Total Oil loss.

[ant7]

hi all,
well, nice day today, decided to take the car for a spin, got to a friends house fine, coming home, got within a few miles, Out of the corner of my eye i notice a red light on the dash come on, so took the car out of gear turned off the ignition and free wheeled to a stop on a quiet road etc, got out the car to find oil all up the the whole length of the car, and underneath which quickly covered the road!
Had to call out the break down service to get a tow home, havent looked at it yet, but it seem like the front oil cooler has failed, anyone else had this issue ??? if so any help on what could have caused this, and what the repocusions might be as far as the engine etc, it still turns over fine by hand, and i switched it off as soon as i saw the light come on, but i am aprehensive to say the least.
Car is a 3.2 carrera.
Anthony.

[VitoV]

Odds are no major damage to the engine. If a couple seconds of running with low oil pressure destroyed an engine, carmakers wouldn't bother with oil lights.

[ant7]

Originally Posted by VitoV

Odds are no major damage to the engine. If a couple seconds of running with low oil pressure destroyed an engine, carmakers wouldn't bother with oil lights.

I realy am hoping thats the case when i inspect things!
Anthony.

[MBEngineering]

HI Anthony
the flexi oil line to the front cooler has prob' split at one of the clamped on ends of the flexi pipe, would be a good idear the check the ones behind the rear wheel also, I would run the engine at a low RPM when you get it back to gether and keep a eye on the oil pressure as I have seen to many 3.2 engine with run bearing when the oil has been low in the oil tank and pressure loss, first indication is a flicking oil pressure gauge from the air in the oil, as it has not had time to separate in the tank.

regards mike

[ant7]

hi All,
thanks for your support on this, Anyway, i got to work this morning and removed the front wheel to inspect things,Obviously there was so much oil everywhere that it was difficult initialy to see where the oil had come from, So, decideded to remove the flexy pipes to start with, and, this is what i found!
As you can see from the first pick the pipes although quite dirtly dont look to bad, However, the second pick shows the whole story!
Needless to say, I will be replacing both oil lines with a new pair this week, getting some new oil, and we will see how things go, wish me luck!
Anthony.

[lucittm]

I didn't see what the year of your car was, but this will become more common as our cars age with the original parts. Likely this hose is 25+ years old. For those of us who would like to keep their cars past the 20 year mark (logical end of life for most rubber or "soft" parts) a list of the parts that should be replaced would be valuable. Maybe a front to back method of replacement, or maybe by highest priority.

Any volunteers to create a generic list of necessary replacement parts that would work for all cars, say from 1964 to 1994 including a P/N from any year to help us identify the part? Unless this already exists...

Mark

[ant7]

Originally Posted by lucittm

I didn't see what the year of your car was, but this will become more common as our cars age with the original parts. Likely this hose is 25+ years old. For those of us who would like to keep their cars past the 20 year mark (logical end of life for most rubber or "soft" parts) a list of the parts that should be replaced would be valuable. Maybe a front to back method of replacement, or maybe by highest priority.

Any volunteers to create a generic list of necessary replacement parts that would work for all cars, say from 1964 to 1994 including a P/N from any year to help us identify the part? Unless this already exists...

Mark

+!
My car is 1985.
Anthony.

[PFM]

FYI,

Even braided steel lines on cars that were modified for track use will fail over time, the rubber gets hard etc.

[ant7]

Originally Posted by PFM

FYI,

Even braided steel lines on cars that were modified for track use will fail over time, the rubber gets hard etc.

I totaly understand that, my original point was,because the pipes looked ok at first glance dont take it for granted that they are! CHECK YOUR PIPES! As you say, mine were probably the originals, so were bound to go at any time.
Anthony.

[ant7]

Hi All,
well, here is the latest update, After replacing both front oil cooler pipes a few days ago, I received the new oil today, I first removed the sump plug to remove the remainder of what oil was left in the crank case, and also to inspect the magnetised drain plug for any hints of metal filings indicating damage etc, but all was clean no bits what so ever, a good sign, so i poured in a safe amount of the new oil to start with [around 8 litres] next, i removed the coil lead and turned the engine over by the starter motor a few times to get the oil pressure light to go out, replaced the coil lead, and said a little prayer before turning the key, well, it fired right up with good oil pressure [around 3 bar on tickover cold] so i left it run for arounf 5 mins before turning it off to check the oil and top up etc, I started it back up and left it run for a further 5 minuits befor giving it a bit of a rev, all seemed fine, no diffrence in engine sound to before i lost all the oil, so, I then took the car out for a few miles just to make sure, after around 20 miles, all was still fine, no bouncy oil pressure guage etc so, i guess i was lucky!
To say i am relieved would be an understatement!
Anthony.

[E Sully]

You say you turned it off to check the oil. Hopefully you mean you turned it off after checking the oil level to ad more. If you checked the level without the engine running you will have put in too much oil.
Good to hear there was no damage.

[ant7]

Originally Posted by E Sully

You say you turned it off to check the oil. Hopefully you mean you turned it off after checking the oil level to ad more. If you checked the level without the engine running you will have put in too much oil.
Good to hear there was no damage.

Hi Ed,
sorry for any confusion, what i meant was, i checked on the dipstick before i turned it off just to see [roughly] how much more oil i would need to put in to bring it up to around half way between the marks on the dipstick etc. then switched it off, poured in some more oil and re-started and checked the level again, while it was running!
Anthony.

[VitoV]

Glad to hear it turned out ok, Anthony! Good thing you have sharp reflexes!

[ant7]

hi All,
thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, and for all your support on this, much appreciated.
Anthony.

[Eagledriver]

While the normal procedure is to check the oil with the engine running, you can check it immediately after shutting it off. You can see that there is no change by turning the ignition back on without starting the engine and the level guage will be in the same place. The oil tank takes several hours to drain back into the engine, although it will start right away slowly.

-Andy