Xantia 1.9TD R.I.P - Carless Again!!!!!

Chris55000 · Post by **Chris55000** » 24 Jun 2005, 03:11

Hi Everyone!!!!
[?]Carless Again!!!! Last Sunday I'd just got onto the M8 e/b at the Glasgow Charing X turning and I noticed a bit of blue/white smoke from the exhaust. About 300 yards or so later, the engine started to knock and clatter (the 1.9TD Xantia) then suddenly rev itself to bits with a huge cloud of white smoke from the back!!!! Worse still, it wouldn't switch off on the key, it continued to rev uncontrollably!!!
I frantically dived under the bonnet to try and stop it with the injection pump emergency shutoff lever - this didn't work either and by now the noise was deafening and everyone on the motorway had slowed down to gawp (and there were a few camera phones visible!!!) and cause mayhem!!!! The engine only finally clattered to a smoking stop when the top hose blew off the thermostat housing showering me im hot, but thankfully not scalding, antifreeze!!!!!
Not withstanding this, was this typical HG failure??? As I wasn't in the AA/RAC the rozzers got their own contractor to tow it off and scrap it there and then - I've still to pay the bill yet!!! The whole disaster occured in less than 400 yards & I was still about another 400 yards to the next (Glasgow X) exit!!!
For the 6500 or so miles I'd had it the engine had rarely read over 70C on the temp. gauge and I'd never had to top up the water/antifreeze in the expansion bottle!!!
[?]Can a HG just go suddenly in such a drastic way like that, and when I have the money to get another one the same, is having the HG replaced the only sure preventative or can someone suggest additional tips please?[?]
PS I'll get AA cover when I can afford my next One!!!! Xantia 3 R.I.P. was a late 1994 model and had done 137,735 miles when it blew up!!!
Chris Williams

fastandfurryous · Post by **fastandfurryous** » 24 Jun 2005, 03:35

That wasn't a head gasket. That was running on engine oil. Usually only when the engine is venting like a sod, or has completely worn out rings. Can also happen if the engine has been overfilled with oil.
The best way to stop the engine when this happens is to put the car in 5th, and stand hard on the brakes.
I'm surprised the car has been taken off to be scrapped. Did you ask them to do that?

mpr1956 · Post by **mpr1956** » 24 Jun 2005, 04:01

A truly impressive demise !! I wish I'd seen your poor cars' final moments, as my cars have always gone with barely a whimper to the scrapyard... ps.. that was quite a low mileage for such a catastrophic failure, barely half the expected mileage for these engines..

Chris55000 · Post by **Chris55000** » 24 Jun 2005, 04:17

Hi!!!
I ***had*** added 2 litres of 15/40 as the yellow oil light had been flashing!!!! I'd asked the recovery people to dispose of it as I'd only the coach fare back home to Brum,
and as it'd had blown off a coolant hose I'd naturally assumed it was coolant pressurisation from a blown HG/head waterway, and I'd no lolly to leave it at a local repairer or get it towed back to Brum!!!!!!
[:(]Does that mean it might not have happened if I'd only added (say) 1 litre and it might still have got me home if I'd refitted the hose & topped up the water again?????!!!![:(]
Arrrggggghhhhh!!!!!! If that's all it was next Xantia I get I'll do an oil/filter change
and measure the exact amount in - what's the correct capacity?
Chris Williams

mpr1956 · Post by **mpr1956** » 24 Jun 2005, 04:41

hi chris, by the time your oil light was flashing, it was probably too late to save the engine anyway.. and 2 litres wouldn't have overfilled it, so it looks like you have learnt the hard way not to neglect your engine oil level.. and unless you are DIY minded, it wouldn't have been economic to put another engine in. (you could get another two xantia's for the same money probably )

Chris55000 · Post by **Chris55000** » 24 Jun 2005, 05:04

PS!!!
Xantia 1 R.I.P:- M Reg 1.9TDSX - ABS duff and I was on the dole at the time!!!! Disposed of mid-1999 whilst still driveable but MOT had run out!!!
Xantia 2 R.I.P:- L Reg 2.0iSX - I admit partly self inflicted through letting brakes get too far gone - a totally mangled caliper bolt I couldn't unscrew saw it off!!!
Xantia 3 R.I.P:- M Reg 1.9TDSX - Last Sunday's spectacular M8 blowup - happened with no prior warning whatsoever - only the yellow oil level light occasionally (but not always) flashing at startup. There'd been no previous history of overheating, no strange noises,
no excessive smoke - just the occasional lumpy startup that dodgy glow-plugs might cause!!!
[:(]I'd asked the MOT chappie if he'd noticed anything about the engine that might predict failure but he said everything seemed OK apart from an MOT Smoke Density Failure (8.67 av density units) which they got down to 2.45 - 2.75 units by warming it up throughly and two bottles of injector - cleaner!!![:(]
As I say, I could only surmise from the way it went that a waterway/HG had gone!!!!
Chris Williams

