More advice req'd Please x

runaway engine It basically runs on its own engine oil, normally because there diesel leaking into the sump filling it up and it gets to a point it will just take off on its own, very scary I might add, this in turn lead to the car pumping out loads of white some and stunk of fuel, so if it was my car id be looking at getting a leak of test and taking it from there as it will just do another run off and next time you might not be so lucky and end up with a blown engine

Gather thats a garage only job, not for a mobile mechanic to do?
 
The month after i got it, a mate of mine who also has an A2 did it. Cant recall exactly when, but he did a general service, oil, filters, coolant flush

So in 2018 then. Cars don't run forever without proper regular servicing, preferably from a professional.
 
If the oil level is exceeded, either with excessive oil or fuel, there is a risk that the big end caps on the con rods will dip. Once this occurs, the oil will be splashed up the bores, and the oil control rings will be unable to cope. This gives the engine fuel to burn but as its an uncontrollable amount, causes a "run away", not a good situation. As fuelling at this stage becomes excessive, so smoke is emitted, being unburnt oil and possibly fuel. Similarly the closed breathing system is unable to seperate oil from the heavily laden crankcase fumes, adding to the uncontrolled fuelling via the intake system.
Dipping also imposes additional load on the engine, so overheating becomes another risk.

Better to run oil levels slightly below the full mark, rather than over.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
 
If the oil level is exceeded, either with excessive oil or fuel, there is a risk that the big end caps on the con rods will dip. Once this occurs, the oil will be splashed up the bores, and the oil control rings will be unable to cope. This gives the engine fuel to burn but as its an uncontrollable amount, causes a "run away", not a good situation. As fuelling at this stage becomes excessive, so smoke is emitted, being unburnt oil and possibly fuel. Similarly the closed breathing system is unable to seperate oil from the heavily laden crankcase fumes, adding to the uncontrolled fuelling via the intake system.
Dipping also imposes additional load on the engine, so overheating becomes another risk.

Better to run oil levels slightly below the full mark, rather than over.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
what he said ?, iv never had it explained like that before what a legend
 
If the oil level is exceeded, either with excessive oil or fuel, there is a risk that the big end caps on the con rods will dip. Once this occurs, the oil will be splashed up the bores, and the oil control rings will be unable to cope. This gives the engine fuel to burn but as its an uncontrollable amount, causes a "run away", not a good situation. As fuelling at this stage becomes excessive, so smoke is emitted, being unburnt oil and possibly fuel. Similarly the closed breathing system is unable to seperate oil from the heavily laden crankcase fumes, adding to the uncontrolled fuelling via the intake system.
Dipping also imposes additional load on the engine, so overheating becomes another risk.

Better to run oil levels slightly below the full mark, rather than over.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

What with engine runaway, the smoke, and its quite noisy, its not looking good, think i may have to chuck the towel in ?
 
Agreed, but i do 6K, im religious on my van, same with my cars, i only got the A2, as my van was in for new clutch, just needed a run about, but, i fell in love with it.

Yes, I'm with you Mr Squeegee, 2018 to very early 2020 with tiny miles doesn't sound like neglect to me. Assuming your chum used the right spec oil and respected names with filters, I'd be pretty relaxed. I'd rather have a fellow A2 owner / knowledgeable chum do a car than Halfords.

The one you see very often is where people stack both LongLife service intervals with conventional oils: that really is a recipe for disaster. You then see normal oils doing two or three years and possibly 30,000 miles.

Now may I recap?

The car had done some 4000 miles since Mates Servicing Co did the oil change?
Did you or anyone else top up the oil since then?
Did your mate confirm how much oil he used or mention 'going back for more'?

I'm just wondering when that bit of dipstick fell off? Therefore at what point someone would have started to (understandably) put too much oil in?

Feb 16th: (the Lakeside trip) drove fine but unexplained brief surge of power. To confirm: no smoke noticed?
Feb 17th: oil patch noticed under car. AA come out, rev car but no smoke. Car is cold at this point I'm guessing, so lack of smoke could well be red herring. Even if overfilled you might well find it needs a bit of temperature to start smoking. Car gets relayed ' to Garage', (Halfords?)
Feb 18th: Mot expires.

