A lucky escape.

FG XR · 22-08-2010, 12:54 PM

OK,

Not a rant thread but thought someone may find interesting.

Yesterday morning i dropped the wifes 2008 Nissan Tiida into a workshop for its 50k service. We have being going to them years without any issues (not naming company).

Picked the car up just before lunchtime nothing was an issue car was driving much better. Anyway wife went to the shops down the road to do some shopping but when she was leaving the carpark she noticed a small puddle of what she thought was water where her car was parked. She started driving home and she called me saying the oil pressure light had just come on and was blinking and the engine was making a loud ticking noise. At this point she was just around the corner from home. I told her to be careful and nurse the car home and ill take a look. She pulled up and i met her out the front. I immediatley saw oil coming from underneath the car and put a big piece of cardboard underneath the car to catch the oil and turned the car off.

Opening the bonnet everything looked all right however looking underneath the car ALOT of oil was pouring out from the sump. The workshop closes at 12pm and it was now 2pm. I tried calling them none the less and to my surprise he answered and he had set his workshop phone to divert (phew!). Told him what happened and is currently happening and he said he would come over to have a look. Within 15 minutes he was over and the expression on his face when he saw the oil was shocking to say the least....

He jacked the car up and saw the sump bolt (which they replaced on the 50k service) had GONE.

He made a few calls and apologised every minute. He said he was going to pickup some tools and will return in 20 minutes.

When he returned he replaced the sump bolt, put new oil in the car and took for a test drive around the block and said everything was fine. I asked him about the internals and he said they sounded fine as the engine started fine without an hiccups and was idling fine.

I mentioned my wife seeing the puddle of what she thought was water from air con in the carpark down the road at the shops but he said if the bolt had gone then the car wouldnt have made it home and we would be looking at a new engine (replaced by his company ofcourse).

Anyway he left and said to drop the car in Monday morning and he will degrease the engine and check over everything again to make sure everything was ok (apologising again). He cleaned up all the oil and degreased the garage and driveway before leaving.

We are not that mad as everything was fixed and the guy was really sorry and more than helpful. I think whoever the mechanic was who worked on my wifes car would have gotten a nice phone call from his boss later that day.

Wife hesitant with driving her car now as she is worried the same thing will happen. Considering we have a 6 month old daughter i can kind of see her point (breaking down in the middle of traffic etc).

Took the car for a quick drive around our suburb and to the shops and i found the sump bolt at a round-about just around the corner from our house. Big puddle of oil too.... however the carpark at the shops it looks like an oil swimming pool. God knows how my wife made it home without the engine siezing up! But looks like bolt started coming loose at the shops but eventually gave way just around the corner from home..

will have to get pics of this too i think just incase.. (got a heap already just incase something happens down the track but just a few below)

Pics attached...

bone dry.

silicon · 22-08-2010, 12:59 PM

I wonder how the internals in the motor are now? A little bit of bearing damage at the very least?

KR1STO · 22-08-2010, 12:59 PM

Was thinking the same thing..
I'd get it checked by someone else too..
Just to get a second opinion..

FG XR · 22-08-2010, 01:03 PM

car seems to be running fine but ill get them to take a look on monday when the car is there. Got all the photos saved just incase ya know... glad the engine didnt seize up as my wife uses her car all the time for work (property manager).

Jim Goose · 22-08-2010, 01:41 PM

If the car is under warranty, get it noted in the logbooks that the oil was lost today etc etc.... Just in case down the track you need to make a claim.
Id also talk to Nissan (again if its under warranty).

Strange that the sump plug was just put on and not tightened.
Im guessing the mechanic was distracted, walked away came back, lowered the car and put the oil in.
Never ever walk away from a job while installing or tightening something.
If you have to walk off, remove the item so you know the job isnt done, or finish the job.

**Peuty** · 22-08-2010, 01:56 PM

So I take it the guy wasn't a nissan dealer? If not, i certainly wouldn't be telling nissan about this, as chances are they'll void your engine warranty on the spot. I know noone ever sees the value in getting your car serviced by a dealer, but it's for reasons like this that it is worth it, if only for the duration of the warranty period.

FG XR · 22-08-2010, 02:55 PM

car has about 6 months left on the warranty log book always being stamped at every service.

I agree, bolt was put in but not tightened or he became distracted

Kryton · 22-08-2010, 03:09 PM

Id get a compression test done on it just to be sure.
Good to hear they have acted on it anyway and not given you the run around (or the - 'must be your fault' answer).

Bobman · 22-08-2010, 04:15 PM

Another reason to do your own servicing!

Good to hear that it ended well though and the boss was helpful.

smoo · 22-08-2010, 04:45 PM

They should be pulling off the big end/mains caps and checking out the bearings. As well as the cam lobes etc.
In saying that you'd be suprised how long an engine can go wothout oil or decent oil pressure lol.
Now is a decent excuse to trade it on a Falcon.

irish2 · 22-08-2010, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davway

Id get a compression test done on it just to be sure.
Good to hear they have acted on it anyway and not given you the run around (or the - 'must be your fault' answer).

Compression won't have suffered as a result of oil starvation. The bearings on the crank, camshaft and cam followers might be a bit worse for wear. At that short of a distance however it probably won't have done much more damage that another 20,000km would have anyway. There is no real way to check for damage without dessasembly of the bottom end. I have seen motors that have been starved for a longer period that have lasted longer than a decade afterward.

wrongwaynorris · 22-08-2010, 08:10 PM

Can't believe you told her to nurse it home with the oil light on and knocking coming from the engine . There will be some level of bearing damage .

