Engine failure

[Marten]

I'm writing this to give everyone an heads up, because I'm sure this could have been prevented.
My cars engine had about 135k km's on the clock. Which should be ok if the cars is maintained well. I've owned the car for 7 years now and I'm sure I've done my part on keeping it maintained.

I'm not a mechanic, but I will try to give my best explanation what we know this far. Also i'd like to note that English is not my first language so please don't bust my balls!
Long story short the engine had oil starvation which ultimately wore out the crankshaft and more probably some other related parts like rods. The engine got taken out yesterday and will be fully inspected on following weeks. I guess then we'll know if it's salvageable...

So what happen? Well... after the engine made a stange sound, at which point anyone can tell that's not right, I had the oil drained (new oil had been in for maybe 500km's) to inspect if there was any metallic particles visible. Stangely we didn't see any. When the oilpan came off it was all clear at that point.
It turned out there were two hard ruber parts stuck in the oil feed pipe. But since the pipe has a mesh inside, the parts had not been sucked futher and were visibly stuck.
Now would be great time to look at the pictures (I got them of google just now). Basicly my oilpan looked exaclty the same when it was taken off. Inside the oilpan we saw metallic particles. Since the drain plug isn't the lowest point on the oilpan all the particles were stayed inside. There wasn't much, but now clearly visible.

How could this have happend?
So three years ago I lived in an apartment which had quite steep entrance to the carpark. Most probably the oilpan got damaged at that time. If you look at the pictures there is a part which is lower that the rest of the oilpan. That is where the feed pipe is located. The ruber parts are suppoused to be between the pipe and the oilpan. Looking at the picture which shows the inside of the oilpan, you can see where the ruber parts are in contact with the oilpan.
So from my experiance thus far, I'd say any oilpan which has been in contact (lightly damaged) most probably will have the same problem. The oil starvation will slowly deteriorate the crankshaft and cause engine failure.

Knowing this now I'm sure it could have been prevented to some extent. Saddly taking off the oilpan will require taking off one coolant pipe as well. But if you see similar damage to the oilpan (even slight) I'd suggest to have your car checked. Will be cheaper down the line!

I'll post more and add some pictures when the engine is open.

Peace!

[ixi_ixi]

OMG, that's the worst nightmare, sorry to hear that Marten. I hope engine is still rebuildable. Finger crossed mate.

And thanks for the heads up. Just wondering, prior to the strange engine noise, did you notice anything abnormal? Eg. higher oil temperature etc?

I can only image if the rubber parts dislodged and partially blocked the oil feed pipe, that should create higher oil pressure in the system and should trigger some sort of sensor or warning lights?

[Marten]

OMG, that's the worst nightmare, sorry to hear that Marten. I hope engine is still rebuildable. Finger crossed mate.

And thanks for the heads up. Just wondering, prior to the strange engine noise, did you notice anything abnormal? Eg. higher oil temperature etc?

I can only image if the rubber parts dislodged and partially blocked the oil feed pipe, that should create higher oil pressure in the system and should trigger some sort of sensor or warning lights?

I also hope we can rebuild it

Come to think of it I did notice the oil getting quite hot on normal drives (about 100). Other than that there were no signs, no fault codes or missing power. Car operated as normally as it ever did before.

[JCviggen]

100C is a normal oil temp really, that's just what they are set up to do.

You're probably looking at the very least at a number of shot bearings, the crank may or may not be salvageable.

[hector8]

Is this the oil pipes to the oil cooler, front right behind the fog light???
My mechanic always keeps an eye on these as they mean death if they fail.

[pule333]

Is this the oil pipes to the oil cooler, front right behind the fog light???
My mechanic always keeps an eye on these as they mean death if they fail.

No


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