Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 43 total)
  • Too much oil in the car and now it's stopped working.
  • neilsonwheels
    Free Member

    The girly friends motor had too much oil in it around a litre too much. This has never caused me problems in my motor but hers conked out on the way to work. The engine still turns but won’t fire and there are no visable leaks anywhere so what’s the score.? Do I keep turning the thing until it fires. I have let out said excess btw.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Something else I reckon.

    Too much oil means that there’s less room under the cylinders which increase the pressure in the crank case, leading to leaks and damaged seals. WAY too much means that the pistons can’t even turn, as my neighbour found out – he didn’t realise that changing the oil meant letting the old oil out before putting in 4l of new oil…

    You don’t sound as if you have either problem.. I suppose that something might’ve become gummed up with excess oil during the over-filled state.. spark plugs perhaps?

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    This has never caused me problems in my motor but hers

    You put 2 pints of extra oil in cars as a matter of course?

    as above – increased crank pressure/pistons slapping oil causing hydraulic compression problems, oil pushed back up engine breather into inlet manifold and oiling engine up.

    Inspect the plugs, if they’re all oily then it might be worth draining oiul, refilling with the proper amount and changing plugs. After that start checking for bent connecting rods.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    oil pushed back up engine breather into inlet manifold and oiling engine up

    That ^^

    It’s consistent with it conking out after a short while.

    You might be able to get it to run by spraying engine de-coker into the manifold as you crank, then giving it a good thrash.

    Woody
    Free Member

    he didn’t realise that changing the oil meant letting the old oil out before putting in 4l of new oil…

    I often wonder how some people get through life 😆

    OP – is it a petrol or diesel engine?

    Drac
    Full Member

    I often wonder how some people get through life

    There’s a reason breathing’s autonomic.

    cupra
    Free Member

    If you know nothing about cars it is an easy thing to do. You fill up the fuel tank, washer bottle etc so why not the engine with oil? That was the thinking of the lady I met at the petrol station who had put 5 litres in to the engine with another 5 ready to go in. The oil light had come on, she had stopped, phoned home and was told to put oil in the engine, so she was….

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I often wonder how some people get through life

    Interesting situation this guy was in. They were both doctors who’d just moved over from India. I saw him struggling one day with a brand new petrol mower (tiny lawn) in the rain with grass about a foot long, he was complaining that the mower kept conking out. I explained about rain and cutting really long grass, then I asked ‘Don’t you have grass in India?’ he said ‘Yes, but we pay people to cut it!’

    Interesting culture shock really – he was a pretty intelligent and capable bloke and he learned fast, but he was starting from zero experience in anything practical because where he’s from if you have any money you pay people to do it all for you.

    Anyway hijack over 🙂

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    Interesting culture shock really – he was a pretty intelligent and capable bloke and he learned fast

    then I asked ‘Don’t you have grass in India?

    You must have got on really well together!

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Come over here treat our sick can’t even mow the lawn… 😐

    molgrips
    Free Member

    You must have got on really well together!

    We did, I wasn’t being sarky! Extremely nice chap.

    Dibbs
    Free Member

    My mum once filled her Mini engine up with oil till she could see it in the rocker cover (about a gallon).

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    You must have got on really well together!
    We did, I wasn’t being sarky!

    Yes, they say opposites attract. I mean really, “Don’t you have grass in India?”

    glenh
    Free Member

    wwaswas – Member
    This has never caused me problems in my motor but hers

    You put 2 pints of extra oil in cars as a matter of course?

    as above – increased crank pressure/pistons slapping oil causing hydraulic compression problems, oil pushed back up engine breather into inlet manifold and oiling engine up.

    OP, what type of engine is yours/hers?
    A bit of oil getting pushed into the inlet won’t trouble a diesel, but petrols certainly won’t like it.

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    This has never caused me problems in my motor

    😯

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    just think your self lucky it didnt run away at 100 million miles an hour and blow out its conrods and pistons …..

    im waiting for the day my old landy does that – the engines notorious for it due to heavy breathing from the rocker to the air intake !

    5th gear , dump the clutch and hit the anchors hard if it does 😉

    willard
    Full Member

    This reminds me of the time that my ex-wife killed her car by topping it up with water instead of antifreeze. And kept using water. And more, until a really cold snap, where her block froze, then cracked, the worked for a couple of miles until the water melted and ran out leading to a seized engine.

    That was a fun phone call.

    A bit of oil getting pushed into the inlet won’t trouble a diesel…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine_runaway

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zx3qKX_Pno[/video]

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    MTG – other than ‘not well’ how did it end?

    sobriety
    Free Member

    5th gear , dump the clutch and hit the anchors hard if it does

    That or put a load of water into the air intake and hydro-lock it…

    trickydisco
    Free Member

    An ex female colleague o ashamedly admitted it took her ages to put oil in her car. She pulled out the dipstick and started filling from there!

    porter_jamie
    Full Member

    had the op now?

