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

bigjl

paulsad wrote: »

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!

Now i must admit i have never heard if that.

Are you sure the mechanic wasn't having you over?

Just doesn't seem plausible, especially when a large number of cars have oil filters positioned in such a way that you coulsn't prime it if you tried.

Anybody else heard about similar? Done hundreds of oil changes on Vauxhalls and rarely primed the filter, just a little oil.on the seal.

roddydogs

Surely if there is an air lock (never heard of this) the oil light will stay on?

pendulum

It is a case of looking at everything you touched yesterday and making sure everything is correct.

You say the oil was on minimum. If it was actually on minimum then that isn't too bad. If it was below minimum aka bone dry, then that is bad. How much oil did you put in it? From memory my 1.25 Zetec took 4 litres of oil to get just below max, the 1.4 may take the same or slightly more.

When the engine died, what did it sound like when you tried to restart it, assuming you did try? Did it turn over?
Could the oil light have come on but you did not notice (sometimes its view is blocked by the steering wheel).

ladycorsair

OK update, cos it was so dark, I didn't read the dipstick properly, and the oil is full. Upon poking around, I've found that the cam belt is loose. The engine tries to turn over, and the plugs spark but nothing. I'm wondering why my engine management light didn't come on. Is my engine now ruined, as I drove home with all that rattling, which I'm now guessing was my pistons and valves and what have you flying around?

Thanks so much for all your replies, I really appreciate your help.

Arielle x

pendulum

ladycorsair wrote: »

I'm wondering why my engine management light didn't come on.

The engine management light should be renamed the "emissions control light" seeing as most things that will trigger it are emissions related! Even if your rattling engine caused the emissions to go high chances are the light won't illuminate until the fault repeats itself on the next journey. Having said that, my '98 Fiesta idled so badly it nearly stalled itself due to knackered spark plugs, and also badly failed the emissions one year, and it didn't even flag up the engine management light then. Seems that very little will trigger the engine management light of Fiesta's of that year!

When was the cambelt last changed?

ladycorsair

pendulum wrote: »

The engine management light should be renamed the "emissions control light" seeing as most things that will trigger it are emissions related! Even if your rattling engine caused the emissions to go high chances are the light won't illuminate until the fault repeats itself on the next journey. Having said that, my '98 Fiesta idled so badly it nearly stalled itself due to knackered spark plugs, and also badly failed the emissions one year, and it didn't even flag up the engine management light then. Seems that very little will trigger the engine management light of Fiesta's of that year!

When was the cambelt last changed?

Ah I see. According to my Haynes manual it should be changed every 40k miles, and it's service book has stamps with the same garage up until 2008 and about 50k, but there's nothing to say the cambelt was changed. Everyones telling me it's irreparable, but I've found a local garage who'll take a look. They've quoted £60 for a cambelt change, £11 per possibly damaged valve and £100 labour. The mechanic said if he can fix it at a reasonable cost to me, he will. He's going to look at it Thursday or Friday, and it's downhill so I freewheeled it late last night!

Thanks again for your advice all, I'm REALLY hoping my engine isn't ruined, now knowing that the rattling noise was my cambelt!

Arielle xx

Flyboy152

ladycorsair wrote: »

Ah I see. According to my Haynes manual it should be changed every 40k miles, and it's service book has stamps with the same garage up until 2008 and about 50k, but there's nothing to say the cambelt was changed. Everyones telling me it's irreparable, but I've found a local garage who'll take a look. They've quoted £60 for a cambelt change, £11 per possibly damaged valve and £100 labour. The mechanic said if he can fix it at a reasonable cost to me, he will. He's going to look at it Thursday or Friday, and it's downhill so I freewheeled it late last night!

Thanks again for your advice all, I'm REALLY hoping my engine isn't ruined, now knowing that the rattling noise was my cambelt!

Arielle xx

Run away. Any mechanic worth their salt wouldn't charge that little for a cambelt change. I am presuming that it is just the belt, not the pulleys and water pump.

pendulum

That price is very much on the low side, and as Flyboy says, I seriously doubt that price includes the full kit which it needs. The cambelt and tensioners/idlers have probably never been changed because Ford specify an interval of 100k or 10 years. Haynes is always on the cautious side, and 100k/10 years does seem a very long time, but the Zetecs seemed to live up to Fords spec without too many early failures. I let mine get to 97k and 9 years before selling. Seems like yours may have done 13 years before something gave way.

ladycorsair

Right the garage just called and said the tension belt has snapped, and they'll replace it, the warped valves and the cam belt for £300. The mechanic said luckily, the head isn't damaged. What do you guys think?

Thank you,

Arielle x

vaio

get it confirmed in writing & go for it, but if they haven't included water pump and anything else that rotates with the cam belt then get them to replace those too.

There should be no extra labour cost, just the cost of the parts