Bongo Fury

Bongonaughts - a short tale of woe.

Last week my wife reported that the Freda guages were playing up - both temp and fuel were erratic. So we booked her in for a slow time exploration.

Sunday and we are taking the short 10min drive to the Garden center, stopped briefly in trafic we get a very wierd rumbling sound from the o/s wheelarch (while stationary) - to describe it Leah thought it was an animal / bird trapped!

After stopping it was clear that liquid was dripping from the o/s wheelarch. The header tank was full and HOT - the radiator warmish. It seems to me that the header tank was boiling!

After allowing and hour and half to cool down (unfortunatly in the Gdn center) I made the return trip without incident albeit with the temp guage climing slightly towards the end.

I was wondering if there could be an electrical fault causing the fan to fail to cool properly - however my garage man is thinking cracked head gasket!

What's your thoughts?

Its unlikely to be the fan, but its easy to check, if you put the Air Con. ON then that will start the fans up if they don't start then look towards the relays, there are three involved on the diesel and just one on a V6/2.0l.

dont drive it . and ask to be recovered to your mechanics. then ask your mechanic to fill the system whilst NOT running it, then do a pressure test on the system. leaks on the off side sounds like rad leaking/or a hose split.

are you sure its the off side and not nearside

Northern Bongolow wrote:dont drive it . and ask to be recovered to your mechanics. then ask your mechanic to fill the system whilst NOT running it, then do a pressure test on the system. leaks on the off side sounds like rad leaking/or a hose split.

Water was coming from offside wheel arch, most likely from the header.
Sounds like usual story of air lock or blockage. Hopefully caught in time. As said above the aa(if you're a member) will transport you to a garage(find a bongo friendly one) tell Aa that this is the only place with experience with Bongos. There is a special way to bleed the cooling system.

thedogsbollox wrote: Water was coming from offside wheel arch, most likely from the header.

Header tank is on the nearside i.e. next to the kerb.

francophile1947 wrote:

thedogsbollox wrote: Water was coming from offside wheel arch, most likely from the header.

Header tank is on the nearside i.e. next to the kerb.

Haha. Good call. I always get em mixed up. Why can't people use left and right.

Haha. Good call. I always get em mixed up. Why can't people use left and right.

Some do .. but don't say they are looking from the front of the motor ... and not the rear ..!!

Offside wheel arch has plenty of things to leak water from. The rear heater and its hoses are there. There is also metal pipework. My one and only leak (so far fingers crossed) was there, from the matrix. Also if you have a tin top with a sunroof, one of the drain comes out in the wheel arch

Thanks for all the replies - the mechanic says cracked head

so we are looking for a new head!

Has he tried bleeding it properly first? An airlock can give the same symptoms, as can head gasket failure.

unless he has taken the head off and had a pressure test done I cant see how he can say it is a cracked head
even if he has used the liquid that detects combustion gases in the coolant and have had a positive test for gases it could still be just a head gasket but I would prepare for the worse