Bongo Fury

Our Bongo is starting to test my patience again. We seem to have this never ending stream of issues that never get sorted properly.

First of all was a chuffing which couldn't be traced but eventually turned out to be a missing rubber washer/bush behind the wishbone. Sorted for 2000 miles, now we have another combined with a knock. Up on axle stands last night and can only think it is the wishbone ball joint, as it looks cracked and very old but can't get it to knock with weight on or off. Just replace? And if so should I do the other side at the same time, bearing in mind the previous owner had done that on its own at some point around 5 years ago.

Secondly the burning rubber smell is back. Still no idea.

Thirdly air con has packed up. Was ice cold, then nothing. Belts OK. Just regass and try again or is that a waste if it has leaked through faulty pipe etc? How do you diagnose?

I won't keep going but there other things like the roof not working properly which when combined with the above and amount of rust work that needs doing, is starting to test our staying power.

As always guidance gratefully received.

to test if its the ball joint. temp repair, is to belt the underside dome cap with a ball pien hammer, it may temp take the slack out of the ball so stop the knocking for a short while.

to see if the aircon is gasless or its an electrical/mechanical fault, go under the bonnet, mounted on the outside front right of the radiator is the evaporator, it has a 2 wire plug on top, remove the plug and short across the plug end with a bit of wire, switch on aircon, if it all kicks in and the rad fans work then its possibly just gasless. if it doesnt click in then it could be mechanical (belt, compressor) or electrical (compressor, fuse ) etc.

I hope that the cracking you refer to is the rubber gaiter or boot covering the joint any fatigue type cracking to the metalwork on such a highly stressed component would deffo mean change it.
Noises are difficult to pin point at the best of times without hearing it as one mans knock is another mans clonk.
The following is generic, others on here may have a different method specific to Bongos and If I am "preaching to the conversant" forgive me.

On the suspect lower ball joint the way to test is with front raised and secured on stands allowing the front suspension to hang. So no stands under wishbones then
You may want to get someone on the foot-brake to stop the wheel rotating and also for looking or doing!

Using a long lever bar placed between the wheel and the ground lift the wheel while lightly pinching the joint between pin and the hub carrier then lift and drop ,lift and drop, you should not feel any movement in the vertical. While you are doing the lifting check the dog bone link bar that is attached to the strut these are trouble some and fail frequently These give more of a clicking sound over light road imperfections though ,also the top bearing in the McPherson strut for lift and you may as well check the spring while your at it.

The next should really be done lowered on slider plates but you can get an idea on stands. Grab the wheel at 4 & 8 o'clock the bottom and with as much force as you are able to muster but not enough to drag or push the Bongo off the stands pull it to and fro while someone watches the joint for lateral movement.
MOT wise it is permissible to have a small amount of movement but personally I would change them if more than 2mm.

Sometimes the lubricant in ball joints can compact or "dry out" this can lead to a cracking sound or creaking. If you have access to a needle grease gun then you can either lift the gaiter and squirt a bit of grease in, beware they can be tricky to get back on, or, my preferred method is to puncture the gaiter with the needle gun and fill it with lube. The lube inside will keep the dirt out and if it solves you problem you can dismantle and replace the boot at a later date.
Good luck and mind you don`t put your back out!!!

Aircon specialist can check for leaks. A) measuring amount of gas in system. B) vacuum test C) refill with a dye in the gas

roosmith wrote:Our Bongo is starting to test my patience again. We seem to have this never ending stream of issues that never get sorted properly.

First of all was a chuffing which couldn't be traced but eventually turned out to be a missing rubber washer/bush behind the wishbone. Sorted for 2000 miles, now we have another combined with a knock. Up on axle stands last night and can only think it is the wishbone ball joint, as it looks cracked and very old but can't get it to knock with weight on or off. Just replace? And if so should I do the other side at the same time, bearing in mind the previous owner had done that on its own at some point around 5 years ago.

Secondly the burning rubber smell is back. Still no idea.

Thirdly air con has packed up. Was ice cold, then nothing. Belts OK. Just regass and try again or is that a waste if it has leaked through faulty pipe etc? How do you diagnose?

I won't keep going but there other things like the roof not working properly which when combined with the above and amount of rust work that needs doing, is starting to test our staying power.

As always guidance gratefully received.

Tricky one. Do I Stay Or Do I Go. I'm opting to stay but realise that I will probably face a number of age related issues in the period ahead and that I'll have to spend on more than just simple maintainance to sort them. I'm considering having some parts like front bushes, steering rack etc done even though they are fine now, just so I dont end up having to make inconvenient trips to my Bongo mechanic at some unspecified time in the future when I want to be off motoring in it. The simpler thing would be to end the Bongo years and buy a 'normal' car, but fact is nothing else will do what the Bongo does, or offer such characterful driving, and I'd probably have to pay rather more than Bongo overhaul costs to buy it too, if it was to be anything I really wanted.

Bottom line is I think that sooner or later an old Bongo needs some serious TLC and investment and that should be no surprise. We can't expect more than so much from these old cars.

Thanks for all the replies. Some answers in no particular order as not easy on my phone!

I've tried the usual methods of testing the ball joint although confessing using a pry bar on the joint rather than using the wheel as leverage. No movement that I could see. The cracking is the gaiter. The arm is quite rusty too, hence why it looks likely even though I can't get a noise out of it. The bushes on the arm look like they may have changed on their own. The roll bar bushes and drop links have been done before.

The noise itself as you say is subjective. With light pressure on the brakes you can hear the disc and pad going round. This is what we had before when we had metal on metal due to washer being missing. Its not like a grinding just the noise of braking being transmitted through the chassis and body. The knocking is as you change direction (forwards or reverse) or as you come to a stop. Its connected to weight transfer I think. Again I can imagine a knackered ball joint touching the side of the arm, not isolating the noise and clunking forwards and backwards as you change direction. Might be way off!

Any which way, I have booked it in with my local friendly garage. He groans every time he hears its me with the Bongo but at least he can have a better informed look than me. Don't like being beaten though but at same time just want the issues sorted once and for all.

With regards to your comments Mike about 20 year old Bongos needing work, I agree completely but they do need a lot more work than other vehicles of the same age that I currently own or have owned. It's just getting frustrating. We constantly come to the cross roads of spend lots more moneyor get something else. We commit and then come up against something else. We've committed to all rust work and waxoyling over the winter, followed by overhaul of cooling system (best estimate £4000) and now we have more suspension work, air con and will still be left with a roof that doesn't work properly and an unidentified burning rubber smell. We're never going to get back what it will owe us and don't expect to but there are much cheaper options out there.

Hi Roosmith. Did you manage to get sorted? Was it caliper as you thought?

Hmm funny you should ask!

It was found that the Air-con has lost all but a tiny bit of gas. It has been regassed, which held and no leaks were found. The garage did think it odd that that amount of gas had been lost quickly without a leak being evident. I have to confess I haven't tried it for a week, so not sure if it has held but we'll see at the weekend when I'll try and freeze the family.

With the knocking, more mystery and intrigue. I took apart the brakes, found nothing, put them back together. Sent it packing to the garage for the air-con and asked them to look at it. They couldn't find anything and on testing when it returned I can't get it to do it again. I can only assume that it was brake related and taking it apart and putting it back together has changed something but I couldn't see anything wrong.