Euro cruise disaster

pgunter said:
Ok, stupid thought this. Could a blocked CCV pipe have built up pressure and blown itself off and the resultant pressure release was the oil you witnessed ? Maybe the connected the engine hoses back up at BMW and thought we had better not try and get this going. It's not worth the cost ?

I take it no water in the oil ? Fudge on the cap ?

Good luck finding the fault and I hope it's an easy fix for you too.
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No water contamination at all. No gunge on oil filler cap. I don't think the CCV pipes can blow off without fracturing as they have positive lock fittings. There is no oil contamination on the valve. I will take it off at the weekend and have a better look.
 
Did any of your internet searches explain what caused the whistling sound, you say that it makes a sucking sound when cranked, this is probably the same sound. When the failure happened the engine was turning considerably faster than cranking speed.
 
Might be worth taking the Disa valve out of the manifold Garry to see if it's still in one piece

Tony.
 
Jack Ratt said:
No water contamination at all. No gunge on oil filler cap. I don't think the CCV pipes can blow off without fracturing as they have positive lock fittings. There is no oil contamination on the valve. I will take it off at the weekend and have a better look.
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Just read this whole thread. Sorry that you had all the trouble. I'm happy that neither of you were hurt and it's good that your baby is back home for TLC.....................Frankie
 
Jack Ratt said:
No water contamination at all. No gunge on oil filler cap. I don't think the CCV pipes can blow off without fracturing as they have positive lock fittings. There is no oil contamination on the valve. I will take it off at the weekend and have a better look.
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After I read all this, I kept running it over in my head trying to think of what the problem was. I looked at all the clues you gave. You said that a loud bang was heard. There was a sucking or whistling sound. There was loss of oil. A rattle sound. I thought first that the bang might be something that had built up pressure and released, as what is a 'bang'? It's usually some sort of compression that's released suddenly. I couldn't add all these things up together with the bang..............the oil loss, a rattle, a sucking or whistle,.............. I tried to think of how oil can be lost in an engine. Usually a leak of some sort. If it's under pressure then it's fast, not under pressure then slowly. And what about the sucking/whistle sound. That pulling in air through a relatively small area. It just didn't add up.
Then I thought that I had not started with the correct line of thinking. The bang. That sound can be made in other ways, other than compression. It can be something breaking. Suddenly things seemed to come together. It might be totally wrong in the diagnosis but it could answer alot of the questions. I think that the bang might have been a piston rod. If it broke through the crankcase, there would be loss of oil when the other pistons were on the downstroke and when they were on the upstroke it would creat the reverse action of sucking air into the crankcase. It might be why the dealership gave the thumbs down on fixing the car. It may be the reason loss of oil is not obvious when the engine is not running. I desperatly hope this is not the reason as the engine would be shot. I hope I'm wrong. Let me know what you find out...................Frankie
 
Jue had a similar problem on her Sorento Gary. Turned out to be a piston gone. Hopefully yours won't be so bad. Is the air box/filter clear of Lol?
 
Totally agree, starting with a compression test will tell you if its worth pursuing, Pauls made a good point about the CCV becoming blocked and blowing a hole. Most of the pipes are hidden from sight, but that wouldn't stop the engine from starting, it would just make it very lumpy.

Happy hunting ! :D
 
Frankie i like very much your deduction, despite the fact that i woudn't like to be true!:(
 
