Bongo Fury

Our Bongo has always had the white smoke on start up and lumpy tick-over which I thought was the glow plugs and intended to have them replaced at the next service.

Having read all the threads on the cold start solenoids I thought I would take a look at them to see what was happening. With the drivers seat up I put the key in and turned it to start. The throttle mechanism got pulled in by the actuator and it started with just a little white smoke. The outside temperature wasn't too cold, probably around 15-16 degrees and therefore it wasn't very lumpy on start up. It was idling at around 750rpm. I left it running and after a short period of time the actuator released the throttle mechanism and the engine continued to idle at around 750rpm on it's own.

I then switched on the aircon but nothing happened with the actuator or the throttle mechanism. The revs didn't drop and the actuator didn't pull up the throttle mechanism. The fans were operating as normal and the aircon was working.

What I'd like is for someone who understands the operation of these solenoids to comment on what I found. Is this normal? If it had been significantly colder would I have seen something different? Why did the aircon not cause the actuator to operate? I thought it should have from what I have read, although the tick-over was OK and it wasn't stumbling at all.

What else do i need to check? Any help would be appreciated.

it sounds like only the left hand one is working,(the one next to the white plugged one.)

to test this remove both plugs, then put a good 12volt supply from the battery to the terminals on each one,and an earth. you should hear a positive clicking, they are polarity concious so try both ways to be sure.

the one on the left switches off when the coolant temp reaches approx 10 deg c. the one on the right (white plug) turns off at approx 50 deg c, unless the aircon is switched on. they act as a full choke, and a half choke, whilst the revs stay the same throughout the warm up process.

you can remove them carefully and put some service spray into them,let them soak, this free's them off, sometimes a sharp tap free's them. the white plugged one tends to seize up. and you can swap them round.


check all the pipes to them both,the connections break off.

hope this helps.

Thanks. Just the kind of response I was hoping for. I'll check them tomorrow and see what's happening.