Honest John - modern diesels

One problem experienced with the Mitsubishi GDi is that it cokes up rapidly, so it's not quite there yet. Having seen the inside of one after 100,000 miles, I'm amazed it ran at all.

Sid

I agree.

Indeed.

I'd get a Zetor Crystal from Cz. More chance of arriving home vaguely warm and with some hearing left.

Touchy eh? I was only adding to your incomplete information.

In the distant past, I've had to 'turn off' hot carburetor petrols by switching off the key while in gear and then stalling them.

In any case, if any engine doesn't 'turn off', you're not going to sit there and wait on it wrecking itself are you? 'Turn off', to me, is whatever it takes to stop the engine turning.

Zathras gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

*I* wouldn't, no... But I can picture an awful lot of people running screaming from the car as it revs it's nadgers off in a cloud of smoke.

Nor me. Never experienced it or known anyone who suffered it..including in our Peugeot diesel fleet in the last..10 years or so.

I'd never heard of this happening before it happened to me.

*hangs head in shame*

I did just that, though "wander away in bemusement" was more like it. I did think about opening the bonnet and choking it or something, but I didn't fancy putting my hands anywhere under the bonnet. Stalling it didn't cross my mind, but I was younger and even stupider back then..

Mike P

With a diesel you should get enough time. One of the characteristics is that they don't rev very high because they cannot burn the fuel properly so ingesting unmetered lumps of engine oil doesn't make it run that well/powerfully. Also, diesels don't rev up anything like as quickly as a petrol. Unless totally asleep, you should be able to catch it before it hurts itself.

Official training advice for VAG technicians when faced with a runaway diesel is to try to stop it by throwing water at the air intake if considered safe to do so, then evacuate the workshop.

Chris

My SD1 has one too - but I've never managed to get it to work. Just out of curiosity really, because the oil level has never dropped to minimum between oil changes - apart from when I tried a modern fully synthetic.

Dealer under warrantee would only have to do something if consumption was proven to be in excess of service spec. It's in service spec of most engines. Limit is usually 1L/1000miles so could have used 7L in

7K still been considered OK. Just not ok to not keep the oil level up to the mark, that's a user/owner error and they get to pay for the mistake. Should have had at least 5L in top ups. Once it's below the mark it tends to get hotter as it has less sump surface to cool it and less time in the sump. As it's hotter it thins more so it will go past rings and seals easier so burn quicker.

Probably wasn't run in correctly and has glazed bores from pussy footing it.

How about: regular suspension arms, brake discs, rear suspension bushes and a/r bar links, injectors, pumps, starter motors, rear spoiler falling off, rear calipers, handbrake cables, alternators, air pipes on old ones, coil packs, leads, rear door handles, heater fan resistor packs, maf sensors, air con pipes, condensers usually the engine itself is ok, apart from when the crank pulley goes loose and all the valves get bent. oh and that lovely problem on autos when they will go backwards but not forward, something with the abs as I recall.

Bear in mind that all these problems have been on a handful of cars. My opinion of them is unprintable, comparatively the sierra was like a rolls royce, even a cortina was a nicer, less troublesome car.

Mrcheerful

it is now back from the dealer with a short engine, Fords paid !!!

Mrcheerful

Any ideas on how to do it with an automatic?

Stick an old sock in the air intake.

Bob

LOL. From what I saw on Scrapheap Challenge a while back, suffocation is way too slow and tricky a method to stop a runaway. In that one, the big diesel was being suffocated (by rags and junk shoved up the air intake) but only stopped when its con-rods broke.

Zathras gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Would that have been when it ingested and tried to compress a rag?

IIRC there was a batch of Xantias with the wrong dipsticks. They suffered from it, if they were cursed with an owner who checked the oil...

Good point. I have actually done this on an over-running auto (which I admit is not nearly as big a problem as a run away) by just putting it in drive and waiting with my foot on the brake.

On a runaway, this might get you a few more seconds if there are two of you and one can suffocate the engine while the other is firmly on the foot brake. However, you'd still need to be quick to get the engine stopped or risk losing the gearbox clutches as well as the engine! Converting almost all of your engine output into heat in the gearbox isn't something you want to do for long..