At Halfords it has a raft of work done which may or may not have been appropriate, including topping up the oil.

For what it's worth (which I'll admit isn't much :) ):

1) Halfords are obliged (as are any other MOT station) to check the oil level before an MOT rev test as part of their duty of care. You can imagine the outcry if an engine seized mid-test due to lack of oil. If it appears low, quite rightly they'll top it up.

If the dipstick was broken but has the appearance of looking alright (as yours did), this might explain why they chose to add oil. Let's face it, who's expecting a broken stick that still looks reasonably O.K.? We might as A2 owners, but I'd have never have thought of it before joining this place. Although there might be questions to ask about what parts were fitted etc, the oil thing might be excusable 'IF' the oil they added came to a sensible level on the broken stub. If, however, it was well over, say, the whole plastic molding I'd say they've got a problem.

2) My gut feeling is that there was actually already too much oil in the car: before Halfords, before AA and before Lakeside. Perhaps it was topped up a few months previously and either not used, or only used on short journeys during cool weather, and you might not have noticed. Who would? Not something you'd be looking for. Almost certainly it's been run on the 'new' oil level from whenever the dipstick broke.

Regardless, you are where you are. I'm assuming that if major damage has been done to the engine, you won't be DIY'ing it? And it's not going to be viable to get a professional to rebuild the engine?

Yes, you might have blown out seals: but they won't cause smoke. Puddles on drive yes, smoke, no.
You've already cleaned out the breather system, turbo etc. Have you drained the new inter-cooler and cleaned ALL of its pipes? I say this as it's been run with the new inter-cooler but with the high oil level so fact it's new now means nothing in this context.

My guess is, as others have said, the exhaust system is probably full of oil. My early 911's have a tendency to drop oil into the heater ducts. It takes ages to burn off, and they run miles hotter than a diesel car's exhaust system. If it is oil in the exhaust / cat etc, it'll take 100-200 miles to shift I'm sure.

The long and short is the car doesn't have the value to warrant any form of professional stripping to the engine on the off-chance of finding anything.

You've already cleaned everything you possibly can (or will be), and you can't drive it without MOT for any great distance (if you don't have an MOT you have to book the nearest one to you). I think you'll need to drive it for miles more than the distance to your nearest station.

Therefore, it seems to me if you cut through all of this: you need to find a way of driving it legally because the only way of resolving this is a controlled testing. Let's assume you can find a private road / estate / airfield of some sort and get it there. I'd be very tempted to drive it around gently and at modest revs for, say 15mins. Stop, check around and make sure all looks O.K. Drive another 15 mins, giving it a few more revs / load. Repeat and just keep doing it. Keep your heater off as you want engine temps to be encouraged to climb, but after first few runs, AC and headlights on to give a little extra engine load.

The aim is that after, say, a morning of trying it you can be confident about giving it plenty of revs / load / throttle and be MOT ready. I'd still mention to your tester that it was massively overfilled but is now improving. If he knows the background he might be a bit more helpful.

If there is the slightest sign of surging, Stop! Leave it for a good 1/2 hour and try again, but very gently: minimum revs, minimum load. I'd say smoke is one thing as that's potentially 'post engine' but you shouldn't get surging as the oil has been drained to correct level and you've cleaned everything else out.

Pragmatically (other than sorting oil seals which might well settle down anyway), I can't see you can do much more than this. The upsides are 1) you're in control, and 2) getting it there aside, it's all free.
 
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'and its quite noisy'

Hello, did I miss this? Do you mean it's got nosier? Or just in general? If the latter: I wouldn't worry too much. I've just gone from a lovely quiet 1.4 petrol (well, it did have a knock but bare with me :rolleyes:) to TDI75. I find the TDI unbelievably noisy when cold esp at idle. As in, 'I can't believe they're meant to be like that' noisy.

Now, if it sounds different from before, that's another matter. Even so, the above still surely applies: you have little to lose because in your mind the car is now a non-runner with an expired MOT. BUT: it all hinges on trying it. If you try it and it surges, or even runs away, you still have a non-runner mot failure. BUT, if it gradually gets better and better with the above, that might get you past both the engine issues and the MOT.

