diesel engine runaway incident

[flatyre]

hey folks I just bought a 2.2ddti frontera to use as a general work motor, pricing jobs, towing, family runaround etc. I know its not a great motor but I always liked them and wanted one so when a mint lwb turned up on my doorstep (3 miles away) for £150 I had to have it, problem was a whinney turbo. So I picked it up today and set off home feeling chuffed, top spec, five brand new tyres, solid chassis, straight body, low on oil, but only had to drive three miles and didn't have any oil in the van. Next thing is she starts chugging then starts screaming her head off, turned ignition off and still she screamed, jumped out and stood back waiting for her to blow, but she finally died without any obvious bangs. It seems like she suffered "diesel engine runaway" which means she started drawing up the engine oil from the sump and used it as fuel. Anyway gave the key a few short blips and she still turned over so thankfully the low oil level probably saved her, removed the oil feed pipe from the turbo and blocked it off. Then started her up and drove home to the  sound of the turbo gradually seizing up, anyway will this happen again once a new turbo is fitted as I damn near sh*t myself and don't want it to happen again!

Edited October 2, 2017 by flatyre

[htb]

Been there done that, best to stick it in gear and stall on the brakes. Prob be OK with a replacment turbo

[benedmonds]

55 minutes ago, flatyre said:

hey folks I just bought a 2.2ddti frontera ..... one so when a mint lwb turned up on my .....

 

Not sure I would call it mint...

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

What's not to like?  At £150 it's cheaper than a shed for the chickens....  

[Gary Prentice]

At £150 it's mint. If worse comes to worse he'll make a profit between the new tyres and scrapping it. 

 

Free motoring, what's not to like?

[flatyre]

2 hours ago, benedmonds said:

Not sure I would call it mint...

Ok it may not be mint, duff turbo, but its been garaged its whole life, no dents, no rust, no rips in the interior, a quick trawl of gumtree, ebay etc. and a similar frontera with a working turbo is selling for a grand at least so its a solid buy as far as I can see, but as I didn't buy it for profit then at that price its worth every penny, priced a recon turbo for £100, that's £250 all in. You don't get much for £250 these days and they certainly don't come with fully electric leather heated seats!

[benedmonds]

I am not debating it's value, just the term "mint".... It is crazy what old cars are worth.  You would probably have to pay more for an non running saw of a similar age..

[Marula]

I had this with a landrover 110 tdi, I just used the gears to stall it, once the turbo was replaced it was all good (for a landrover that is).

[PeteB]

I've seen a couple of engines scavenge their own oil. One in a chipper which was overful of oil ran away on our assembly line and we stopped it but blocking off the air intake manifold. But not before it filled the shed with pure white smoke! The other was recently when a traffic management 3500kg truck let go - impressive smoke from that too!

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, PeteB said:

One in a chipper which was overful of oil ran away on our assembly line and we stopped it but blocking off the air intake manifold

I've never experienced it myself. Detroit diesels had a spring loaded butterfly in the manifold, you pulled the pin and air was cut off, just for this purpose, I suppose it was in case the blower seals failed. Stalling in gear wasn't an option due to the torque converter

Edited October 3, 2017 by openspaceman