My car rattled after an oil change and died! What could be wrong?

ladycorsair

Hi! I have a Ford Fiesta 1.4 Ghia X (98) and yesterday I gave it an oil change, replaced the oil filter, spark plugs and air filter. The car sounded great afterwards, and I took it for a ten minute test drive. I stopped for food, for about 30 mins, started the engine and it started rattling loudly. I drove it home as I had no breakdown cover, and the engine conked out suddenly about a mile from home. It appeared to be leaking oil, and was down to minimum when I checked the dipstick. Upon checking under the car this morning, the floor is bone dry. I haven't tried starting it yet, I just got a friend to tow me home. Any ideas? Thank you!!

harveybobbles

Sounds like its dumped its oil somewhere - possibly when you took it for the drive yesterday?

paulsad

Check the oil filter you put in - did you prime it with oil ie half fill it when you replaced it? I had this with an astra once - put brand new filter on didn't know you had to prime it first - it formed basically an air lock in the oil system and the engine seized - cost £1500! The oil filter was like brand new when the mechanic removed it - no oil had gone through it!

Strider590

Hope you didn't over fill it

Incyder

Its not always possible to prime it. Mine goes on side on so any oil you put in would be out by the time youve done it up.

Could be cam rattling if oil wasn't getting to it. Did the oil light go out when you started the car after the change and did it come on again when you were driving home ?

mikey72

Possibly the oil filter wasn't on tight enough. So when you have the engine running it will leak oil, when you stop the oil will stop leaking.
Unfortuneatly it could mean the oil has leaked out before lubricating the engine, so it could be bad news.
Have a check, and see if it has had oil dripping down it.

marksandsparx

check the old oil filter, and make sure the oil seal is on the old filter, if it isn't, it'll be stuck on the engine filter mount, and when you put the new filter on, the old seal will be in the way... so when you first start it, it won't leak, but as it gets warm, the old filter gets pushed out and leaks ALL its oil out..
I talk from experience, as my apprenticed forgot to check the old oil filter, had the change turbo, pistons, liners and bearings!!!

alastairq

hi.....is the sump plug still in place?

birkee

alastairq wrote: »

hi.....is the sump plug still in place?

You've beaten me to it!

Had a car in one day with the oil warning light on as the described fault. Found it had no oil in it.
Poured in the correct amount of oil, only to have it reappear on the floor......No sump plug in the car.

This OP car clearly dumped it during the initial drive, so maybe the sump plug wasn't done tight enough, and vibrated out.

paulsad

Incyder wrote: »

Its not always possible to prime it. Mine goes on side on so any oil you put in would be out by the time youve done it up.

Could be cam rattling if oil wasn't getting to it. Did the oil light go out when you started the car after the change and did it come on again when you were driving home ?

Just a bit will do the filter will carry some oil even if side on - messy but as I found out a lot more messy if not done and your the 1 in 10000 that it may happen to.

Flyboy152

Check the oil can, what grade of oil did you put in? It wasn't two stroke was it?