Valver cut out on outside lane of M1, approx 3k revs !

[ttelracs]

As title states. after driving a 320 mile round trip to Bristol from London on Sunday I had to drive 50 miles for a family get together on Monday. Whilst driving on the M1, approx 3,000 rpm, the engine cut out in the outside lane and with a bit of luck and judgement I managed to get it over to the hard shoulder and brought the car to a stop.

To cut a long story short I noticed oil dripping from the underneath the car.
I checked the oil level and nothing on the dipstick. Called the RAC who put in 2 litres which topped it up to the full mark on the dipstick and started it up no problems. It revved cleanly with no knocking or tapping and drove it back slowly. It now rattles a bit under load, but doesn't appear to smoke and and still pulls OK. The RAC man reckons the rear seal has gone and it has been losing oil for ages and I suspected this, but not so much in such a short period of time, although the hard thrash yesterday probably allowed the seal to leak more than usual due to the pressure and the long run.

My questions are :

How can I best check the engine is worth saving through replacing the rear seal ?
Can I simply change the oil filter, do the ATF trick, change filter again and refill ?
Worth dropping the sump and cleaning the pick up and filter at the same time ?
Take the camshafts out and clean out the tappets?
OR simply break the car for parts.

Engine has 173k, 3 oil changes in last 20k miles and recent MOT & Tax.

Any advice gratefully received and thanks in advance !

[Leon27]

Any fault codes come up? Lack of oil/pressure would have caused the buzzer to go off and if the engine stopped due to lack of oil then I doubt it would have turned ever again!

It may have cut out because of something else such as crank sensor/coil etc but the lack of oil and rattle sounds worrying.
No harm in taking the rocker cover off, check a few random caps one by one, if it picked up then you'll know what youre dealing with.

[gazareth]

sounds like your big end bearings took a beating. if it has started rattling then it will only get worse. you may get a couple more miles out of it if you drive very carefully but once to the redline could finish it.

[ttelracs]

Yep I agree to both but... I'm loathe to take it all apart again, drop the sump and check the bearings as I didn't want to do anything else major to it. SO....

OK, before I drop the sump and really look into this or break it I drained the oil this evening and it was like black water. No substance at all, no stickiness in fact it reminded me of when I've used that engine flush stuff which you put in the oil first to thin it out. No wonder it was leaking out of the seals so badly. After draining it for a couple of hours and letting it drain completely, I then used my magnetic pick putting it through the sump hole and wiggled it around hoping (or not) to collect some swarf... but nothing. I stuck my finger in too and that was smooth too, nothing. Slightly baffled !
Could the oil have been so poor that it broke down so much into this black watery substance? It also explains as to why the engine rattled slightly under load as now I've refilled it and started her up, it sounds smooth and no rattles. I'll take it out later for a quick spin as I've also put some Forte Oil Seal Conditioner in it too which WONT fix it, but should slow the leak down to a manageable level. After doing a bit of research, this stuff gets the nod over Wynns, Halfrauds, etc, etc...
I'll update this in a day or two and see where we go !

[ttelracs]

Oil changed, new oil filter and Forte Oil Seal Conditioner.
Took her for a run and it started first time, no rattles squeaks, knocks and ran really sweetly so happy days. Once it was warmed, there was a very slight rattle which was barely noticeable, but it pulled well enough. I parked it up 5 míns later at the local Sainsburys and got some shopping, 10 mins later I reversed out to see a puddle of oil underneath the car, so drove home carefully only a couple of mins and parked up ! Time to decide, sell, break or fix !
I can't check for fault codes and no buzzer sounded (well I didn't hear one) and only changed the crank sensor 2 weeks ago !

[spikenipple]

In that case, start with checking the seal on the crank sensor!

[gazareth]

you don't need to check for fault codes. you need to get under your car and find out why its bleeding to death . personally I would drop the sump and make sure there is no bearing material in there first then worry about sorting the oil leak. if the bearings got damaged then you would be wasting your time fixing anything else anyway. could clean out sump and strainer at same time

[ttelracs]

I took your advice and checked from underneath thoroughly but couldn't nail it down and then I checked the crank sensor needing a new seal as mentioned in the post above. I quickly removed it and checked it and although the o ring looked OK, I changed it but also noticed there was a lot of 'crap' between the sensor and the block meaning it was not a good tight fit. I cleaned it all out and the sensor too and then replaced it making sure it was all good and tight. I then cleaned all the the leaked oil and left it ticking over until the fan cut in and kept an eye on it with a torch.
It didn't leak so I left it for an hour with a clean bit of newspaper underneath to check for leaks and when I came back, only a couple of small drops, not a puddle. I then drove to the local Sainsburys again and did some shopping, and when I came out only a couple of drops and the car drove smoothly with no rattles and pulled well. I THINK I may have got away with it !
No long journeys though, I'll only do short runs for the next few days and keep an eye on the oil level.

[gazareth]

the only way to find out if you got away with it is take it out and thrash it as hard as you can. that's what I allways do. I hate to drive a car without knowing that the engine can stand up to any punishment. even if I do snail around in it most days lol.

[RichardBaronGolf]

Checked the oil pressure switch? I was driving mine when I noticed it sounded a little tappy, pulled over to find a oil leak, no oil light had came on im guessing cause the switch was broken!

It was really chucking out some oil, replaced it and luckily 10000 miles later I think I avoided a disaster! Its was hard to tell where it was coming from at first aswell cause it had some sort of little plastic cover over it!