Bongo Fury

My beloved Bongo of 10 years has failed its MOT on a few issues (abs and rust) I had to buy a cheap run around until I get time to work on it. I've had it parked up in the car park where I live. The car park slopes away quite steeply and the van is facing downhill and also sloping down to the drivers side as well. The engine has always started first time. Went out the other day to start it and it started up fine. Went inside and came out a couple of minutes later and it had stopped. Tried starting again and it turned over for maybe 10 seconds and started, I tried to rev up but shortly after it stopped again. Now it might fire up briefly after several long attempts and stopped until I flattened the battery. The fuel guage is low but not empty. Any ideas ??? My thoughts are fuel starvation but not sure why..
Thanks in advance for any advice

try releasing fuel cap

Yes that was one of the things I've already tried. But still no improvement. The engine has been so reliable, infact its never not started first time in 10yrs, except once when I left the lights on and flattened the battery. I'm sure I read on here somewhere that someone had had a similiar problem when parked on a hill for a few days. If theres a simple solution before I start thinking about pumps or seals I'd rather try that first..

Bluespanner wrote:Yes that was one of the things I've already tried. But still no improvement. The engine has been so reliable, infact its never not started first time in 10yrs, except once when I left the lights on and flattened the battery. I'm sure I read on here somewhere that someone had had a similiar problem when parked on a hill for a few days. If theres a simple solution before I start thinking about pumps or seals I'd rather try that first..

Perhaps you need to start on eliminating some of the cheapest possible causes: fuel filter and banjo filter come to mind. After that, if not improved, we can scratch our heads again.

BongoBongo123 is the other owner who has had similar problems (but less extreme, though I don't think he left his for 8 weeks). The discussion was recent, so search relevant threads, but no firm conclusion was reached I think except that pump seals were included in the list of suspects.

Good luck and keep us posted.

When it happened to me a few years back, the problem was identified as fuel evaporating in the fuel lines. It was solved by a full flush through, and new fuel and banjo filters.

Remove the fuel filter.....fill it with new fuel and refit.....charge battery.....it should start within 1 min.....try this and report back

If you are going to remove the fuel filter I would suggest using a new filter as these can get damaged when you try to remove them and this would make the situation worse.


Good Luck

Can you get it towed onto level ground?

If the fuel is a bit low it could be all over to one side of the tank due to the slope and not getting picked up cleanly by the pump.

My son used to park of a steep camber in North London and if the tank didn't have at least 10 litres or so in it starting was very hit and miss.

Haydn's solution should work and should work even better if you can add another 5 - 10 litres of fuel to the tank first.

I love this forum.thanks all. I'm going to proceed as follows

1 Follow scanner's idea and put another couple of gallons of diesel in and try turning over again
if that fails

2 Then Haydn's suggestion. Remove the fuel filter and fill with diesel and turn over. I did change the fuel filter about 18 months ago, so I'd of thought it should be ok. But that was about the third time I'd changed it, and as Rita says they can get damaged as they are a complete pig to remove. But I bought one of those oil filter removal tools that was on sale at Lidl a while back, hopefully it will reduce in size enough to do the fuel filter.


I'll report back.. Thanks everyone... I feel a bit more positive about it now

As a matter of interest, does anyone know the position of the pipe in the fuel tank, (relative to the vehicle), the one that draws the fuel from the tank. for example is it cental, rear left or front right?

pick up is part of sender and is found under plate on floot on drivers side

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html

its in middle of the tank

You could always "If Fitted" give the hand primer on the fuel filter several pumps to eliminate cavitation of the suction line, I would also put an extra 10 litres or more fuel in the tank.

mikeonb4c wrote:

Bluespanner wrote:Yes that was one of the things I've already tried. But still no improvement. The engine has been so reliable, infact its never not started first time in 10yrs, except once when I left the lights on and flattened the battery. I'm sure I read on here somewhere that someone had had a similiar problem when parked on a hill for a few days. If theres a simple solution before I start thinking about pumps or seals I'd rather try that first..

Perhaps you need to start on eliminating some of the cheapest possible causes: fuel filter and banjo filter come to mind. After that, if not improved, we can scratch our heads again.

BongoBongo123 is the other owner who has had similar problems (but less extreme, though I don't think he left his for 8 weeks). The discussion was recent, so search relevant threads, but no firm conclusion was reached I think except that pump seals were included in the list of suspects.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Yes mine always started just a bit doddery for the first 15 seconds (on rare occasion after a stand on a slope for around 1 week). This sounds a little more serious if it does not start at all. I have not had my problem for a while now. I slackened the diesel cap of slightly and washed it vigorously with fairy and hot water, not sure if that helped but no issues for a while.

Bluespanner wrote:I love this forum.thanks all. I'm going to proceed as follows

1 Follow scanner's idea and put another couple of gallons of diesel in and try turning over again
if that fails

2 Then Haydn's suggestion. Remove the fuel filter and fill with diesel and turn over. I did change the fuel filter about 18 months ago, so I'd of thought it should be ok. But that was about the third time I'd changed it, and as Rita says they can get damaged as they are a complete pig to remove. But I bought one of those oil filter removal tools that was on sale at Lidl a while back, hopefully it will reduce in size enough to do the fuel filter.


I'll report back.. Thanks everyone... I feel a bit more positive about it now

Don't forget to keep the banjo filter on the list of possibles esp. if 1 and 2 above don't give a result.

Ok.... Update on this one.

Went and bought a 10litre diesel can from halfrauds and filled, put into the Bongo and it started after about 30 seconds and now runs normally.

I estimate that there was between 9 and 11 litres already in the tank. The fuel guage is working correctly, did this around 3 years ago. Knowing the capacity of the tank and filling to the brim on long trips abroad, I've had the needle at around this point several times, so I think between 9 and 11 litres is a good estimate.

So the conculsion is that when parked for an extended period on a steepish hill (facing down in my case) with this amount of fuel in the tank, could cause problems when trying to start.

Not sure of the exact dynamics as to what has happened, but presumably the pipe that draws fuel from the tank is just out of contact with the fuel when the van is parked at this angle. The van will start happily after a couple of days using the fuel already in the pipeline/fuel filter but this is not the case when parked for an extended period.. Does that sound like a reasonable explanation ??