Oil virtually run dry! :-(

The message from snipped-for-privacy@foobar.clara.co.uk contains these words:

Does it have glow-plugs? If so then it's quite likely to be a failure of two or more of 'em.

snipped-for-privacy@foobar.clara.co.uk was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

If the battery and glowplugs are OK and you're getting fuel to the engine, that'll be lack of compression then...

Most, if not all, bearings, pistons, bores - more or less anything that moves inside the engine.

I'd say the water pump is probably still salvageable.

Well, it'll crank better with less compression, obviously...

Ahem. I assume it's never occured to you to check the oil? It's a Diesel, it's more likely to burn a tad than an equivalent petrol car.

Given your description above I'll save the money on the oil to buy something a bit stronger so you can fortify yourself for the time when the bill arrives.

How many miles do you do between MOTs, and what does the handbook say about oil change intervals? Are the two even within shouting distance of each other?

I used to know when the 405 was running low and needed a top up, because the oil light would start to flicker under heavy braking or cornering (roundabouts at speed usually). Not very mechanically sympathetic i'm sure, but it was only a SO405, and it didn't start using more oil over the 3 years I owned it :D

Personally, I'd top up the oil with the cheapest stuff I could possibly find and see what happens.

How come?

TIA

Did the oil pressure light come on? If not, I wonder why not. Of course, there may still be oil in the engine - not enough to show on the dipstick but enough to enable it to get pressure and keep the light off.

If there's any oil in there then you may not have damaged the engine despite what the previous posters have suggested. But then the question arises as to why there's all that blue smoke and why it won't start. This may not be related to the oil issue at all.

Rob Graham

I'd assume due to the higher compression ratio forcing oil past the piston rings or something like that.

Maybe not. Presumably you would have noticed had the oil warning light come on on the dash. As long as the warning light works, and didn't come on, the engine has still been receiving oil, so there's a good chance that the low oil level hasn't caused any damage.

You should certainly top up the oil before taking it to the garage. I would advise you get it running. Then decide what to do. IMO the low oil level has nothing whatsoever to do with it's failure to start. Mike.

================= I would do the same. See how much oil goes in to bring it up to the correct level and then work out how little oil was actually in there. Damage may not be as bad as the pessimists suggest because it hasn't siezed apparently.

Cic.

glow plugs shot??

The message from "Robin Graham" contains these words:

And does it come on before you start the car?

But the higher compression is on the non-oily side of the piston rings IYSWIM

That's a good point.

I don't know why they would, then.

I reckon it's one of those nasty compromise issues, as you've got higher compressions you need more lubricating oil to cope with the higher piston ring pressures. & I reckon it's a lot to do with what's historically acceptable, VW's have always burnt more oil tha Ford etc.

Exactly, if the light never came on it's probably fine.

FWIW, I ran my s**te old Mondeo nearly empty. Topped it up again and it was fine. Then I did it again, and the big ends died. You'll know that's happened because it will sound even more horrific than usual.

If it got to the point where its chucking out blue smoke then its knackered.

I quote from the original post...

"Cranking power seems healthy enough, the engine turns over fine, it did try to catch a couple of times, but there's *lots* of blue smoke coming out of the back!"

Now tell me the last time you saw an engine that had lots of blue smoke coming out of the back which wasn't knackered?

Loads of blue smoke bellowing out the back and it not firing not a problem then? The fact that blue smoke = shafted piston rings and a diesel not firing can be due to low compression from shafted piston rings not being an issue...