Major problem with 11,000 mile nearly 2 year old Ka UPDATE POST 71

Kilty_2

MrsE wrote: »

Her BF says though he checked the oil, he never put any in, as it never needed any.
Then the chugging started at Tesco & he put in Castrol GTX & had it serviced the following day.
Then it happened again 2 weeks later.

So something (other than oil) made it start chugging the first time & the warning light come on.

If it needed oil the first time outside Tesco then surely oil was the cause of the problem?

birkee

It never ceases to amaze me, what some motorist perceive to be wrong with their cars. And how much they can live with.
"It started chugging, so he put oil in it". Was the oil checked, before more was added? If there had been a sudden loss of oil, why? Why would low oil levels make it start "chugging"?

Once had a car in that had "the oil warning light stays on". Found it had no oil, so it was filled. Two minutes later, the oil was all over the floor, because she had ripped the sump plug off on an obstruction. How come THEY didn't see the oil all over the floor when they put oil in.

Another one was "steering stiff". ..... I was barely able to get the car from the car park because the steeering was so stiff......because the king pins had siezed up. They're driving on the road like this!

Another was "n/s headlight dim"..... After checking circuits and earthing, found that a 24v headlight bulb had been fitted. Too stupid to mention that he had replaced a failed bulb of course.

You could write a book on stupid drivers.

birkee

Kilty wrote: »

If it needed oil the first time outside Tesco then surely oil was the cause of the problem?

NO!
Low oil level was the symptom, not the cause.
The cause was oil going where it shouldn't, and getting onto the spark plugs.
Treating the symptom (low oil) will never cure the fault.

birkee

AndyGuil wrote: »

Seems like the engine was overfilled with oil. That can damage the rings because of over pressurising the system. Some oil has fouled the spark plug. The spark plug will be black/sooty when it is taken out.

The over filling oil is very unlikely to damge the piston rings. They are designed to take compression pressure. (Contain what is very close to an explosion? It's actually a VERY fast burn.)
Overfilling with oil usually results in the failure of oil seals, and the oil leaking from the engine into other areas (i.e. clutch housing) or onto the floor.

Kilty_2

birkee wrote: »

NO!
Low oil level was the symptom, not the cause.
The cause was oil going where it shouldn't, and getting onto the spark plugs.
Treating the symptom (low oil) will never cure the fault.

Fair enough.

Personally I'd have called recovery if my nearly new car showed such symptoms rather than dicking around with it myself.

birkee

Before the pedantic get going.

The cause of the "chugging" was oil getting on the spark plugs!
The cause of the oil going where it shouldn't, is another step back. Then of course, you have to ask why THAT happened. Ovefilling with oil etc.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

AndyGuil wrote: »

Seems like the engine was overfilled with oil. That can damage the rings because of over pressurising the system. Some oil has fouled the spark plug. The spark plug will be black/sooty when it is taken out.

plugs can be black/sooty under other conditions such as overfueling and common to have a degree of black soot on under normal load anyway. oil being on the plugs will be wet oil in alarm bell situations.

i agree that a compression test needs to be carried out, but first an oil drain, then refilled to mark and run again for test to see if its still leaking or a one off. if still leakeing then compression test on all cyclinders, valve stem checked, oil breatheers checked, if all looks ok then head off inspect the headgasket if low compression to one cylinder.

anotherbaldrick

birkee wrote: »

The over filling oil is very unlikely to damge the piston rings. They are designed to take compression pressure. (Contain what is very close to an explosion? It's actually a VERY fast burn.)
Overfilling with oil usually results in the failure of oil seals, and the oil leaking from the engine into other areas (i.e. clutch housing) or onto the floor.

The problem with overfilling is that in some engines it can cause the crank rod big ends to dip into the sump oil and this whips the oil up into a froth. The oil pump sucks froth rather than oil and the engine seizes.
Don't think this is the problem here, this car is only doing 5K per year and I think the question should be is it doing a lot of short distance stop/start motoring and never getting the engine fully up to temperature ? This would lead to mayonnaise building up in the crankcase breather tubes and where they connect to the oil filler neck on the Ka . This would have been exacerbated if any overfilling had occurred

birkee

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

plugs can be black/sooty under other conditions such as overfueling and (1) common to have a degree of black soot on under normal load anyway. oil being on the plugs will be wet oil in alarm bell situations.

i agree that a compression test needs to be carried out, (2) but first an oil drain, then refilled to mark and run again for test to see if its still leaking or a one off. if still leakeing then compression test on all cyclinders, (3) valve stem checked, oil breatheers checked, if all looks ok then head off inspect the headgasket if low compression to one cylinder.

(1) Plugs normally light coffee powder colour. If not fuel mixture wrong. Engine management?
(2) Level under what condition. Some manufactures say when the engine is cold, and the oil drained down, and some say when the engine has just been turned off, when there is still some oil circulated in the engine and still to drain down.
Why drain the oil down first though? Unless it's still overfilled?
(3) What check, and how?

There is only one first step here to my mind. Crankcase ventilation check because of pressure build up. If it's a head fault, then crankcase ventilation would likely deal with it.

Second step is compression tests, to see if the pressure is getting in that way, because of a faulty head gasket, cylinder head or piston rings. Is it so bad that crankcase ventilation can't cope?

petrolhead69

not that it's much use this time, but if your skint and probably going to be more skint once a baby comes a better idea would be a £1000 car instead of an £11000 car. that way when it dies from neglect you can scrap it getting £200 and you could do that 13 times and still be ahead