Oil Related Failure at less than 150k Miles

[Winston]

How about a thread where people tell about their cars that have had an oil related failure at less than 150k. After reading the 150k plus thread it seems that cars with poor maintenance often make it past 150k too.

I am only talking about failures that could be attributed to the lubrication system.

 

[pbm]

Winston: I agree with you that it seems a modern engine will make it to 150k with a modicum of care. I started a thread today in the transmission section to see how many have had 150000 miles or more of trouble-free A/T service and what maintenance they used to achieve it.
It seems to me that getting 200k out of an A/T is much more of an accomplishment than getting it from an engine.

 

[Jerry]

I had a LeBaron 4cy Turbo and I did 3-4K OCI w/10W-30 GTX. I did a 3-4 mile blast one morning
on the way to work, where I pushed it hard, ran
100+ about 1/2 throttle or so. Had 110K on it. After that, oil pressure dropped at idle down to about 60% of what is was before. Reving the engine up in neutral, all the rods were fluttering around. Now was this oil failure ? or poor engine design ?

 

[FL-400S]

My parents had a 1985 Dodge Lancer 4 cyl. My grandmother bought it new in 1985, then traded it in 1992 and my parents got it from the dealer. The ultimate old lady car, with 70K miles. Well, at 80K, the piston separated from the crankshaft (or something like that) and the engine was shot. $2500 rebuild on a car my parents paid about $2300 for. They scrapped it and got a 1994 Tercel brand new that is sitting in my driveway right now with 79900 miles on it. Burns a little on startup but runs great.

In fact I am selling the service manuals for the 1985 Dodge on Ebay right now. search for "1985 dodge service" if you want them for cheap

 

[HerkyJim]

"...and my parents got it from the dealer."

Hmmm..., is the operating history of the car during the period in which custody of the vehicle was not with your Grandma or your parents known? I.e. did some kids get a chance to drive it then?

 

[rjundi]

I personally think you'll find less 1% of cars have an oil failure if the proper speced motor oil is used and changed at manufacturers intervals. Oil related engine failure is rare which is interesting considering the premise behind this site.

 

[kenw]

well, I for one am noticing that trend again: our 87 Plymouth voyager (w/mitsubishi 2.4?L i4) was slugging back about a quart in 500 miles with about 80k on the odo.

It was a very quick death, no measureable consumption between 3-4k changes, then all of a sudden on one road trip from Houston to Dallas to San Antonio trip it took over a quart before I even got back to Houston. A quickie looksee showed 1 plug massively fouling, other 3 looked fine. The compression on that one cylinder appeared to be about 30% of the others.

at the dealership the service manager just shook his head and said "If I had a nickel for everyone of those mitsu boat anchors...."

We dumped it for a Dodge Caravan with the dodge built 3.3 v6. Much better engine and never had a problem with it. However the REST of the car is another story for another thread....

 

[oilyriser]

1986 Olds Omega, 2.8L V6. used 10w30, per manual, even when well below 0 F. Camshaft wore out 2000 miles after warranty expired. If I had known to use synthetic 5w30, maybe it would have lasted a bit longer. But everyone hated that lemon, and was happy to see it die, so it was a good thing.

 

[Winston]

How many miles on that Olds Omega when it died?

 

[bulwnkl]

quote:

---

Originally posted by kenw:
well, I for one am noticing that trend again: our 87 Plymouth voyager (w/mitsubishi 2.4?L i4) was slugging back about a quart in 500 miles with about 80k on the odo.

---

Wow, that's crazy! The 2.6-liter Mitsu was a far better motor than the stuff ChryCo replaced it with. Our '84 Caravan is still running strong (in the hands of a neighbor now) with over 200k miles on it. It rolled its first 115-120k with us on Kendall Super-D III 15W40 and has spent the rest of its time on John Deere TorqGard Plus 50 15W40 with the neighbor. He did pull the head and do a valve job (he's a tractor mechanic and a farmer and just about everything else, too) but he said once he got it apart it didn't need it.

I wish I could find the statistics on those 2.6 Mitsus now. They were so much better (more reliable) than Mopar's motors. Too bad some folks had poor luck.

 

[DJ]

What were the failures though?

quote:

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and a friend has an older 20k lb gvwr Chevy truck that is on it's 2nd 350 at 80k miles

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An employer had a Kodiak stakbody we used for hauling lumber and the like about 36K we blew the motor a 366ci big block it was a burned piston not a lube failure. Didn't help that the sawmill was at the bottom of a BIG hill. Small engines in really HD applications like that just will not last.


The only lube failure I have seen was a old Reneault my brother breifly had, it was only around 100K and during a parts store run for another vehicle, this one began to rod knock. Totally unknown service history other than the previous owner was rough on it and so was my brother. That whole car was crap though from a design and condition standpoint.

I have known a lot of people very hard on motors offroading and racing most failures I have seen were overrevving.

I agree with pbm transmissions are the part to worry about.

 

[simple_gifts]

quote:

---

Originally posted by oilyriser:
1986 Olds Omega, 2.8L V6. used 10w30, per manual, even when well below 0 F. Camshaft wore out 2000 miles after warranty expired. If I had known to use synthetic 5w30, maybe it would have lasted a bit longer. But everyone hated that lemon, and was happy to see it die, so it was a good thing.

---

AKA "The soft lobe years of the 2.8" Common problem probably more related to material hardness. Coincidentally, I have never heard 1 good comment regarding this engine from anyone.