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Yes, they say opposites attract. I mean really, “Don’t you have grass in India?”

    I meant the decorative use of grass in lawns in a domestic setting, obviously!

    That’s not me, it’s just a video I found on youtube as an example.

    I’ve almost had something similar happen to me though.
    Working late shift as a truck mechanic, someone else had fitted a turbo earlier in the day, but left off one pipe as it wasn’t in stock at the time.
    I was given the pipe and told to finish the job.
    I started the engine and it immediately became obvious he hadn’t drained the oil from the old failed turbo that had collected in the intercooler.
    I drove slowly outside as it was filling the workshop with smoke.
    I thought I’d better let it fast idle for a bit in the yard to clear before I took it out on the road for a test drive.
    All of a sudden it went flat out past it’s normal maximum revs in a cloud of thick smoke.
    Turning the ignition off made no difference, it was running on oil, not diesel.
    Luckily, it was a manual and I managed to put it in top gear and stall it.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Had 2 Discovery TDi run away on me at work, brakes full on 5th gear and handbrake and they were still pulling along the road. Luckily was able to force them into neutral and then sit back and watch the carnage.

    neilsonwheels
    Free Member

    After much decking about roadside I have finally got the old girl ticking over and blowing out plumes of steam. The cyclinder head and or gasket has gone. The oil is a nice mix of water and oil and the temp is through the roof. Upon further questioning apparently the car had been making a gurgling noise when switched of. That’ll be that then.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    🙁

    Next time maybe just the amount of oil the engine was designed to take?

    neilsonwheels
    Free Member

    To be truthful I checked the oil last week because it was noisy.! I put two liters in it which came to the bottom of the dipstick. The engine only hold 3.5 liters in total. By my reckoning it had been running round with half a litre in. Oh dear.

    sobriety
    Free Member

    Just to idiot check you, you did let the car stand for a while before you checked the oil level didn’t you?

    molgrips
    Free Member

    The cyclinder head and or gasket has gone

    Related to the oil incident?

    neilsonwheels
    Free Member

    Maybe, maybe not. Don’t suppose it helped but I think the damage may have already been done. A few weeks back it broke down due to the thermostat not working. The thing was running red hot and stopped working. Oh well.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    The thing was running red hot and stopped working

    That might’ve had something to do with it 🙂

    5lab
    Full Member

    Had 2 Discovery TDi run away on me at work, brakes full on 5th gear and handbrake and they were still pulling along the road. Luckily was able to force them into neutral and then sit back and watch the carnage.

    you’re claiming a disco tdi with 110bhp had enough power, in 5th, to override the brakes? sounds like the engine wasn’t the only thing which was broken..

    “A few weeks back it broke down due to the thermostat not working.”
    I’d say our grrlfriend’s off the hook then.
    That’s far more likely to cause a blown head gasket than an extra litre of oil.

    traildog
    Free Member

    I had some Dutch neighbours who didn’t know how to look after their lawn and had to ask us. Apparently they don’t have lawns in Holland, so I don’t see why the India question is so daft.

    5lab, I’d guess that a TDi running on engine oil at 6000rpm could be putting out a lot more than 110bhp. For a short while, anyway. 😉

    Drac
    Full Member

    you’re claiming a disco tdi with 110bhp had enough power, in 5th, to override the brakes? sounds like the engine wasn’t the only thing which was broken..

    No brakes were fine well as much as they were on those, don’t get me wrong they weren’t hurtling out of control the slowed to an almost stop but they were rolling forward.

    ScottChegg
    Free Member

    Forum brilliance here. Wide yeed innocence with ‘too much oil and the cars stopped working’

    And a bit later it turns out that the motor was cooked to death a couple of weeks ago.

    There’s nothing like getting the full story, and that was … etc.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    “I had some Dutch neighbours who didn’t know how to look after their lawn and had to ask us. Apparently they don’t have lawns in Holland,”

    looking out my window in van ewickjsluis i can confirm that dutch folk seem to have the most perfect lawns ive ever seen en masse- and i spent 4 years working as a gardener !

    also if my old 85bhp landy can over ride 5th and its brakes them im sure a 200 or 300 tDi would have no sweat … although my brakes are spot the dog awesome since they had new calpers , pads , disks , drums and mastercylinders before i bought it :d the shock factor of dumping the clutch and the brakes at the same time are what kills the engine.

    cranberry
    Free Member

    Sat in Voorburg, I can confirm that grass *does* grow in Holland.

    What might be the case is that your neighbours lived in an apartment or had a very small garden when living over here.

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