Club 80-90 Forums

im stupid, so stupid, the most stupid t25 owner in the world!!!!

i drove my bus to work this morning..... everything was fine........started driving home, got to a hill and lost power....... uh oh somethings not right but i carried on....... got to the next junction...............tap tap tap tap bang bang grrrrrr grrrr tap tap rattle rattle bang....... sh@t........ pulled over and lifted up engine lid and checked the oil................ no oil whatsoever.

how could i be so stupid. my 2lt ac does have a oil leak so i topp it up reglarly but ive just forgoten to do it this week.. so i had to walk to the nearest garage in the rain and dark. i got there and all they had was 15w 40 for diesel engines which my vw expert friend said would be ok. went to pay.......... "thats 36.89 please"............ 36.89!!!!!!!!!!! i said for 5litres whats in it gold flakes!!!....... i reluctantly handed over the card and started trekking uphill towards the wedge ( did i mention i left the wedge up a hill !! ) in the rain and in the dark.

filled her up and turned her over ......tap tap tap tap bang bang grrrrrr grrrr tap tap rattle rattle bang....... sh@t....... my bearings have run dry and are buggered. there was no way i was leaving the wedge so decided to drive it 12 miles home with my hazards on. for the first 3 miles it was sounding terrible and would lose all power if put into anything higer than 2nd. but the oil soon worked its way round and it sounded much better no more tap tap bangs but just the sound of bearing rattle .
has anyone done this before? what did you do? what broke? how much did it cost you to fix?
i made it home and now need a rebuild. how annoying is that especially when its my own stupid fault. ive just saved up the cash for a bodykit and alloys but now have to spend it on a rebuild.
have i kackered my engine for good or could she be fixed on the cheap?

i still love her.. although we have are ups and downs. i wouldnt dream off parting with her even though shes a bottomless money pit

bu**er hard luck mate.i would be looking for another engine if i were you.you have most likley done a fair bit of damage to your engine.good luck..

Oh dear....that may be an expesive one.

There are so many things that need oil in a hot engine..

how much oil had to go in?

about one and a half litres went back in. it now has too much oil in it. but thats better than none at all.

Hmmm...

so there wasn't a catastrophic dumping of oil.

but still the oil is part of your engine cooling and it was hot enough to start seizing components...

Sounds like second-hand engine time mate see if they have a caliper as well

change that diesel crap out of it, and put some good quality mineral oil in there, you didnt run it dry, just low.

you may have got away with it if your a lucky kinda chap........

no oil light coming on? we ran a leaky bay, 400 miles, every 50 miles have to top up. oil light came on dimly around corners meant it was time to stop! they really need to get low before they actually run out.

"Diesel crap"????
If you look on the packet, most D or petrol oil is duel rated and is actually the same stuff... so not an issue....

derv oil detergent rots the push rod seals......

D spec ONLY would be a problem.. IE if you got oil in bulk from a local truck stop etc... if only D rated
But all common "forecourt" brands will be duel rated in some shape or form.. API SJ/CD SJ for petrol / CD for Deisel...

As I say. its possibly only an issue for deisel only rated oils.. and prob only the "longlife" ones where they need to have the high resistance to the sulpher contents etc...

If you put 1.5 litres in and that was too much, it suggests that it was about 1 litre short. Isn't one litre the approx difference between the min and max marks on the dipstick? When the oil leaks on my current engine were more numerous than they are now, I was often putting 1.5 litres in at one go.

I'm no expert, but I'd be surprised if that would be enough to trash an engine. Were there underlying issues that got triggered? Or could it even have been a coincidence? Either way, engine swapping is part of wedge life.

If we ever meet up, I'll tell you some of my own embarassing stories. In private.

MacAiodh wrote......

If we ever meet up, I'll tell you some of my own embarassing stories. In private.[/quote]


Come on, let us all read about it..

Gotta agree with MacA
Sounds like other problem, possible valve seat has dropped, wich will lose power and depending on how its fell out woulf make a hell of a racket...

Valve seats drop out when a 2L Aircooled gets too hot..

OLD ONE wrote: Come on, let us all read about it..

Okay, compromise, if I ever get myself over to a club event we can do swapsies