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Engine self destruct feature ... A warning
plentywahalla - 24/12/12 at 02:07 PM

Had a call from the missus on Friay morning. She was half a mile from work when the red oil warning light came on. She parked up and the engine sounded like a bag of nails. I sprinted over and could see the problem straight away, there was a trail of oil to the spot where she parked up, and a pool under the car.

A quick hunt round under the hood and the fault could be traced by the saturation of oil all round and under the oil pressure sender. The sender switch had fractured and oil had been squirting through the sender and out of the hole where the cable plug fits in. It had dumped virually the entire contents of the sump in about 10 miles!

A quick visit to the Vauxhall dealer (1.2 Ecotec in a Corsa) and a new sender and a bit of grudging admission. Apperently this is a known fault and the sender has been modified.

Fortunately she was only doing about thirty and stopped quickly. The engine seems to be OK. If we had been stonking down the outside lane of the M25 it could have been a lot worse, especially if the broken sender had failed to warn of low oil pressure.

Anyone who has a similar engine is best advised to invest £8 in a new modified sender. At least it could save the cost of 5 litres of oil, at most it could save the cost of a new engine.

Nickp - 24/12/12 at 02:12 PM

Or just don't buy a Vauxhall

mookaloid - 24/12/12 at 02:21 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nickp
Or just don't buy a Vauxhall


I wouldn't

scrappy_7 - 24/12/12 at 02:29 PM

They had the same problem with 1980s astras thought they could have sorted it by now

jacko - 24/12/12 at 02:44 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
quote:
Originally posted by Nickp
Or just don't buy a Vauxhall


I wouldn't

I would in fact i have sines 1976 or there about's
Jacko

cliftyhanger - 24/12/12 at 03:31 PM

I too have had fantastic uber-reliability from my vauxhalls over the past 20 years.
Makes my VW and BMW owning friends green with envy (except they couldn't possibly own a vauxhall/ford or anything of similar humble origins)

gblawson - 24/12/12 at 04:11 PM

...restored an MGTD about 10 years ago... on the first run i noticed that i was losing oil pressure (which had been great, even after 26 years in a barn).... looked in my rear view mirror and there was a perfectly straight dark line following the car...
The rubber hose feeding the oil pressure gauge had burst at some point.... 6 quarts gone in about 10 minutes...

...good thing was...I could follow the line back home....

(no damage, but never trust 'old' rubber hoses....)


mookaloid - 24/12/12 at 04:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by jacko
quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
quote:
Originally posted by Nickp
Or just don't buy a Vauxhall


I wouldn't

I would in fact i have sines 1976 or there about's
Jacko


There's no accounting for taste is there?

perksy - 24/12/12 at 05:46 PM

Was asked to look at a friends Mk 4 Escort once and that had done exactly the same thing (sender had 'fractured' and was allowing oil to escape through its body)
Sadly she didn't stop and ploughed on, end result was a new engine