Bongo Fury

My first outing in Bongo after 60 miles down M5 pulled into services and began to park up.Engaged reverse to get a better right lock on to line up better .On engaging Drive forward a horrendous juddering came from the rear offside wheel.Very noisy and reluctant to move forward.After a 20 min break pondering whether to continue journey or phone AA decided to see if it was driveable and continue carefully.Drove perfectly to my destination no noises of any kind then or since.I have tried to get this problem repeat itself by repeated parking up with a full lock on still perfect.A mechanic has test drove it and found nothing of concern.Anyone had anything similar?The rear diff has "limited slip" which may be of significance but I just don't know.Any help or advice appreciated.

Hi
Another possibility is brakes...The rear has discs, and a drum parking brake...take a look, or ask your mechanic to do so
Cheers
Helen

Hi,

I had something very similar with an old Pug 406 with rear disks and handbrake drum in centre - the rear handbrake operated off shoes in the drum and these can delaminate, meaning the friction lining comes unstuck and depending on the amount left, shape of the drum can get wedged and stopping any movement of the wheel. If its happened once and all is seemingly fine I'd take the disk/drum off and have a look at the handbrake shoes... How does your handbrake feel - does it sometimes feel like it needs a good yank all the way up but other times not so much? My old Volvo V70 had the same setup, the shoe's delaminated but didnt get wedged (more clearance than the pug I guess) and this gave a variable handbrake feel depending on where the delaminated wedges are..

I would have thought a diff problem wouldnt be so intermittent? I also have an LSD but never had any issues...

cheers,

Steve

Check the movement of your universal joints on both propshafts?

Thanks for your advice I,m hoping the problem is brakes rather than transmission it would be a lot cheaper to fix .I have had the same thing Steve describes i.e brake shoe material breaking off and jamming the wheel on a little citroen saxo.I came to a very sudden stop !.The problem with the Bongo could be this or could the disc pads have siezed on momentarily?With regard to the handbrake operation how much free play should there be in the lever.There is about 4/5 inches before it works which seems excessive ?.How many clicks should there be on the ratchet before it engages? Also how much should I pay for a decent set of hand brake shoes ? I will have to look inside the drums to either confirm or eliminate the shoes as the problem it might be worth changing them while they are stripped.Thanks again for all input.

from mem its a lot of slack, 8 clicks seems to ring a bell, every time i take a bongo for test the mot man looks alarmed, but thats how it should be.

rear shoes are expensive,especially mazda ones.

banjoboy1 wrote:Thanks for your advice I,m hoping the problem is brakes rather than transmission it would be a lot cheaper to fix .I have had the same thing Steve describes i.e brake shoe material breaking off and jamming the wheel on a little citroen saxo.I came to a very sudden stop !.The problem with the Bongo could be this or could the disc pads have siezed on momentarily?With regard to the handbrake operation how much free play should there be in the lever.There is about 4/5 inches before it works which seems excessive ?.How many clicks should there be on the ratchet before it engages? Also how much should I pay for a decent set of hand brake shoes ? I will have to look inside the drums to either confirm or eliminate the shoes as the problem it might be worth changing them while they are stripped.Thanks again for all input.

#

£30~£40

MY limited slip diff bongo does similar, on full lock turn particularly on slippery/gravelly surfaces. When I turn tightly it judders/"crabs".

I read the other day that when viscous limited slip diffs get old they can grip and release on and off causing the juddering. Unlike other types of limited slip diffs viscous ones aren't repairable, I am just used to the judder as it doesn't happen offten.

Russ

Thanks for this reply as I have eliminated the possibility of the rear brakes being the problem.By a very lucky chance a previous Bongo owner walked into the garage when the brakes were being done and said straight away that the limited slip diff was the likely cause of the juddering.He advised changing the oil in the diff as using the wrong oil can be bad.The correct oil is about £9 a litre I discovered so could imagine previous owners perhaps putting the cheaper wrong stuff in.On changing the oil the mechanic remarked that it was contaminated and a dirty back colour so hopefully the new oil will make a difference.
Thanks again for your input as I plan driving down to Cornwall soon and feel less apprehensive now.

Let us know if changing the contaminated oil did the trick.!

Flinty