Bongo Fury

Hi , My first techie post. I have a Ford Freda 2.5 Diesel, 1995, 8 seater.. Failed MOT for holes in floor around rear heater. After inspection underneath, looks as though the the whole of the box section is rotten. So I want to make it good. I want to remove the rear heaterr and fan etc. , so job can be done. I want to bypass the rear heater. Can this be done? If so which pipes will isolate the rear heater from the front and not affect the rest of cooling system? . I intend to replace the rear heater with an Eber or Propex. Can anyone help please? Alan

when I replaced my rear heater i just took inlet hose (still attatched to the metal tube) from the heater and put it on the metal tube after removing the return hose, so it just formed a loop' untill i fitted the replacement heater

Hi Alan welcome to the forum . I've removed my rear heater, blocked the holes in the floor and bypassed the coolant. Only thing I have yet to fully crack is sealing of the rear A/C which is still leaking after being welded up. I've got an Eberspacher to go in but not got around to fitting it yet.

There's loads of space once heater removed:


First attempt to weld A/C pipe:


Bypass hose:

Thank you for the info. Can I bypass and remove all pipes to the whole rear system and aircon from front? Can someone tell me which pipes to join together under the seats ..thanks in advance. Alan

The the A/C pipes cannot be connected together as you can't mix the high pressure and low pressure parts. The joints are behind the passenger seat so you either need to get blanking plugs or have them welded which is not 100% successful.



Remove the pipes end then cut them down and get them sealed:



For coolant, I just fitted a loop to the pipework which is under the drivers seat (as shown in my earlier post). Leave the coolant pipework in place.

alden1957 wrote:Hi , My first techie post. I have a Ford Freda 2.5 Diesel, 1995, 8 seater.. Failed MOT for holes in floor around rear heater. After inspection underneath, looks as though the the whole of the box section is rotten. So I want to make it good. I want to remove the rear heaterr and fan etc. , so job can be done. I want to bypass the rear heater. Can this be done? If so which pipes will isolate the rear heater from the front and not affect the rest of cooling system? . I intend to replace the rear heater with an Eber or Propex. Can anyone help please? Alan

Reckon the underseal on mine under this section is the strongest part! Interested in how you have got on. Is the repair expensive? Something for any competent auto welding place to do?

Thank you very much Simon and Clolin for your replies. I will get cracking as soon as I can. Cheers Alan

When I cut the A/C pipes to the back I used plumbing fittings, not sure what they are called(olives and nuts?)i just had to file the pipe slightly and it fitted fine and didn't leak. I used a sniffer to check.

It's a reasonably complex repair panel to fabricate, especially if you are refitting the rear heater unit as you have holes to get in the right places in a funny shaped panel.

It is a DIY job, if you are into that sort of thing.