Big Bang !!

[PSL184]

My neighbour just came home and pulled up out front of his house. Turned off the ignition and the engine kept running (Ford Focus TD). Within a few seconds the engine was running at full speed and no way possible to turn engine off. Shortly a large cloud of smoke and steam appeared from both exhaust and engine bay followed by a progressively more noisy engine concluding in a large bang at which point the engine stopped
It would appear the turbo seal failed and the engine was consuming the contents of the sump until all the oil had gone at which point it siezed solid!!
Quite worrying for owners of similar cars I should think but it was quite spectacular !!!

[Blaketon]

No I don't believe you...modern cars don't go wrong....not even the ones that are Fixed Often & Repaired Daily. I wonder whether it will be repaired. A 7 Series BMW sucked in some water during a downpour (The road was wet but not really flooded) and the engine was hydraulically locked. This in turn wrecked the computers, so the car was written off, as it was going to cost so much to fix.

[PSL184]

As it is an '04 plate I guess this one will be written off too. Car is mint though so might be a bargain going for someone....

[stwat]

A similar thing happened to a mate of mine after he rolled his Land Rover at an off road meet. Once the car was upright again he started it and it instantly revved its nuts off because all the engine oil had gone up into the turbo and pipework He jumped out and started jumping around like a headless chicken not knowing what to do!

I had to shout at him(over the din of the engine) to get back in, put it in 4th, foot hard on the brake and let the clutch out to stall the engine quick before it blew up!!

Obviously it would have been much funier to watch it blow up but i needed a lift home after the meet

[bmcecosse]

Exactly what I was going to suggest after reading the first post - stall it in gear!

[minor65]

A mechanic in the vw retailer that I work in, after servicing a mk 4 golf went on a roadtest. The engine when given acceleration took off on its own, revved flat out, ignition was off, brakes was fully on but engine kept on going (clutch probably started to slip). Ford Ka in front was getting very very close when a con rod was wanting to see day light out the rear of the block.

The saying given to mechanic. Go slow, keep low and don't blow.[frame][/frame]

[Mogwai]

Similar thing happened at a place i used to work years ago. one of the lads had just done a major repair to an engine & I think there was still some oil in the induction system which caused it to run away, as it was still on the ramp with the wheels off the stalling it with the brakes on method didn't work as the disk retaining screws sheered straight off, got there just in time with a CO2 fire extinguisher set it off down the inlet which stopped it

[bmcecosse]

Oooh yes - the CO2 was a good idea!

[stephenpolhill]

My neighbour just came home and pulled up out front of his house. Turned off the ignition and the engine kept running (Ford Focus TD). Within a few seconds the engine was running at full speed and no way possible to turn engine off. Shortly a large cloud of smoke and steam appeared from both exhaust and engine bay followed by a progressively more noisy engine concluding in a large bang at which point the engine stopped
It would appear the turbo seal failed and the engine was consuming the contents of the sump until all the oil had gone at which point it siezed solid!!
Quite worrying for owners of similar cars I should think but it was quite spectacular !!!

Probably not much help anymore but we had a Focus and found in the manual it had a fuel cut off switch to the right of the drivers footwell. Our Civic has one too somewhere. Might be worth learning where these are in cars just in case

[bmcecosse]

Won't help! It's not running on 'fuel' when this happens - it's running away on oil (or gas) that has got into the system!!

[stephenpolhill]

Oh I see. Learn something new everyday on here!

[croft]

Not quite the same but I remember a pal of mine arriving to pick me up in his transit van one morning. As I got in I noticed his brow was covered in sweat he was shaking and white as a sheet! Whats up I enquired. He had jumped into the van and being a bit late put his foot down, as he approached the first bends of his journey he lifted off the throttle only to find the pedal stayed down! He managed to get around the 1st corner on full throttle but still couldnt get the pedal to come up! he was going full throttle towards a hairpin bend. He was pressing the brake pedal as hard as he could and now in full panic mode he was frozen to the wheel and could only watch as the hairpin bend got closer! He managed to somehow get around it then thought about turning off the engine. Once he got it stopped he found out that the piece of living room carpet that had seemed a good idea to use as a mat had slid forward and some threads had caught on the pedal. "Why didnt you just put the clutch in" I enquired? the look on his face was priceless!!

[stephenpolhill]

That did make me giggle.

[bmcecosse]

Putting in the clutch would likely have exploded the engine - switching OFF was what he needed to do - as he eventually realised........

[linearaudio]

Oh I see. Learn something new everyday on here!

The point being that a compression-ignition engine will happily run on the contents of its own sump, if the oil control rings get badly worn enough to allow enough oil up passed them into the cylinder head. Worn ring grooves actually transform the pistons into quite good oil pumps . Also, overfilling the sump so that oil gets into the inlet by the breather pipe can do it, or in this case, blown seals on the turbo injecting high pressure sump oil into the inlet! All very nasty as they are uncontrollable, and the faster the engine revs the faster it revs, if you see what I mean, until something gives!

[martinf]

sadly its quite common, newer cars have a extra injection on the exhaust stroke to reduce nox,these are usually in conjunction with a soot filter in the exhaust system,these cars suffer from the oil level increasing as the oil becomes contaminated with fuel! we are currently recalling a certain sweedish make for this defect,(new ecm sw)and they keep telling me its progress........ the only way to stop one is stall it if you can,if it has not blown its brains out it might have only damaged the injectors(the tips are either melted or damaged beond repair in these situations)it might be worth a try before condeming??