my almera has turned into a tractor!

B

bishwax

:confused:

My almera has gone wierd. it has started drinking oil like hell. fair enough i do a lot of commuting in it at the minute but it has never been a problem before. i have been doing more regular oil changes than normall too. the only thing i have done differently is instead of using 10 40 oil ive been using 15 40 to quiet down the engine with them being quite noisy! do you think this has caused the problem? using 15 made it a bit less noisy at first but at the minute my almera sounds like a tractor and its very upsetting!!! and its drinking oil. defo havent got a leak either.

any ideas?? cheers, chrissy. :cool:
 
not that i can remember. used semi synthetic every time. never thought about that causing the problem. ive changed makes of oil?
 
Yeah not sure how true it is myself but some synthetic oils contain detergents which can wash away carbon deposits leading to various problems.

there was a massive argument about it over on PUK so it was just something that popped in my head.
 
ahh right. well i have never used fully synthetic. I changed the rocker cover quite a few times untill i got one of them sprayed bright pink (whoooooohoo) and im beggining to think that a bird flew in or summit while i had it off!! i did that and an oil change at the same time and been having problems ever since. :mad:
 
Is it burning oil or leaking oil?

Blue smoke from the exhaust will indicate either piston ring failure or valve stem seal failure. To identify which one it is, you could do a couple of tests..

Press the throttle down after a period of deceleration (eg going down a hill) and look for blue smoke from the exhaust.

If you see blue smoke after deceleration, chances are its your valve stem seals.

If you get blue smoke during normal driving situations chances are its the piston rings.


Best bet is to take it to a garage though and have the cylinders pressure tested.

Good luck.
 
oooooo knowlage. well i havent noticed any blue smoke. its defo not leaking oil, but i guessed it must be burning it sharpish as a stupid amount of fumes come from exhaust. sure it aint blue though!
 
If it uses alot of oil its either piston rings or valve stem oil seals. Has it got a sketchy service history?

Oil should be 10w-30, 10-40 or 10w-50 for race applications.
 
bishwax said:
no service history is alright. so do u think using 15 40 to quieten it was a bad idea?
Click to expand...

It might not be the cause of the problem mate but it is possible that it hasn't helped matters. Stick to what Rowdy has said above pal in future!!
 
Using 15/40 won't damage it at all.If you have been having problems ever since you took the rocker cover off its quite possible a nut or piece of old gasket etc has fallen into the head,so if i was you i would take it back off to see if anything is interfering with the rockers or cams and check what condition your plugs are in too.
 
i have burnt quite a bit of oil recently after an oil change and also noticed a rattely noise

runs fun tho,i just put it down to the owner before me used shitty oil and i used a new more thinner oil, castrol gtx high mileage!
 
this is what the garage did to my fiesta to determine the piston rings wer eon their way out,

reved it to abotu 6k and there was a puff of dark black smoke which when they let off then went blue...

then i part ex'd it for my almera
 
Process of elimination.

Oil – if you have changed your oil check for oil leaks around filter and sump plug. Have a look under the car to see if you can see any oil. Also check at the back of the engine to see if your rocket top is leaking.

Noise – with a stick, listen to each injectors, inlet and exhaust manifold.

I have had cars with very noise injectors that sound like tappets. But I also have had two cars with very bad hydraulic tappets that had failed. The reason for the failure was because the oil feed to them had got blocked (1) was mixing oils and driving at high revs, oil feed got snotted up. (2) oil feed got blocked with metal after it had been skimmed.

May be some much has dropped in after playing around with your rocker top.
 
its noisy on tick over, and its like a tappy kinda rattle. its odd as somedays its noiser than others. will it be expensieve if i take it to garage to be checked out?
 
Mines the same its fine, stick some Wynns injector something or other through it sorts it out Halfords sell it, ignore it.

When it breaks deal with it
 
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