Car problems

2004 1.4 Petrol Fiesta, 110,000miles

The OH let her oil run low (again), right off the end of the dipstick. And came into the house “my car’s making a funny noise and shakes”.

She initially thought it was doing it when letting the clutch up which made me think either release bearing or spigot, but having been in the car it definitely did it at other times (mostly when accelerating, but not while using the clutch).

Topped up the oil.

Topped up the radiator (not low-low, but lower than it should be).

Still does it, and it loses all power when it does, for a split second, like it’s just not fired on that revolution.

Pops on the overrun too, only enough that you can hear it on the drive, not noticeable on the road, no smoke visible.

Would a head gasket cause that? My gut feeling is no, and there’s no oil in the water or water in (what was left of) the oil, so it would need to be 2 separate leaks into the cylinders.

Ignoring the oil and water levels and assuming those are just leaks and/or burning a bit of oil due to age. Next up would be the MAF sensor or the coil?

She drives like she’s possessed so wouldn’t notice a drop in MPG associated with the MAF being on the blink anyway.

No warning lights on the dashboard.

Full service this weekend, doubt that’ll sort it but it’ll at least rule out spark plugs.

Before you spend any money on service items get a compression check done. “burning a bit of oil” could equal worn bores/rings equals uneven compression and burn patterns and the shakes.

how long since last service.

i appreciate that some cars burn more oil than others but a healthy ford should not be burning the whole dipstick of oil between services……

which would have me looking at what spence suggests

Off the top of my head, I serviced it about 12 months ago, it was hovering around the lower mark on the dipstick at it’s MOT at Christmas so it’s dropped down 1/2″ since then. Which I guess could be worrying if it dropped 1/2″ in 9 months and then the same again in 3 😕

Last service the spark plugs were clean and there was nothing wrong with the emissions at the MOT. So it’s burning more than is healthy, but I wouldn’t have said it was bad enough to be causing those sorts of problems (unless it’s suddenly got really bad).

Still, it’s another toy for the garage so I’ll get one and check.

Bangernomics by default rather than design, so an engine rebuild is off the cards! It’s a case of cheap fixes or nothing.

if its out of service schedule then id expect rapid oil drop.

certainly back when i had petrol cars they only ever burnt oil if id stretched the service interval out(being cheap at uni)

A leak down test would tell you more than a compression test how ever the gear required is much more expensive , a compression test will tell you if the engines on its last legs. A leak down will tell you if its errring towards worn as well as being ****

Fair point, repeatedly telling her to either stop redlining down the motorway every day and/or check the oil level once in a blue moon feels a bit like Canute must have done talking to the tide.

ive given up trying that with my wife.

what i do is i now take her car once a week at least once a month. Check the tyres , the oil , the screenwash and drive it to work and back listening for noises.

Occasionally ill get an Its making a funny noise- the last one was a snapped spring on the front left.

Which – was described as “it goes boing on speedbumps”

Yep as trail-rat. Always check wife and daughters cars. And yes a leakdown can provide more information ie listening to where the air is escaping from – throttle body for intake valves, tail pipe for exhaust valves etc. Not up with these modern procedures 🙁

What does the funny noise sound like?

Could be damaged main bearings from lack of oil?

I’d also check the sump for swarf, just in case…

Could be damaged main bearings from lack of oil?

Naaa, that’d be a rumble, this is more of a missfire. For anyone old enough, think worn out points, but more intermittent, fine at idle or low loads, but conks out under acceleration. Except it’s just a couple of jumps and then it’s fine, and it’s intermittent.

My hypothesis was MAF, occasionally sending spurious readings to the ECU. And when the MAF isn’t working at all the ECU defaults to it’s base map based on engine speed and throttle position, which is slightly rich (hence popping on overrun).

my hyundai had this years ago…. was **** HT leads but i guess you have coil/ht pack on this engine maybe ?

IIRC rusty mac had this on a polo and it was an intermittant vac leak.

Will ask him later.

Friend of mine did this (twice) to different 1.1 Fiesta’s; let it run dry of oil.
The first time she did it, she thought that oil & petrol were the same thing, so if she was filling it with petrol, she didn’t need oil as well.
The second time it happened – her Dad has told her to check the oil regularly, but she thought for some reason that he was doing it for her.

I was in the second Fiesta, when it failed. She’d insisted on driving it down to Dover (from West London) even though her Dad and a mechanic friend had said it would be quite risky because the camshaft bearings were completely shot. They’d topped it up with oil & told her to take it easy; we came over the brow of a hill on the motorway, there was a loud bang followed by plumes of white smoke.

Turns out the camshaft bearings failed, causing the engine to lunch itself. We stopped on the hard shoulder, popped the bonnet for a somewhat pointless look-see and rather comically a 3″ section of camshaft rolled out and stopped against my shoe.

Could be that……knackered camshaft bearings. It was ‘droney’ under load & just ran a bit crap. This would have been on an older Fiesta though – around a ’94 plate or so…..dunno if the engines are even remotely similar….

Best bit was when a passing plod car decided to pull up & see why we were stopped. When I explained the problem, he gave me his most condescending voice & asked how I could possibly know it was a broken camshaft that was the main source of our problems…….so I showed him the bit of camshaft on the floor & the hole in the engine that it came out of….. 😆

Low on oil, and now running badly sounds – unfortunately – like one or more knackered bores to me. Two things to check:

1) Take the oil cap off while the engine is running. There should be a slight vacuum behind it, if the engine is blowing past the rings there will be positive pressure. There’s also other things that might cause it, but it’s a start.

2) Pull the spark plugs and see if they all look the same. If one (or more) cylinders are not working right the plug(s) will be fouled or wet with unburned fuel.

With no light on the dash and a misfire I would suspect in order of expense spark plugs, ht leads or coil pack.
A failed sensor like MAF or O2 would throw a check engine light.
Proper engine damage would lead to knocking, clattering, smoking, oil pressure light etc.

Ignoring the oil level for a minute

Sounds like timing if its popping on the overrun. If she rags it all the time, especialy from cold oil use would be higher than expected.

If the engine is cambelt it migh be out by a tooth? Old tired ensioner making the noise inside the cam cover. If its a chain it may have stretched a wee bit.
Could be a borked ecu as well or Crank position / cam position sensor gone south

Get it serviced and plugged into a code reader.
I’m going back a bit but one of my ex’s had a fiesta of that vintage. It did what you described 3 times. First was coil pack, second was HT leads and the 3rd time one of the spark plugs fell to pieces. She also caned the crap out of it and thought it ran on love. Did you marry my ex? 🙂