Need some opinions please guys!

[SexySeat]

Right guys, blonde bird here who clearly knows how to wreck her car! I've definitely learnt my lesson this time but i'd like your honest opinions as to whether there's any hope left in baby car!

It's a 1.8 20vt and all this started Friday.. Red oil light starts flashing as i'm driving, obviously i think crap there's no oil in it, stopped and put a litre in that i already had in the car! On my way again, light starts flashing again about half hour later, i'm about 10 miles from home at this point, know i've got oil so just ignore it thinking the sensor must be faulty! well by 5 miles from home in queuing traffic the engine starts rattling and.. I pull straight over and ring the RAC, he arrives within 3/4 hour and the noise has totally stopped and the light has gone off (i swear he thought i was just mad, i think i actually started to believe it myself lol) So he says its safe to drive and follows me home at which point the car is acting completely normal!

Now for the best bit.. Having a casting for some modelling work in London yesterday, what do i do? yessss i drive the car :-/ i know i know!!

I get an hour into my drive and the light is on again, car is acting normal at this point.. On the M1 near Nottingham somewhere i make a swift exit off the Motorway because the car is rattling, acceleration you can hear a couple of banging noises and a wooing sound like wind going through the car, and it is seriously slugging, stop the car open the bonnet and you can actually see the engine shaking! Time to call the RAC again, its takes 2 hours for them to arrive this time and once again the light is off and the engine isn't rattling by the time he arrives.. I come to the conclusion that the car has an issue only when its hot and the light and noises don't appear until that time..

Because of this, the RAC guy thinks that due too the problems only happening once the engine is hot, that it is probably just a failing fuel pump and that the engine is savable.. He said that if he'd shown up and the noises were happening once the engine was cold then he'd be telling me it was time for a new engine!! Now obviously i'm happy with this statement but i'm finding it hard to believe as the feel of that car and the noises coming from it were horrendous to say the least!!!

Any thoughts on how much damage i've caused please guys? x

 

[SexySeat]

Btw i've looked at some other threads and people talk about a beeping noise with their oil light flashing! I don't seem to get the beep

 

[towcester vag]

sounds like your oil pump pick up pipe is blocked
DONT drive the car
i would suggest oil pressure test first then if ok when cold sump removal and minimum of new oil pick up and if in any doughts check the bottom end/main bearings
the noise you hear when driving is the hydraulic tappets/lifters getting starved of oil

 

[Azza_]

as above dont drive the car oil light flashes red for low pressure and these engines are known for blocked pick up pipes.

the pick up pipes and gaskets are cheap enough just have to pay someone to drop the sump and fit, from there you will have to play the hope game that you havent royally shagged the top end / full engine

 

[Sam fr]

have you checked how much oil you now have in your car btw? could of possibly overfilled it with you now adding more. just something to check to prevent more damage in the future if you manage to sort your problem

 

[SexySeat]

No there's definitely no way i'm getting in that car now! I needed to check others opinions because i had this vision of the garage changing the fuel pump and 3 days later the engine packing in!

 

[SexySeat]

yes both RAC guys checked the oil when they arrived

 

[Rivva]

I had this exact problem, oil pick up pipe blocked which was starving the engine of oil. Whip the sump off change the pick up pipe and oil filter and pray to god you haven't done any serious damage.. Luckily I hadn't!

 

[ben450]

A model that's not only into cars but also drives a Seat there needs to be more women like you lol. Def sounds like oil pick up pipe to me. Worth getting a garage to take the sump off I would say.

 

[googujube]

As above don't drive it obviously. Buy a Haynes, rip the sump off and check the oil pick up.

 

[SexySeat]

Thanks guys!

Right well had my mum call me this morning because the garage arrived to collect the car and after starting it up they came up with some conclusions! I mean i'm no expert but i've had enough high maintaince cars now that i've seen quite a few problems!!

The first thing they notice is the fact that there is white fumes coming from the exhaust! Ok i accept that its like that when its cold but they know dam well by now that this car has had an emissions problem for quite a fair while! It's had its lambda sensors changed god knows how many times and i'm pretty sure that's what they are seeing! These are the list of problems that they think it might be..