nick · Post by **nick** » 24 Jun 2005, 06:08

If it was just the yellow oil level light (not the oil pressure one) flashing it may not actually have been low on oil at all, so the extra 2 litres added could have killed it [:(]
The oil level light on mine occasionally flashes for no apparent reason, even when the oil level is to the top mark on the dipstick.

DoubleChevron · Post by **DoubleChevron** » 24 Jun 2005, 06:42

????
Sounds pretty obvious what's happened. The engine is so overful with sump oil, the oils found a way into the combustion chambers. ie: your engine is running off of it's own sump oil.
All you need to do to fix this is remove the oil and fill the sump with the correct amount and it'll probably be as good as new.
seeya,
Shane L.
PS: Why didn't you just put it in 5th gear and let the clutch out to stall the motor ???

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 24 Jun 2005, 11:25

Don't Xantia engines come with that wonderful piece of ground breaking technology - the engine oil DIPSTICK?
Jeremy

fastandfurryous · Post by **fastandfurryous** » 24 Jun 2005, 12:09

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Chris55000

[:(]Does that mean it might not have happened if I'd only added (say) 1 litre and it might still have got me home if I'd refitted the hose & topped up the water again?????!!!![:(]
Arrrggggghhhhh!!!!!! If that's all it was next Xantia I get I'll do an oil/filter change
and measure the exact amount in - what's the correct capacity?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
If you had used the dipstick to measure the oil level, and made sure it was between min and max, then this would never have happened. The correct capacity for a 1.9TD engine is 5 litres from dry, or 4.5 litres without filter (never recommended)
The coolant hose will have blown off because all of a sudden, your engine was generating several hundered KW of heat, which will have boiled the coolant, built up steam pressure, and blown the weakest link in the cooling system, which is usually either a top or bottom hose.
It is possible that this will have warped the head in the process, and possibly overheated the engine so much that the pistons siezed in their bores (being aluminium in an iron bore)
All avoidable by ensuring the correct oil level. Sorry!

DoubleChevron · Post by **DoubleChevron** » 24 Jun 2005, 12:37

I don't think it would have created much heat or power, after all it was only revving hard, not actually working hard.
I just think the pressure generated by the water pump at such extreme revs blew the hose fitting off.
seeya,
Shane L.

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 24 Jun 2005, 13:12

if you rev the b***cks of an engine even stationary it will over heat,i think every thing has been said about the(DIPSTICK) REGARDS MALCOLM

NiSk · Post by **NiSk** » 24 Jun 2005, 13:45

It certainly sounds like the engine was running on engine oil - but that doesn't always mean the sump was overfull. I've heard of the same thing happening on an XM TD taxi - but this was due to it blowing the turbo oil seal and consuming engine oil via the charge air/intercooler. The only way of stopping that engine from revving its nuts off was to cut off the hose from the intercooler (literaly - with a knife!).
//NiSk

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 24 Jun 2005, 14:42

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by DoubleChevron

I don't think it would have created much heat or power, after all it was only revving hard, not actually working hard.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
When you've got an engine running away on its own engine oil, the timing isn't exactly precise and neither is the fueling so they can get pretty hot without burning a lot of fuel. I've heard of engines running away and only stopping when they've managed to burn holes in all of the piston tops.

ActivaV6uk · Post by **ActivaV6uk** » 24 Jun 2005, 16:27

I hate to say this but my comment would be, next car, read the hand book and understand it, get a heynes and read the weekly monthly yerly servicing section of that and then survice the car as recomended folowing all the guid lines.
My cousin drives cars with out survicing them and i'm sick of fixing him mistakes, he has done 10K on an old engine with out servicing it the oil was so low that the presure use to die round any corners due to starvation, when my best friend gave him oil, a filter and a sump plug seal he still hadnt serviced it for another 1000 milles ann the engine seized...
Andy