Overheat coming home from garage

[BongoBongo123]

So within 1/2 mile after coolant change and flush I hear fan start up initially thinking it was car in front whilst at lights. Temp gauge reading 78C... I keep my eye right on that for obvious reasons. So I go up a short but very steep hill and within that hill Bongo temp went up 5 C to 83C !! Something is not right so I continue onwards through rush hour slow traffic to an area where no yellow lines are and it crept to 107 C max once stopped.

Now... to my educated guess 107C should be survivable. I phoned the garage to no reply. I was too close to home for the AA.

Shouted the obligatory F words for 5 mins, left key on ignition pos 1 so scavenger ran and opened passenger seat side engine bay and side door to let air in. Opened bonnet.

Waiting till 58C - 45 mins later and then completed the last 1/2 mile. Not happy at all.
On the last 1/2 mile it only got to 64C which I thought was quite low, but I expect it would have just shot up like lightening again once hitting 80C or so.

I looked under the bonnet and saw only a small amount of fluid near the expansion tank no leaks elsewhere. I would say less than 1/4 of a tea cup and no steam on the expansion tank itself and down the side.

People make mistakes and I will phone the Bongo listed garage tomorrow. I have no doubt they will sort out what is blatantly a half hearted fill and bleed job.

I am expecting nothing less than a low loader from my house to the garage and repair whatever it is at no cost to myself.

So people learn something right now from my bad experience

If you do not have a Haydn temperature alarm on your cylinder head or a low coolant alarm get one ordered and fitted today. (The Haydn temp gauge is reliable and good quality.) It saved my bacon even coming from someone who should know what they are doing. A vital early warning system.

There can be no better warning than this situation in my eyes, of the importance of these early warning items of equipment. They are ESSENTIAL on a Bongo or Freda.


I will in the future be learning about cooling systems in general and the Bongo bleed method myself. It is inevitable now.

Nice way to start a weekend, but nothing 1/2 a bottle of wine won't sort out for now.

[Bob]

Go for the bottle.

[BongoBongo123]

You read the stories but you never think it is going to happen to you !

Well actually you do when you own a Bongo you know it is coming some day.

[Bob]

Haydn's LCA saved mine.

Dumped its coolant overnight on the drive. Alarm did its job, low loader to garage, all fixed for a couple of hundred quid, including the recovery.

Without the alarm I would have been half way to work when trouble started.

It was the bleed pipe developed a tiny hole.

[BongoBongo123]

I don't look forwards to learning how to do this but I will have to now. I think I will watch the video on YT and make lots of notes and try and understand the basics of top hose bottom hose and how the thermostat works. I also knew it was inevitable as a Bongo owner to learn about how to do the drain, fill and bleed. Seems like a long arduous process but at least you know what has gone in and you are not going to drive off without some serious double checking that it has been done properly.

If you know how much needs to go in there (13-14 litres of water / antifreeze mixed as I gather, even I know that so it's a good start) is a really obvious starting point if the correct amount has not gone in !

I reckon there is an air lock. I assume if you have an air lock 13-14 litres does not go in. Knowing that you can prep that amount of fluid and know you have a problems if say only 9 goes in, I suspect. I think it will be within my eventual capabilities to do this 2 yearly job myself.

[Simon Jones]

While the capacity is somewhere in the region of 12 litres, you'd probably only get half of that in as the rest remains in the system within the engine and rear heater matrix. I drained and thoroughly flushed mine and I barely managed to get 6 litres back in again.

By the sounds of it, you've got a bit of an airlock as you've suggested and as it was a short journey you probably will just need a top up and rebleed. At least you have the correct alarm to warn you there was something awry and you've been able to stop in time. Plenty of folk don't see the benefit in fitting an alarm and you've proved the value of it.

[BongoBongo123]

Thanks Simon yes I hope for the best ! And thanks for the info on the filling yes that makes sense impossible to get it all out I suppose.

He did say keep an eye on the expansion tank level. But I was still not expecting an overheat so quick. Maybe it might be ok given the temp only went to 64C but I am not willing to have to do the testing to find out that should have been done before I left the garage cause that is what I was paying for.

[cmm303]

So within 1/2 mile after coolant change and flush I hear fan start up initially thinking it was car in front whilst at lights. Temp gauge reading 78C... I keep my eye right on that for obvious reasons. So I go up a short but very steep hill and within that hill Bongo temp went up 5 C to 83C !! Something is not right so I continue onwards through rush hour slow traffic to an area where no yellow lines are and it crept to 107 C max once stopped.

Now... to my educated guess 107C should be survivable. I phoned the garage to no reply. I was too close to home for the AA.

Shouted the obligatory F words for 5 mins, left key on ignition pos 1 so scavenger ran and opened passenger seat side engine bay and side door to let air in. Opened bonnet.

Waiting till 58C - 45 mins later and then completed the last 1/2 mile. Not happy at all.
On the last 1/2 mile it only got to 64C which I thought was quite low, but I expect it would have just shot up like lightening again once hitting 80C or so.

I looked under the bonnet and saw only a small amount of fluid near the expansion tank no leaks elsewhere. I would say less than 1/4 of a tea cup and no steam on the expansion tank itself and down the side.

People make mistakes and I will phone the Bongo listed garage tomorrow. I have no doubt they will sort out what is blatantly a half hearted fill and bleed job.

I am expecting nothing less than a low loader from my house to the garage and repair whatever it is at no cost to myself.