FRANKIE said:
After I read all this, I kept running it over in my head trying to think of what the problem was. I looked at all the clues you gave. You said that a loud bang was heard. There was a sucking or whistling sound. There was loss of oil. A rattle sound. I thought first that the bang might be something that had built up pressure and released, as what is a 'bang'? It's usually some sort of compression that's released suddenly. I couldn't add all these things up together with the bang..............the oil loss, a rattle, a sucking or whistle,.............. I tried to think of how oil can be lost in an engine. Usually a leak of some sort. If it's under pressure then it's fast, not under pressure then slowly. And what about the sucking/whistle sound. That pulling in air through a relatively small area. It just didn't add up.
Then I thought that I had not started with the correct line of thinking. The bang. That sound can be made in other ways, other than compression. It can be something breaking. Suddenly things seemed to come together. It might be totally wrong in the diagnosis but it could answer alot of the questions. I think that the bang might have been a piston rod. If it broke through the crankcase, there would be loss of oil when the other pistons were on the downstroke and when they were on the upstroke it would creat the reverse action of sucking air into the crankcase. It might be why the dealership gave the thumbs down on fixing the car. It may be the reason loss of oil is not obvious when the engine is not running. I desperatly hope this is not the reason as the engine would be shot. I hope I'm wrong. Let me know what you find out...................Frankie
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The engine turns over freely so the conrods / piston rods are not broken. I'm sure the engine block is not split as far as I can see and it still holds water and oil.
The sucking/whistling sound is a symptom of a failed CCV according to my research but mine looks still in one piece.
Mysteriously, I can't see where the oil was leaking from. When I turned the key to turn the engine over, there is no oil expelling from the engine. My garage floor is dry and stain free.
The guys following me said they heard a bang and an oily cloud prior to me stopping. I did not hear it myself.
My exhaust tail pipe looks normal. There is no oily residue that I would expect to see if I was burning oil.

I plan to do a compression test at the weekend if the test kit arrives and I will also put my diagnostics kit on it to see what codes show up.

Worst case scenario is that I buy myself another Zed. I'll probably wait until the end of the summer though before doing so which will give me more time to investigate the problems with this one.

Can't believe it's happened. The car was running like a watch prior to blowing up =))
 
Good luck Gary, hope it's not too much and you can get it sorted.
 
It very much looks like something was blown off but re-instated by the BMW dealer over there and then cleaned up. Does it look like the engine has been steam cleaned or similar? If though it was that simple, why didn't they say they'd fixed it.
Good luck with your investigations at the weekend.
 
When it happened, I didn't hear anything but you certaily pulled off in a cloud of smoke and there was oil all over the left hand side of the engine bay. It is a pity we did not have a more poweful torch to look around but in the bright sunlight we couldn't see anything.
 
Good info to remember Mike.

Tony.
 
Jack Ratt said:
The engine turns over freely so the conrods / piston rods are not broken. I'm sure the engine block is not split as far as I can see and it still holds water and oil.
The sucking/whistling sound is a symptom of a failed CCV according to my research but mine looks still in one piece.
Mysteriously, I can't see where the oil was leaking from. When I turned the key to turn the engine over, there is no oil expelling from the engine. My garage floor is dry and stain free.
The guys following me said they heard a bang and an oily cloud prior to me stopping. I did not hear it myself.
My exhaust tail pipe looks normal. There is no oily residue that I would expect to see if I was burning oil.

I plan to do a compression test at the weekend if the test kit arrives and I will also put my diagnostics kit on it to see what codes show up.

Worst case scenario is that I buy myself another Zed. I'll probably wait until the end of the summer though before doing so which will give me more time to investigate the problems with this one.

Can't believe it's happened. The car was running like a watch prior to blowing up =))
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I'm glad to hear that you feel it wasn't a piston rod. That would have meant the end. It still has me scratching my head as to what happened. I'll be very interested to hear the final result..................Frankie
 
I managed to borrow an endoscope today from one of our boiler surveyors that will help me to look all over the outside of the engine prior to starting to strip it. I can have a look inside the engine too.
 
mwpe said:
When it happened, I didn't hear anything but you certaily pulled off in a cloud of smoke and there was oil all over the left hand side of the engine bay. It is a pity we did not have a more poweful torch to look around but in the bright sunlight we couldn't see anything.
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Was it a cloud of smoke from the exhaust Mike, @mwpe
 
If a crankcase breather hose gets blocked, the oil mist will find its way out by the easiest possible route(s).

Simultaneously, the mist could have blown the hose off covering the engine in oil, and got past the piston rings and gone out of the exhaust. The bang could have been the hose coming off, or splitting.

I'd take a good look at the hoses under the intake manifold. This will probably mean removing the manifold to have a proper look.
 
S
Pingu said:
If a crankcase breather hose gets blocked, the oil mist will find its way out by the easiest possible route(s).

Simultaneously, the mist could have blown the hose off covering the engine in oil, and got past the piston rings and gone out of the exhaust. The bang could have been the hose coming off, or splitting.

I'd take a good look at the hoses under the intake manifold. This will probably mean removing the manifold to have a proper look.
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Should it not still start and chuck oil out then.
My concern after reading this entire post is the fact it no longer fires up
 
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