The aftermath of extreme fun in a VXR ...

[Shadeyman]

Spent most of the day with a friend thrashing the crap out of his missus's Astra VXR.

After a few laps it started to sound very ill. I took a quick look under the hood and and nothing jumped out and slapped me around the face apart from the oil, there was none. I said he needed oil and he needed oil now so we headed home looking for a garage to buy some oil. The car started making some very odd noises so we crawled to the nearest garage.

Put 3.5 liters in her and this was the result.

[ame="http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm189/Shadeyman67/?action=view&current=06022012010.mp4"]06022012010.mp4 video by Shadeyman67 - Photobucket@@AMEPARAM@@http://vid296.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid296.photobucket.com/albums/mm189/Shadeyman67/06022012010.mp4@@AMEPARAM@@vid296@@AMEPARAM@@296@@AMEPARAM@@mm189/Shadeyman67/06022012010@@AMEPARAM@@mp4[/ame]

 

[dave]

you should have put the oil in the engine not the fuel tank

 

[Fiatpuntomk2b]

sure you didnt flip the smoke screen button ?

 

[Andy Monty]

White smoke.......... Head gasket?

 

[Shadeyman]

White smoke.......... Head gasket?

Thats what I though but not water loss at all ...

Turbo must be a write off(stage 1).

I suspect cheap or incorrect oil has be used during a service. Possibly a blockage in the turbo feed.

Car started loosing power coming out of the corners, checked the boost and it was down by 0.2 bar

2 more laps and all hell broke loose, weird noises, engine temp high, power loss, smoke from exhaust.

Decides to go back to mine to check it over, only just about made it.

The amount of smoke it was producing was extreme, by the time we were near my place it was so bad I couldn't follow him any more because I couldn't see.

 

[arc]

Looks like a turbo failure.

Did you not see it deploy it's smoke screen on the track, looks like it's burnt off all the oil - then if the engine has been run with low oil then you may have done other damage to it. I don't understand why it was thrashed for 2 more laps after you noticed it was done on power and boost was down by 0.2 bar.

Bit daft driving it to the nearest garage when it was low on oil too.

 

[ChrisUK]

Thats what I though but not water loss at all ...

Turbo must be a write off(stage 1).

I suspect cheap or incorrect oil has be used during a service. Possibly a blockage in the turbo feed.

Car started loosing power coming out of the corners, checked the boost and it was down by 0.2 bar

2 more laps and all hell broke loose, weird noises, engine temp high, power loss, smoke from exhaust.

Decides to go back to mine to check it over, only just about made it.

The amount of smoke it was producing was extreme, by the time we were near my place it was so bad I couldn't follow him any more because I couldn't see.

If its a corsa (can't see vid) I'm guessing its headgasket. They're renowned for it, its a defect. Head over to vaux / VXR forums.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

you sure you didn't go overboard and overfilled the oil?

definately looks more like its burning something it shouldn't be rather than a fuel air missmatch

 

[Tazio]

Looks like turbo or head gasket failure. If it's not using water then I'd bet on the turbo. Do these engines run to death with their own engine oil when turbos fail? A pretty common occurance with old Discos and some ohter turbo diesels. That might explain the lack of engine oil, but I haven't heard of this happening to petrol engines before.

-Tazio

 

[ChrisUK]

Looks like turbo or head gasket failure. If it's not using water then I'd bet on the turbo. Do these engines run to death with their own engine oil when turbos fail? A pretty common occurance with old Discos and some ohter turbo diesels. That might explain the lack of engine oil, but I haven't heard of this happening to petrol engines before.

-Tazio

These engines also have a problem with running lean above 4,900rpm cause 'spirited' drivers to melt pistons.

 

[Shadeyman]

Put my finger up the exhaust pipe, finger was covered in oil.

Called a mate to confirm what I thought(Turbo failure), he said its a common fault, turbo thrust bearing fails and blows the oil seals.

Just finished taking the turbo out of his Astra VXR, must have been atleast 1 litre of oil in his exhaust system, thrust bearing and oil seals deffinately gone.

For those that are interested I've attached a few pics. The pipe from the turbo to intercooler is still full of oil.

 

[wegi]

Ooft.

 

[maddogmorg]

Time for an uprated turbo?

 

[Shadeyman]

Time for an uprated turbo?

It had already been uprated, had uprated internals installed last year, 360 bearings etc.

 

[richydraper]

... A pretty common occurance with old Discos and some ohter turbo diesels. That might explain the lack of engine oil, but I haven't heard of this happening to petrol engines before...

it can happen to ANY Turbo Diesel.

petrol is a solvent.

diesel is an oil.

engine lubricants are oils.

what happens is a seal goes and passes oil into the intake it gets burnt in the cylinders and then out thru the exhaust spinning the turbo. this drags in more oil past the damaged seals into the cylinders and out of the exhaust. oil pressure rises feeding more oil into the intake... once this 'feedback' occurs THE ONLY way of stopping the air supply(jacket or rags shoved down the intake). you can turn the ignition off but since the engine is now running on engine oil and not the electrically controlled diesel supply it will rev ever higher until you get valve bounce at which point revs will plateau it will eventually use all the engine oil and seize.

 

[Tazio]

it can happen to ANY Turbo Diesel.

You're absolutely right, can happen to any TD. What I was saying was that it seems to be quite common with old Discos and some others, like MB's with huge mileage.

-Tazio

 

[m20b25]

it can happen to ANY Turbo Diesel.

I couldn't have put it better myself

 

[jenks69]

I've never understood why people let them run on, get in turn everything off, stick it in gear and lift of clutch and stall!

Or have I missed the concept all together?

 

[m20b25]

I've never understood why people let them run on, get in turn everything off, stick it in gear and lift of clutch and stall!

Or have I missed the concept all together?

Most people wouldn't think of that on the spot...

But how to stall it if it were an automatic?

 

[jenks69]

Most people wouldn't think of that on the spot...

But how to stall it if it were an automatic?

Touche!