1. Head Gasket- ok i've had one of them in a previous car and by the time i noticed this the car had overheated, broken down with smoke coming from the bonnet and brown water all over the road! Not similar to what i'm seeing now, the coolant looks clear and the car never over heats EVER!

2. Coolant system- same as a above, if i had a coolant problem, wouldn't my car have an overheating problem?

3. Turbo- not going to cross that out a possibility but really would the turbo only start failing after the oil light has come on? How does the oil light have affect on the turbo..

I'm getting told to part exchange the car at Seat

 

[ben450]

Thanks guys!

Right well had my mum call me this morning because the garage arrived to collect the car and after starting it up they came up with some conclusions! I mean i'm no expert but i've had enough high maintaince cars now that i've seen quite a few problems!!

The first thing they notice is the fact that there is white fumes coming from the exhaust! Ok i accept that its like that when its cold but they know dam well by now that this car has had an emissions problem for quite a fair while! It's had its lambda sensors changed god knows how many times and i'm pretty sure that's what they are seeing! These are the list of problems that they think it might be..

1. Head Gasket- ok i've had one of them in a previous car and by the time i noticed this the car had overheated, broken down with smoke coming from the bonnet and brown water all over the road! Not similar to what i'm seeing now, the coolant looks clear and the car never over heats EVER!

2. Coolant system- same as a above, if i had a coolant problem, wouldn't my car have an overheating problem?

3. Turbo- not going to cross that out a possibility but really would the turbo only start failing after the oil light has come on? How does the oil light have affect on the turbo..

I'm getting told to part exchange the car at Seat

When you take off the oil filler cap what does it look like in there? The turbo has an oil feed so if a car had been run dry of oil it could kill the turbo. Have you had the car long seems like you have been abit unlucky with it.

 

[SexySeat]

Yes i've had it over a year now, other then having to change its clutch, trying to work out the emissions problem and a few other things like timing belt and the usual wear and tear.. oh and it did have something fitted to the turbo.. So yeah its been fairly high maintenance but i love the car, its a speedy little thing so i never thought the turbo was a problem

Oil looks ok to me, i know it can look bubbly if its a head gasket..

 

[ben450]

Need to get it on vagcom and see what comes up. I'd still def get the sump off abd check the oil pickup pipe.

 

[danblowes]

the white smoke is the turbo dying due to oil starvation, it will NOT need a head gasket, it will need a turbo rebuild / or new turbo. The oil pick up pipe is clearly blocked this is causing the oil pressure and flow to drop dangerously low when the oil is hot and it thins out, hopefully it will not have done much damage but I think you may have to get the big end (lower connecting rod) bearings changed due to the oil starvation.
In my opinion (17 years as a professional mechanic) you will need:
Oil pump pick up pipe, including strainer,
Big end bearings,
Turbocharger rebuild or new turbo
oil and oil filter change.
Hopefully this little lot will fix it. Don't let the garage change the headgasket it won't be needed

 

[Azza_]

white smoke on startup is a given when its cold ( hot exhaust gas + cold morning air = steam )

just tell them straight to drop the sump and replace the oil pickup and oil/filter, also while the sumps off id ask them to give the big ends a quick check over / maybe remove the caps to check for wear/scoring

as said above the head gaskets are hard to kill on these cars, if they pull out the old "there is mayo under the oil cap" thing its not uncommon for cars doing short journeys to get the mayo problem due to the engine not getting fully up to temp and burning off the condensation.

turbo wise thats something to look at one the oil pressure issues are all checked, unless you ask them to pop off the TIP and check for play in the shaft, some play is allowed due to the design of the turbo.

 

[SexySeat]

googujube i see you're from my neck of the woods

Do you do all your repairs yourself or do you to take your car to a certain garage?!

Any recommendations please??

 

[SexySeat]

Thank god its not the gasket is all i can say!

I'd be starting to think that i'm gasket cursed LOL

These forums are literally the best place for help, i swear the garage i use are Seat shy..

 

[SexySeat]

Had to resort to borrowing my brothers 1.1 Punto yesterday! Well its made me realise even more how much i love my baby and need it back! There is no way i could ever buy a car with so little power.. felt like it'd be faster me walking up hills.. Awful machine!

 

[googujube]

I use this guy...He knows a thing or two about these cars, good rates and he wont rob you..

https://www.facebook.com/pages/maysgaragecom/179021608837668