FG XR · 22-08-2010, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wrongwaynorris

Can't believe you told her to nurse it home with the oil light on and knocking coming from the engine . There will be some level of bearing damage .

yes i did because she was down the road from our house e.g 500 metres when i got the phone call.

The shops are 2kms away from home.

I have driven the car all day and its sounds fine, no noise, idles fine and runs like it should.

XR6Runner · 22-08-2010, 08:47 PM

Just got to say, well done to the owner/boss of that Mechanics shop for acting the way he did. Came straight away to your house, even cleaned up your driveway!

This guy knows how to run a business!

Riksta · 22-08-2010, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR6Runner

Just got to say, well done to the owner/boss of that Mechanics shop for acting the way he did. Came straight away to your house, even cleaned up your driveway!

This guy knows how to run a business!

Agreed. I don't think there would be an issue in naming the company. Fair enough they messed up, but actually showing the care that he did and taking responsibility for an error made is not something most people care to do these days.

Hope everything turns out ok and that there isn't any damage.

JC · 29-08-2010, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR6Runner

Just got to say, well done to the owner/boss of that Mechanics shop for acting the way he did. Came straight away to your house, even cleaned up your driveway!

This guy knows how to run a business!

I also agree with this - top effort on his part.

I had an old Datsun 1600 with a 180B motor in it, and lost the oil cap (we heard a bang/pop noise, but didn't stop) coming in to Murrambateman (NSW) which is about 25km from Yass. Yass was our destination for lunch, and when we stopped, smoke was coming from under the bonnet and it stunk. There was oil everywhere. Long story short, a 4L oil container, and one of those temp petrol caps saw us get back to Canberra wityh a stop on the sweeping corner into Murrumbateman where we heard the pop - you wouldn't believe it, but we found the oil cap! That car lasted at least another 3 years after that event, and never used a drop of oil!

I think a 2km trip while losing oil should be OK - just check the metal filings in the filter after next oil change, and that should give you an indication of any more than usual wear (you will need to cut the filter open and use a magnet to extract the metal from the oil).

latefordtragic · 29-08-2010, 10:37 AM

Hmmm,
I would remove the rocker cover and have a look at the cam journals, this tis the point that wiil suffer of oil starvation first. If there is damage you will see metal that would have oozed out of the journal under the extreme temperature of friction.

JC's comment above about checking the oil filter is a good idea, but i probably wouldn't leave it till the next service i'd do it as soon as possible. Umm i probably wouldnt bother with a magnet, as the metal caught up in the filter will probably be non ferrous i.e. aluminium from the head or whitemetal from the bottom end bearings. The filter will be contaminated with this kind of metal before it will have any metal from the cam or crank.
Take note of any knocking sound on start up, this is the way you will diagnose a light clearance issue that might have been caused at the bottom end
Good luck buddy

The Yeti · 31-08-2010, 03:57 PM

Whilst not great driving it with out oil, its not the end of the world, if it were a nissan dealer get it noted for warranty, if not get oil samples taken and the next few services to monitor for high levels of bearing material

Pulling bearing caps to inspect could do more harm than good

top marks for the service manager's handeling of the incident, yep his guy stuffed up, but he went all out to see you were back on the road quickly and cleaned up the mess. I wonder how many shops would have handeled it this well

04redxr8 · 31-08-2010, 04:41 PM

I think you could name the mechanic as this is great service rather than bad. It's also great that He came to your house after hours, admitted fault, accepted responsibility and I'm guessing from your OP, would have replace the engine if required.

Mistakes and errors are a part of life. Everybody makes them, and I am sure everyone here has made the odd mistake in their working life.

If you're not hearing any noises, then I would say all is fine. If your wife only nursed the car home less than 1km, then you really may have nothing to worry about. While the sump may have ran out, the engine components would still have had a degree of oil coating them. Atleast enough to gently make it home.

Another point, if the engine cap was still on, then the oil would have came out at a slower rate. The oil only runs out full speed when the cap is removed.

I think you should be fine. But have your mechanic check it for you anyway.He actually sounds trustworthy to me.

GORDZ · 31-08-2010, 05:52 PM

i know for a fact that a BA with failed oil pump gears can drive from the mobil on the western ringroad to the top of the westgate bridge (roughly 10k's) before it seizes =)

I got the tshirt.

ILLaViTaR · 05-09-2010, 05:19 AM

Pfffft I had a dry sump in my old ED for nearly a month (To be fair when i drained the sump there was like 500ml in there). Cars aren't as delicate as people say they are.
And I know many cars that have been ran on an empty sump. The record holder, an XF paddock bomb that lasted 3000k's after the sump was drained and that was 3000k's of paddock bashing.

**DJM83** · 05-09-2010, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILLaViTaR

Pfffft I had a dry sump in my old ED for nearly a month (To be fair when i drained the sump there was like 500ml in there). Cars aren't as delicate as people say they are.
And I know many cars that have been ran on an empty sump. The record holder, an XF paddock bomb that lasted 3000k's after the sump was drained and that was 3000k's of paddock bashing.

Yeah sure you have done that whilst it didnt have any short term damage ill bet it has some long term effects