Fiesta Help

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mezuk04
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Fiesta Help

Post by mezuk04 »

My, I suppose, future brother in law has informed that his R-Reg 1.3 Petrol Fiesta Encore has started losing oil.

I asked the obvious whether any on the floor where ever its been left standing and he said no.

The symptoms I believe are smoking at the back, a 'new' noise from the engine and the oil obviously going somewhere, so im guessing its burning it!

But why would it suddenly start burning oil?

If it was headgasket failure, would it just leak oil?

Whats the likely problem with it and whats the likely fix?

Since he acquired the car off me, I thought it would be worth asking!

Regards
Chris
Volkswagen Golf 59' 1.6TD S :(
alan s
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Post by alan s »

If it's the same basic engine as the one they've been using for years, possibly broken rings. Usually if it's been overheated that's enough to cause one of them to look for a hole to fall down and sudden expansion and contraction can cause rings to either break or just lose tension.
Does it smoke on accelleration/under load? If so, then possibly rings for certain. If it is after decelleration, you may be lucky and it may be valve guides or stem seals or possibly even a gasket. Either way, doesn't sound good.
I think they may have even stopped selling the Festerers over here as I have heard of some being real problems.


Alan S
RIP Sept 19th 2008.

She said "Put the cat out" She didn't mention it was on fire!!
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

The 'new' noise would further suggest a failed piston ring. Valve stems dont suddenly start to be noisy, neither do the stem seals.
Anders (DK) - '90 BX16Image
mezuk04
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Post by mezuk04 »

Thank you both, I shall be texting him to ask about the acceleration/deacceleration
Volkswagen Golf 59' 1.6TD S :(
jeremy
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Post by jeremy »

When the engine is new the bores are nice and circular, the rings have their designed temper and fit tightly in the piston grooved - so they seal well and the heat they pick up due to combustion gasses can be fed into the pistons and bores and they stay relatively cool.

As the engine wears the bore becomes a bit oval but the rings still seal quite well and all is well. They are however running progressively hotter as the volume of gasses passing them increases, and this degrades the ring metal a bit - and eventually it gets brittle.

Things gradually get worse - the bore wears more - the rings degrade and loose some of their spring - and the contact with both the bores and the pistons gets poorer - which in turn allows the rings to run hotter - and so the ring damage increases - until eventually they start to break up.

Breakage is usually accompanied by massive blowby - which is readily identifiable by the engine blowing oil out of every joint - covering itself in oil, and by fuming as well. If the filler cap is removed and you choke on the fumes coming out - rings gone or piston damage.

Sometimes if the piston ring groove wear isn't too much you may be able to rejuvenate it for a while with a new set of rings and its probably worth doing the shell bearings and the timing chain at the same time.
jeremy
mezuk04
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Post by mezuk04 »

When he took the filler cap off last night to top up on oil, you could see some smoke coming out of the cap (not a lot, but just noticable)....but I wasnt sure if this was the hot inside coming out to the cold air.
Volkswagen Golf 59' 1.6TD S :(
jeremy
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Post by jeremy »

I can assure you that if its broken rings the fumes are much more than just noticeable! You always get a few fumes - but with broken rings - well - you'll recognise it.

The thing will normally run badly - with a slight pulse to the exhaust as well.
jeremy
alan s
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Post by alan s »

I know nowt about Festerers (about as much as I want to) :twisted: but I wonder if perhaps there may be some kind of non return valve in the breathing system that has collapsed.
You'd be surprised how much oil a car with a blocked breather can use and a jammed/collapsed/sticky valve might explain the noise.


Alan S
RIP Sept 19th 2008.

She said "Put the cat out" She didn't mention it was on fire!!
bxbodger
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Post by bxbodger »

Just put yourself out of your misery and run a compression test!

If it's ye olde crossflow kent pushrod lump rebranded as 'endura' then they all rattle'n'smoke after a while anyway...it'll still run for years though.
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Post by mezuk04 »

Got the call this evening to tell me that he has blown the engine up .... and thats all I know
Volkswagen Golf 59' 1.6TD S :(
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Kowalski
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Post by Kowalski »

Does that mean the problem solved?

Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to fix it now ;)
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Post by mezuk04 »

:D

Thank Lordy hehehe
Volkswagen Golf 59' 1.6TD S :(
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