Bongo Fury

Good morning all,

Quick intro to why I’m here - purchased my first Bongo (1996 TD 2.5) yesterday from an eBay UK van trader.

All seemed well, driving 2 hours home from Leeds to Staffordshire on the M1 no problems. Got 10 mins from home and stopped for a bathroom break and noticed coolant dripping from the radiator onto the floor. Engine didn’t seem hot, was pulling fine and no different noises from when I set off so I carefully trundled home as I was with my 3 year old boy so wanted to get home.

Got home to a steamy engine bay with splashes of red coolant , an empty reservoir and water pouring out from under.

To add to this, after an hour of leaving it to drip out and to cool down the immobiliser will now not disarm, so I can’t even start the ignition (obviously not the engine now it’s got no coolant or water).

I’ve contacted the seller, who said his options are for me to get it looked at my a local mechanic, and he will cover the cost of repair, or he will come to collect it (2 hour drive) and do the repairs himself. I guess the third option is to push for a refund if that’s even on the table…

What shall I do folks? I just feel deflated and lost confidence that I will commit to a road trip adventure and be stuck with my boy somewhere away from home. I have breakdown cover of course, but it still doesn’t take away that anxiety of ‘will it go pop again’

Personally if he’s a genuine trader I would reject it as unfit for purpose and claim a refund, likely if you let him repair it you will have more problems.

If he’s a private individual posing as a trader you haven’t got much hope.

So sorry to hear your bad luck.

I would imagine from the spray and marks that its the top of the radiator that has broken away, not uncommon, you would only see it by taking off the air scoop over the aircon radiator at the front. You don't get any warning in advance, mine went a few years ago, fortunately only a few miles from home so managed to limp home (V6) the radiators are all the same and the plastic tube is simply crimped into position on top of the metal frame with a lugs all the way round. Not a massive job to change. Plenty of links on here search.php?keywords=radiator+seal+leak& ... mit=Search

Spot on Geoff.

If you do accept a repair make certain the mechanic understands the need to bleed the system.

Thanks for the comments folks.

To make matters worse, the battery is flat now. I’m wondering if there is an alternator and water pump issue too if the radiator has gone? I’m no mechanic…

He’s coming to collect it this week to investigate. Fingers crossed, as I’ve fallen in love with it despite this.

I think given its a "new" vehicle from a garage that it might be better to let them sort it unless you have a local Bongo savvy garage available to you who might know more than themselves.

Just circling back round to this post - the garage fitted a new radiator and some perished pipes. They bled the system and replaced the coolant and all seems well now!

I took it out for its first overnight this weekend but I was anxious. I think I need to look into a coolant level sensor and potentially a heat sensor too? I’ve been reading these will help to alert if there is problems.

Good news indeed! Hopefully you will get a few good trips in and build the confidence level, its much the same with any older vehicle there are hidden weak points that only show up after 20+ years which ideally could be sorted by replacing LOTS of parts on the off chance that they are close to end-of-life but this can be expensive and time consuming .... Best to keep a contingency fund in reserve for these occasions and replace when the fault appears rather than the ideal of replacing before failure!

Hi, suggest you fit a Low coolant Alarm…..google Haydn Alarms and see what we have…the low Coolant one developed many years ago with the help of this forum….the alarms have saved many a engine over the years…phone the number on the website and ask for ‘Dads Discount’