So people learn something right now from my bad experience

If you do not have a Haydn temperature alarm on your cylinder head or a low coolant alarm get one ordered and fitted today. (The Haydn temp gauge is reliable and good quality.) It saved my bacon even coming from someone who should know what they are doing. A vital early warning system.

There can be no better warning than this situation in my eyes, of the importance of these early warning items of equipment. They are ESSENTIAL on a Bongo or Freda.


I will in the future be learning about cooling systems in general and the Bongo bleed method myself. It is inevitable now.

Nice way to start a weekend, but nothing 1/2 a bottle of wine won't sort out for now.

Good to see the sense of humour didn't boil away.

Because of an imminent scotland tour I decided that in my 4th year of ownership I should know how to bleed bongo, just in case. So SWMBO and I set up with buckets, antifreeze, pipes, jug (my surrogate funnel) and tablet tuned into youtube.com. By the time we watched the vid, did each stage, watched a bit more vid, did next stage, it took nigh on 2 hours BUT once you have done the process it seems absolutely obvious and will stick with you. You will just get it!

In the space of 3 weeks, I have bled, flushed and re-bled my bongo, flushed and bled a friend's bongo. Friend's has not even burped during the week following the bleeding.

It really is worth giving it a go, once you are over this blip.

(As you may have seen in other posts, I nicked somebody else's idea of using tubing, a valve and a jug. I think it was Helen's. I haven't used a funnel but using a jug and valve allows you to pause, making it much easier especially when learning.)

While the capacity is somewhere in the region of 12 litres, you'd probably only get half of that in as the rest remains in the system within the engine and rear heater matrix. I drained and thoroughly flushed mine and I barely managed to get 6 litres back in again.
...

My experience differs, I say nervously! Each time I drained nearly a bucketful, from bottom of rad with all caps off and bleed pipe open. We reckoned that to be close to 12 litres. I thought capacity was 13 or 13.5 litres. If it isn't I have been putting in too much antifreeze!

[BongoBongo123]

If the post can inspire some Bongo owners to sort out their early warning systems then it will have been worth while, saving a few a lot of money.

[Bob]

Well said.

Too many'Experts' knocking good and proven kit.

[Northern Bongolow]

now a lot of new faces have bongo.s this maybe a good time to give a few bleeding demo.s at the bash at stourport, it would be good if we could drag haydn out of retirement (inc jo of course) and all get together and show the high alarm, the low alarm and maybe more of the newer ones in the flesh fitted and working. this was done in previous years with some interest.

the bleed vids were filmed by my mrs and she has the view figures, you wouldnt believe how many times they have been viewed.

[cmm303]

Good thinking NB. The sad thing is that it, as with BB123's message only reaches a relative few interested owners. Still a good thing.

Such a pity that so many come on here and Facebook with their first post all about an overheat. It isn't helped by the no-LCA camp which includes my local, and reputable Bongo specialist. One of their arguments is they don't work on the move! BB123 seemed to pick up his loss of coolant entirely through temp rise. Hmm, Do they have a point? Should the focus be on temp alarms? (Which I don't have, ouch)

[scootmonkee]

A great post, OP.

No offence but now might be a good time to highlight (to any new or potential 2.0 ltr petrol owners) that the bleeding demonstration video (excellent though it undoubtedly is) does not apply to them as the 2.0 ltr petrol is self-bleeding. The method demonstrated in the video is only relevant to the diesel and V6 petrol models.

I'd hate to think that someone would go through all that, in good faith, unnecessarily.

As a 2.0 ltr petrol owner myself, I'm mighty glad that I don't have to go through that every time the coolant needs changing.

[BongoBongo123]

Well said.

Too many'Experts' knocking good and proven kit.

Ultimately we have to make out own choices, and who does not want to save some money if we feel we can get a product similar as good. Problem is some people profiteer and some people don;t so you cannot know whether something is a bit pricey because the product itself is quality and costs more or if the seller is skimming off a nice fat margin. You have to try and go on experiences. Somettimes you get a bargain sometimes not.

However when it comes to warning kit (warning that your wallet is about to open to the tune of £1,500.00), the whole point is it needs to work which the Haydn temp alarm has always done. Sometimes saving a few quid is money badly spent.

Going to phone them in a mo.

(It would be very strange if a Bongo head could not take 107C. (Cars overheat severely all the time, globally and I am damn sure they go much much higher than 107C). I have hit 101C after a very long incline and a stop at a petrol garage at the top.I know the often stated wisdom get low coolant alarm fitted if only fitting one but I have only a temp alarm.

I will add that I am a Bongo temperature aware person. The moment anything I do near the engine I keep a close eye on the temp alarm before it even gets close to 97C where I set the alarm. I knew something was wrong because I know the normal warming time and temp rise rate of the Bongo when it works fine.

I also heard the scavenger fan start after 1/2 mile which is far from normal driving our Bongo. Just being aware of these things meant I was "on it" fast and stopped at the first safe place I could, meaning at max it only got to 107C

I have no idea yet if there is coolant in the expansion tank or not as I was more concerned with getting home.

[BongoBongo123]

A great post, OP.

No offence but now might be a good time to highlight (to any new or potential 2.0 ltr petrol owners) that the bleeding demonstration video (excellent though it undoubtedly is) does not apply to them as the 2.0 ltr petrol is self-bleeding. The method demonstrated in the video is only relevant to the diesel and V6 petrol models.

I'd hate to think that someone would go through all that, in good faith, unnecessarily.

As a 2.0 ltr petrol owner myself, I'm mighty glad that I don't have to go through that every time the coolant needs changing.

Good point it does look like a palaver, but without it this happens and it is almost guaranteed.