Stick with it: you've spent a lot of money and done a lot of work. I'd hate for you to eBay it for a few pounds and then a trader later have it up at £1500 ('lots recently spent') because he's strapped on his trade plates (which legally have to cover the car's plates, therefore invitation to drive with no MOT) thrashed it around for a few days and got a new ticket on it.
 
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Lots of Doom and Gloom, and Worst Case Scenarios here.
You only have one practical option to find out what is going on, and that's to drive it. Follow the advice from @spike, book an MOT, see how it goes, if it clears, have the MoT, if it doesn't, record the symptoms carefully, cancel the MoT, and report back.
Mac.
 
Hello, did I miss this? Do you mean it's got nosier? Or just in general? If the latter: I wouldn't worry too much. I've just gone from a lovely quiet 1.4 petrol (well, it did have a knock but bare with me :rolleyes:) to TDI75. I find the TDI unbelievably noisy when cold esp at idle. As in, 'I can't believe they're meant to be like that' noisy.

Now, if it sounds different from before, that's another matter. Even so, the above still surely applies: you have little to lose because in your mind the car is now a non-runner with an expired MOT. BUT: it all hinges on trying it. If you try it and it surges, or even runs away, you still have a non-runner mot failure. BUT, if it gradually gets better and better with the above, that might get you past both the engine issues and the MOT.

Stick with it: you've spent a lot of money and done a lot of work. I'd hate for you to eBay it for a few pounds and then a trader later have it up at £1500 ('lots recently spent') because he's strapped on his trade plates (which legally have to cover the car's plates, therefore invitation to drive with no MOT) thrashed it around for a few days and got a new ticket on it.

No more noisy than usual, must admit, i was shocked at the noise of these things, i had a bmw 330d, it purred, and it didnt sound like these !, so, maybe there be a little hope, just got to find a mechanic to do a compression test, Ive ordered some cataclean, gonna chuck that thru first, see if it make any difference, then, get thinking about the next step, thanks for the reply mate, much appreciated.
 
Lots of Doom and Gloom, and Worst Case Scenarios here.
You only have one practical option to find out what is going on, and that's to drive it. Follow the advice from @spike, book an MOT, see how it goes, if it clears, have the MoT, if it doesn't, record the symptoms carefully, cancel the MoT, and report back.
Mac.

You have to go to your nearest Centre by Law, which is 600yds from my new house:rolleyes:,suppose i could go the scenic route. ?
 
My point with the private testing is that i) You don't want to either draw attention to yourself by being spotted billowing out smoke (esp at the moment), ii) You want to be within a controlled environment as you don't know what it's going to do and there's nothing worse than other people being behind you if you have a problem, and iii) It's more likely than not to take more than the odd mile to clear, although I'd be delighted for you if it did.

Have you not got someone with a trailer / beaver-back etc? If you keep it off public highway everything becomes so much more controlled. After all if you're stopped on the road and it's billowing out smoke there's a (tiny) chance you'll get it impounded.
 
My point with the private testing is that i) You don't want to either draw attention to yourself by being spotted billowing out smoke (esp at the moment), ii) You want to be within a controlled environment as you don't know what it's going to do and there's nothing worse than other people being behind you if you have a problem, and iii) It's more likely than not to take more than the odd mile to clear, although I'd be delighted for you if it did.

Have you not got someone with a trailer / beaver-back etc? If you keep it off public highway everything becomes so much more controlled. After all if you're stopped on the road and it's billowing out smoke there's a (tiny) chance you'll get it impounded.

Its just finding private ground to gently work her up. I can get it low loaded, what about a rolling road?
 
Just got to find a mechanic to do a compression test.

Well, that might prove you've hydraulic-locked it (low compression), but that's game over anyway. I don't see much value in this at this point. It's more money spent out and doesn't advance you: it still smokes, it's still and MOT failure, you still don't know how the engine will behave once settled down.

I'd do it other way round: find a way of trying it (as above), if it just doesn't sound right after, say, 50 miles of careful testing, well then possibly bring in comp test.
 
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