the circuit as this is an important part of the stat control.
If the problem is at the joint at Z on the pic below, you could connect the hose exiting the block over the starter further up the pipe going forwards to the front heater, cutting out the feed to the rear heater, then you'd have to block the pipe rear of Y under the passy seat, or eliminate the T & replace with an elbow at Y.



My system is effectively set up like this as I have removed the rear heater, I have the ends of the metal pipes blocked with the factory bungs (as shown below with part no 14 in the option box)

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... 1of02.html

The other option is to replace the long metal pipe with the T piece which is around £50 I think, or use a piece of hose to patch in a seperate T-piece.

we bypassed ours a couple of winters back to no ill effect