Bongo Fury

Hi All,

I need some advice.

I had all the coolant hoses changed and system bled a couple of weeks ago by a reputable garage I have used for years which caters for Bongos and is listed on here.

Less then 10 miles later I get a call from my wife saying it's peeing green liquid onto the road and there's steam coming out the bonnet.

The Auto Aid man comes out and says there's no problem with the coolant hoses, but the radiator's sprung a leak. He tops it up, takes it down to Halfords and tops up once again with Radseal and coolant.

When I got back from work this evening I went to have a look. With the Radseal holding it's hard to see where the leak was but it appears to have been at the bottom left of the radiator as you face the front of the car.

The coolant level is holding for now, and the temp guage is if anything a little lower than normal...say at the 10.30 or 11 o'clock mark.

The question is: If the Radseal is holding will that buy me some time or will the leak have put air into the system, meaning the whole thing needs to be urgently bled?

And would changing the hoses and coolant have led to the radiator blowing?

And finally,what are the chances of the engine having been completely wrecked? (it sounds alright and it runs alright)

it sounds like they have not bled it right, you may have got away with it but the recovery guy did you no favours at all, topping it up and taking it to halfrauds, did he bleed it.

when the temp goes up so does the pressure inside the system, this pressure if excessive has to go somewhere, if it finds a week spot in the system before it gets to the cap blow off point (1.1 bar) theres your hole. the problems arrise when you have no or low coolant as this pressure rises very quickly (quicker than your gauge).
however----the now lower temps seen suggest that all is well as the temps will be slightly lower as the system is now pressurised as it should be, keep a very close eye on things for a while.
it may need a bleed, look at the 3 vids on youtube ( how to bleed a mazda bongo) these may help you.

edit. you can usually get away without bleeding when its a small rad leak, as the air goes to the top of the rad, then is taken along with the flow through the top exit pipe to the expansion tank where its seperated out (degassing tank) this is ok until the expansion tank is emptied, then you are in trouble as this has a direct feed to the front heater circuit,and when that gets air in your airlocked, no coolant flow. .
check your front heater is blowing hot.

aaah the joy of radweld!! that stuff causes more problems with rads than it fixes! Agree with Ady, would suspect that after the pipe change the bleed process wasnt completed, bit of extra pressure and it looked for the weakest point, which means your rad was probably on its way out anyway

Julian

Got me worried, am I ok?

Called AA to tow to local Bongo garage, blown rad, along the top. AA said it was 'repairable', ie would get me to the garage. After 2 hours he'd stuck Liquid steel along the top of the rad, plus 'Radweld' (actually a different brand, AA rec'd), topped up the (empty) expansion tank, ran a pressure test and said all was ok and left. I took Ruby for a gentle 10 mins, all seems ok.

Just read above that
" you can usually get away without bleeding when its a small rad leak, as the air goes to the top of the rad, then is taken along with the flow through the top exit pipe to the expansion tank where its seperated out (degassing tank) this is ok until the expansion tank is emptied, then you are in trouble as this has a direct feed to the front heater circuit,and when that gets air in your airlocked, no coolant flow. "

AA didn't bleed the system: he disconnected the down pipe from expansion tank and poured Radweld down that, then reconnected it and filled up the tank.

1 Could I have fried the head during that gentle 10 minute run?
2 I'm taking no chances: getting her privately flat-backed to the dealer.


Derek

the system needs to be pressurised (no leaks) if its not, the coolant can boil. if it is, then the increase in pressure is normally the stat. when doing any work on the system i would always recommend fitting a new gen mazda stat (not a copy), as this is the controller for the system. follow that with a pressure test to make sure its air/water tight.

why is it that a high percentage of bongo's seem to be killed off by recovery men. i think an approach to these guys needs to be made, possibly from the club.

Slightly off topic, but I've only used Radweld once in a car (not a Bongo) and it turned perfectly good blue anti freeze to brown sludge in a matter of minutes. Ended up flushing it all out again and had to clean out the expansion tank it was so bad. As to whether it fixed the leak I don't know as the car was sold shortly afterwards to a policeman, but he hasn't yet come knocking on my door . Wouldnt use the stuff again out of choice.