Bongo Fury

Hi Bongonauts

I wonder if anyone can guess at a problem I have with my Bongo? I'm getting feedback through the steering wheel, but the curious thing is that it's only intermittent. It's not the tyres, these are the correct sizes as recommended by this site.

When I'm driving the steering feels a bit light and shuddery, like it would if there was a heavy load in the rear or you are towing. It is particularly noticable at motorway speeds. There is also vibration through the steering wheel - not as bad as when I had the wrong tyre sizes on, but still noticable. But the odd thing is that the problem then stops and the van drives normally.

I had a new front propshaft and front diff fitted recently. Could this have something to do with it?

Original or aftermarket wheels? If the latter, do they require spigot rings? Have you had the front wheels balanced recently? It's not uncommon for the stick-on or clip-on weights to fall off, so worth getting then re-balanced anyway. Both Bongos I've owned have had intermittant shuddering at motorway speeds & have come to accept it as being all part of the experience

Hi barclay,

A possibility is the front prop or drive shafts out of balance/steering rack brackets,it would also be worthwhile checking the PS fluid level.

Cheers.

Thanks both. They're original wheels, and I've checked the PS fluid level. How do I check if the front prop is out of balance?

barclay wrote:Thanks both. They're original wheels, and I've checked the PS fluid level. How do I check if the front prop is out of balance?

Hi,You need the proper equipment to check and balance the prop.To take it out of the equation,remove it and do some test runs.

PS,it might also help if you reposition the shaft,half a turn.

Cheers. I'll take it down to ATS on Saturday and get the tracking and balancing checked, and if that doesn't work I'll go back to the garage that fitted the propshaft recently and ask them to take a look at whether it's balanced correctly. If it was an unbalanced prop, wouldn't you expect the vibration to be continuous rather than intermittent though?

Things like wheels, drive shafts etc tend to have a natural resonance such that at some rotational speeds the vibration becomes worse. With the wheels, its a bit more complicated as there 4 of them. If two were off balance, it might not show until such time as they got 'out of sync' with each other and then it magnifies the effect.

I think you're right to start with eliminating the easy bits first & then move on to the prop shaft.

Hi,

Another symptom with an unbalanced shaft is a droning body sound,and it can come and go with speed and torque.

Cheers.

Have them check the lower wishbones and track rod ends as well....

Hi,

It a lot of the new road surfaces can often give vibrations through some vehicles,in particular vans.

Just a thought.

barclay wrote:Hi Bongonauts

I wonder if anyone can guess at a problem I have with my Bongo? I'm getting feedback through the steering wheel, but the curious thing is that it's only intermittent. It's not the tyres, these are the correct sizes as recommended by this site.

When I'm driving the steering feels a bit light and shuddery, like it would if there was a heavy load in the rear or you are towing. It is particularly noticable at motorway speeds. There is also vibration through the steering wheel - not as bad as when I had the wrong tyre sizes on, but still noticable. But the odd thing is that the problem then stops and the van drives normally.

I had a new front propshaft and front diff fitted recently. Could this have something to do with it?

the wheels maybe the correct size but if there are the directional type are they fitted on the wheels as such?

The Bongo diagnosed its own juddering problem this morning, when I turned into ATS and there was a massive clonk at the back. Stopped, looked, and found an anti roll bar bush lying in the road!