 

[1sttruck]

A friend's parent's Chevy truck was shot at less than 90k miles, a neighbor's F250 was done at less than 100k miles, and a friend has an older 20k lb gvwr Chevy truck that is on it's 2nd 350 at 80k miles, all gas engines. Gas engines can have a short life when worked hard, as all of the above were, and I wonder if they would have lasted longer on a steady diet of HDEO instead of the typical PCMO that is used in them.

 

[Winston]

Interesting examples. Not too many posts though. Lack of interest? Or, lack of examples?

 

[kenw]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bulwnkl:

quote:

---

Originally posted by kenw:
well, I for one am noticing that trend again: our 87 Plymouth voyager (w/mitsubishi 2.4?L i4) was slugging back about a quart in 500 miles with about 80k on the odo.

---

Wow, that's crazy! The 2.6-liter Mitsu was a far better motor than the stuff ChryCo replaced it with. Our '84 Caravan is still running strong (in the hands of a neighbor now) with over 200k miles on it. It rolled its first 115-120k with us on Kendall Super-D III 15W40 and has spent the rest of its time on John Deere TorqGard Plus 50 15W40 with the neighbor. He did pull the head and do a valve job (he's a tractor mechanic and a farmer and just about everything else, too) but he said once he got it apart it didn't need it.

I wish I could find the statistics on those 2.6 Mitsus now. They were so much better (more reliable) than Mopar's motors. Too bad some folks had poor luck.

---

you're kidding, right? the 2.6 i4 mitsu was universally known as an oil burner. I remember reading stuff from Chrysler that talked specifically about "poor reliability" in that particular mitsu engine, and their large push to get a replacement for it quick (and not from mitsu) in order to save the product line. It was one of the logs on the bonfire to divorce themselves (Chrysler) from the sinking ship known as mitsu.

Add to that the poor design on the timing chain guards (replaced our 2x), it's no wonder mitsu went belly up.

The chain guard had a built-in defect that virtually guaranteed failure: a stress riser was formed into the mounting flange.

I was shown the 2nd broken one by the mechanic (he literally had a stack of them already) and as a manufacuring engineer, I am extremely familiar with stress fractures and such. I could see that the new part was definitely going to fail in the same manner as the 1st and 2nd. Chain slap would pummle the bracket/guide hard until the mounting tab just cracked off. If it broke on the "away" side, the bracket just flapped against the chain as it went by. *IF* the other mounting tab/ear broke, it would jam the timing chain. Mercifully, most (according to the mechanic) were of the trailing end failure and gave adequate advance notice.

if you had a good one, congrats and count yourself lucky. Statistics says some good ones surely must get thru....The rest of our Caravan was great, for the most part.

But...our 93 3.3L v6 went over 120k with no noticeable consumption. It lasted 3x longer than the trans....

 

[Winston]

When did the Chrysler Caravans quit using Mitsu engines? V6 and/or 4 cyl

 

[MN Driver]

Wow, where to begin.

My friends aren't too car-savvy and usually ask other people questions when they have car problems, so they don't know too much about taking care of their vehicles.

Friend 1: He has a 1989(or maybe 1988)chrysler LeBaron, he was in college when his engine decided to pack up from lack of oil. His description of what happened made me laugh. He was driving down the highway and he says he noticed that it took more gas to keep the car going the same speed until he had it floored to keep it moving until the engine gave up. He didn't get an oil can idiot light from this but when it was towed to the shop they pulled the drain plug and told him that only about a quart of oil the consistency of tapioca pudding came out along with alot of metal shavings. This was clearly the lack of maintenence on his part although he says that the oil was changed 2000 miles before this happened.

Friend 2: Mitsubishi Galant(late 90's). Also lack of oil, he was coming home from work and his oil can light came on and he was heading to the nearest gas station 3 blocks from his work so he could pick up some oil and put it in. ...The car didn't make it. This is the lack of checking the dipstick again which is interesting because in the past he drove 5 miles home with the light on before putting oil in it, I warned him and told him not to let it get low again and check every time he got gas, but he wasn't keeping track of the level when the engine fried.


Other than operator error I can think of one problem engine not yet mentioned. The Subaru 1.2L 3 cylinder engine that came on Subaru Justy's until it was discontinued in 1994. These engines were well known for having their oil pump produce less and less pressure as they aged and would innevitably lead to many main bearing failures. The Subaru Justy forum has many people who have rebuilt this engine and they even have posted instructions for modifying the oil pump to produce more pressure. Many of these failed engines were around 50k miles or so, one of the worst engine designes in my opinion, the thing only made 73 horsepower anyway.

 

[kenw]

quote:

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Originally posted by Winston:
When did the Chrysler Caravans quit using Mitsu engines? V6 and/or 4 cyl

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not sure which year, my 86 had one, my 93 didn't.

 

[John_E]

Mosey on over to passatworld.com or vwvortex.com if you want to read copious reports about 1.8T engines dying of sludge and/or coke WELL before the 100K mile or 150K km mark. Dino oil + 5K mile / 8K km OCI + city driving = guaranteed loss of oil pressure due to pickup screen obstruction.

 

[1sttruck]

Holes in pistons is typically due to detonation, commonly cuased by plug heat range being too high, or mixture to lean, or timing to far advanced. I was referring to wear. I agree that gas engines typically don't fare well in heavier duty applications, and design changes aside was suggesting that a heavy duty engine oil would work better than the passenger car motor oils commonly used.