Any Known Common Failures With 1.8 V6 Engine?
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Morning All :)
Just a quick question, I have a listed a car for sale on the for sale forum that has a seized engine, it is the father in laws he only had it a week and is gutted to say the least!
The engine seized on a trip from Oldham to Cambridge on Sunday, he checked all the fluids etc before he left and all was well, obviously somewhere along th line something has gone very wrong and he has lost all the oil hence it seizing, I was just wondering if any of you know of any common thing that goes on these engines to cause this?
He did say the heads had a very slight tappet tap but nothing major and he ignored this as he is used to Fords that tap tap tap all day every day :)
I do not think repairing it or transplanting a new engine in is an option, I am nearly 350 miles away from him and he just does not have the confidence anymore to try it on his own.
Shame really he fell in love with it the moment he saw it so it was a wee bit of an impulse buy, he is absolutely gutted now :(
Thanks in advance ;)
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Hey,
That's an unfortunate story, and certainly not a common one, in fact probably the first oil starvation story of that kind here. These engines do indeed tap - which is usually HLAs or the friction gear spring on the rear cams.
Common places for loss of oil would be seeping past the valve cover gaskets and the distributor O ring. Neither of these should prove fatal, unless unattended for weeks. Was it burning oil badly? There'd need to be serious blue smoke at that rate though.
Other than that I could only guess at one off faults like damage to sump, sump drain plug loose, oil pressure sender disintegrated… Second hand engines can be had cheap, which is fine if you can DIY it. Shame you're out of range.
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I ran mine with the oil level well below the minimum for a long time (my fault i didnt check the levels when i bought the car and only checked because it was tapping like hell) didnt really feel any different to drive and didnt feel like it was seizing up. this is a strange one. you can get a K8 engine for around £100-£150 + delivery so it is not the end of the world should you choose to fix it up and keep it. sorry about the car though, i had a car like that once and it was so annoying, especially as i just bought it
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Thanks for taking the time to reply guys I appreciate it :)
Since the AA relayed him back to Oldham from Peterborough (nice!) he has not even looked at it, he is a litle gutted to say the least as all I know is that when he left Oldham he checked all the fluids and everything was fine, no obvious smoke to indicate any sever oil burning in fact he said it was running great. The all of a sudden he heard a loud blowing noise inside the car he thought it was an exhaust problem but when he opened the window the noise was not coming from outside, he said it seemed to be coming from the back of the engine into the cabin, then as he slowed down to pull over the oil light came on and it stalled never to work again!
I have been doing some research this morning and it seems we may have some re-course in law under the consumer rights act, he bought it from an actual garage so it seems because it has only been a week there may be a "fit for purpose" loop hole which we may be able to use to force a refund from the dealer. Dealer so far has said "no warranty implied or given so tough luck!" TOugh bloody luck!! Grrrrrrrr he wants to be grateful I am so far away I tell ya!
I am going to give his local trading standards a ring this afternoon see if I can get them to nail his hat on :)
Thanks again
Chris
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yes i have been told this, you are protected within the trading standards act up to 1 month after purchase i believe, i would do it mate, you may even be able to keep the car too ;)
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if its from a garage you are covered fully, I have an apprentice at work in a similar boat that I am helping him with as his was a 56 plate polo turbo that has been clocked, accident repaired and the timing went out on its own, mention tradiing standards and its all a lot easier for you
The only thing I could say on these that it possibly could have caused it is the sumps rust a lot if the shields are missing and it could have dumped the lot on the road without knowing or the oil filter has burst or all the water has dumped itself somewhere
these V6 engines a very bulletproof, over engineered and still made today so they have stood the test of time well and its very rare to hear of a seizure on here
