Oil issues / broken-down

aikidosensei · Post by **aikidosensei** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 3:42 pm

Hi there I have a J reg 1.9 TGD which has been quite the workhorse for me for some time, however this morning at the lovely time of 6am I lost power and the car stalled/cut out.

It would not turn over at first, the green flag man came out and "umm'd" and "arrr'd" a bit then said I need to tow this in as im not sure what is causing the issue as the battery had just over 12.1 charge in it and that could be causing it.

when he put the battery booster on it , it started fine but spew out some nasty smoke and ran a bit clunky, but nonetheless it ran.

to cut an already long story short, the garage just called me to tell me that it needs oil - simply, I knew it had a very slow leak, I had just drove from Cornwall where I live to Milton keynes and back for the weekend to visit family, I did check the levels and they seemed the same as they always have been.

My issue is that the garage tells me it will cost me £33 just to refill it with 5 litres of oil and test drive it to see if any long term damage has occured, do any of you know if I have killed my BX?

Many thanks and massive apologies for the wall of text and garbled message.

Thanks again

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:37 pm

Hmm, difficult one, running on very little oil is certainly not good, however its not seized, it might be salvageable. You must have had a much larger oil leak than you 1st thought? When exactly did you last check it & whereabouts was the oil mark on the dipstick?

Personally, i'd go back to the garage armed with my own oil, check the dipstick to confirm the prognosis & then re-fill, being careful not to overfill. Turn the engine over, leave on idle to see & listen to any strange noises that may now have appeared. Once fully warmed up, take the car for a drive & see what you think.

Alternatively, i would have thought you'd need to take the top of the engine off & have a look at the camshaft & bearing caps for damage/ signs of wear, if they are damaged, then you may be stuffed. Again i'd remove any swarfe if you find any & try running the car as is, afterall its old, not worth anything & if it does eventually go bang, you can either get a replacement engine or just scrap it.

The more learned may have a totally different approach to my thinking, but then again i dont know that much about engines & nearly seizing them. So wait for some more replies before listening to me, as i may be talking total bollocks.

aikidosensei · Post by **aikidosensei** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:17 pm

Thats great advice thanks for the response ! I will pop some oil in tomorrow and do what you said it would be a shame to see it go, it has been an awesome runner, and economical!

thanks again

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:29 pm

Erm, give it a bit longer this evening, you may get a totally different response to my suggestion, i'd hate to be totally wrong & you end up causing more damage.

If you dont get any decent responses today, at the very least, i'd go back to the garage & check the dipstick only & then come back to the forum to see if there's been any more postings to your problem.

Another question, do you trust the garage, i.e. have you used them regularly & do they seem to know what they are talking about? The only reason i ask is that £33 to fill the car with oil & take it for a test drive seems a bit expensive to me, you can buy 5 litres of oil at Morrisons for less than £9 & it'll only take a few mins to do the job yourself. Nothing worse than spending the money only for them to say the cars buggered anyway, you may as well save £24 by doing it yourself.

But like i've said, just wait incase my suggestion is wrong, as i wont be accepting any responsibilty if you come back whining that my suggestions have made matters worse.

aikidosensei · Post by **aikidosensei** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:38 am

Well the garage will be doing the work for me today, the £33 is for the 5 litres of oil and 15 mins of there time, which I think is needed as the only way I would tell if it was ok would be to drive and see if it drove the same as before and if it didnt make any noises or smoke / overheat, im not a mechanic, im hoping what im paying for is a bit of piece of mind that someone who knows what they are doing will spot a problem that I cant !

but either way, super advice from a great forum, its nice to see forums like this, I will post up with the verdict later to see if I have a dead BX or not !

Thanks again

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:59 pm

15 mins = £24, that means their hourly rate is £96, what a load of bollocks

Hope all goes well, update us on how you get on.

aikidosensei · Post by **aikidosensei** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:07 pm

hi and thanks

I just got off the phone to them, they tell me that there is a knocking noise coming from the "bottom end" and also a screeching noise which apparently is not coming from a belt but from the bearings on the "bottom end crankshaft"

thay basically said they would scrap it for me and no charge for the "work" done and oil used.

I have no idea if all of the above is nonsense, I cant afford another car, they said they would not drive it /trust it

it looks like R.I.P to my BX

Vanny · Post by **Vanny** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 4:38 pm

Given that its a job thats not worth the effort for a garage (knowing that if its dead its scrap), then £33 is nothing, remebering that the oil will be at garage rates so thats £15, then VAT on the oil and the labour and the oil disposal, it will probably look a lot closer to £50 than £100 per hour. Still worth the money for the added knowledge.

It doesn't look good for the engine though. Sounds to me like it might be big end bearing shells having burnt out, reasonably quick and simple (and dirty) job if your doing it yourself, but probably not cheap for the garage to do it.

Its pretty good of them to scrap the car for the cost of the work, most places would likely charge you £50 to scrap the car AND the £33 for the work. They will make some money from scraping the car, probably £50 so they will be in profit by £20 maybe, but i don't think they are trying to screw you.

The problem is, what will you do for transport? The repair at the garage will run into the hundreds, if you did it yourself probably around £50 if its just the shells. What would you pay for a new car? considerably more! How much MOT, TAX and insurance are on the BX? What state is the BX in?

Its a question that i think most BX owners have faced at one point or another, all about balance. Sometimes it is worth forking out to have the work done, other times its better value in the long run to scrap what you have and buy a new car!

aikidosensei · Post by **aikidosensei** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:53 am

Thanks for the response Vanny

Yeah I cant do the work myself im an I.T techie - I wouldnt trust myself under a bonnet !

it will have to be scrapped, and as for my transport well I have no idea at the moment, I need a cheapy to keep me going I guess, I will have to shop around, rubbish time of year to have no car also but I guess thats life !

Thanks for all of your input again, its been a huge help

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:16 pm

Shame its got to be scrapped, whereabouts are you, perhaps someone would be willing to do the job for you at a much cheaper rate than a garage? Unless the rest of the car is isnt upto much, then perhaps the scrappy would be the best place for it. Might be worth posting on the french car forum as well, you never know.