Car serviced and MOT'd - a week later it dies. Oil cap not secured

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  • Gloomendoom
    Gloomendoom Posts: 16,550 Forumite
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    A colleague's wife has a similar car, serviced properly, and it has big end issues.

    No loose oil cap though.
    AdrianC wrote: »
    Quite why swapping the entire engine is cheaper than getting the crank reground is another question entirely...

    Apparently, the "book" time to swap a crankshaft is 17 hours. Plus parts.
  • Norman_Castle
    Norman_Castle Posts: 11,871 Forumite
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    *Kat* wrote: »
    I read this online:
    Quote:
    Failure is almost always caused by an oil pressure problem, reduced lubrication lets the bearing hit the crank, leading to a spun shell or complete bearing failure.

    Loss of oil pressure is normally due to pump failure or blocked oilways (or a lack of oil!). The filler cap is there to stop oil leaking from the filler hole, not to maintain the oil pressure.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
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    Gloomendoom wrote: »
    Apparently, the "book" time to swap a crankshaft is 17 hours. Plus parts.
    Presumably, including removing and refitting the engine.

    What's the book time to remove the old engine, strip ancillaries, build up the replacement, and refit it?
  • angrycrow
    angrycrow Posts: 1,080 Forumite
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    Would this be the ep6 prince engine shared with Peugeot. They tend to burn a lot of oil, up to 1l per 1000 miles. Could it have run very low on oil pre service causing the start of the damage.
  • Stoke
    Stoke Posts: 3,182 Forumite
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    When you say the cap wasn't secured? Was it loose, or completely unattached?
  • System
    System Posts: 178,104 Community Admin
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    AdrianC wrote: »
    Quite why swapping the entire engine is cheaper than getting the crank reground is another question entirely...

    Depends on what else got mashed up along the way. Might easily end up being conrods, pistons, a rebore or there could be damage to the bores enough that its beyond the limits for reboring. And if its been because of no oil pressure then you could be looking at scored camshaft lobes and new camshaft bearings.

    Trouble is that when you've had an engine fail like that due to lack of oil pressure and its been continued to be driven for a few minutes rattling its nuts off the only real solution is to put a new engine in because there is a high likelihood there is something else which has suffered badly as well due to lack of oil and 1500 RPM. The only way to be guaranteed of not having something come out of the woodwork in the near future is to replace the whole lot.
  • facade
    facade Posts: 7,065 Forumite
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    angrycrow wrote: »
    Would this be the ep6 prince engine shared with Peugeot. They tend to burn a lot of oil, up to 1l per 1000 miles. Could it have run very low on oil pre service causing the start of the damage.

    Couple that with a tiny sump, and a lot of these engines have been run until they empty the sump and the oil light comes on in between services (I personally know of 2 that definitely were ;)) which doesn't help bearing life for the next owner...
    I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....

    (except air quality and Medical Science ;))
  • Gloomendoom
    Gloomendoom Posts: 16,550 Forumite
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    AdrianC wrote: »
    Presumably, including removing and refitting the engine.

    What's the book time to remove the old engine, strip ancillaries, build up the replacement, and refit it?

    No idea. It didn't come up in the conversation.

    Just a thought OP. Does your loose oil filler cap look like this?

    s-l225.jpg
  • roneik
    roneik Posts: 139 Forumite
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    If the oil cap is not screwed down fully you get an oil light warning. The oil pressure is affected in these conditions. I am quoting 12 plate cooper. I changed oil and filter on one and got the cap cross threaded. Within couple of minutes oil light . Realised what it may have been and rectified ..

    No oil loss ,just loss of oil pressure
  • roneik
    roneik Posts: 139 Forumite
    edited 30 November 2017 at 2:26PM
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    The pic looks like the reusable oil filter container. The ops problem was almost definitely the oil filler cap not screwed down or cross threaded. .I have had several minis and service them myself once out of warranty. The engines are good quite a bit of grunt for a 1600cc I change the oil way before the mileage quoted by BMW and only use Castrol edge. I drive it hard but keep it in good. order,never had any issues with the minis I have owned. The oil is the blood of a car
    None of my minis have used oil to any degree, in fact the only whinge about mini engine is the dipstick its awful. I would recommend the car and I lust over the 2 litre model , that's got to be my next mini:A
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