jonathan taylor Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Hello all, when I had the usual winter jaunt to Spain this year, I was talking to a friend who last year his engine blew up on the way down to Spain, so had to be recovered back to the UK, he had just had the cambelt done and he thought this was the culprit, however the French mechanic who initially looked at it, took the sump off and all the engine bits were in there! the cambelt was intact so he told me, the mechanic said it was because when he had it serviced the wrong oil was put in! so this got me thinking "can the wrong oil blow up an engine?" hoping you folks know the answer. the engine is 2018 Fiat 150ps , so I assume it will be the same oil as mine fully synthetic 0-30w Jonathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 How did the mechanic ascertain the 'wrong oil' had been put in? Unless he had it analysed I don't see how he could have known! Or had the owner filled the engine with something like DEF by mistake??? Keith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onecal Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 (edited) Hi Johathan The following would be helpful as your question is way too vague First of all find out what oil? or no oil? or water did he put in his vehicle (Was it actually serviced, at that time ) What did the mechanic say when it was repatriated home? Take it from there Regards Edited March 19 by onecal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayc Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Not likely to be head parts so I wonder what engine parts were in the sump? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 The wrong engine oil could certainly destroy an engine, but the OP has very little details, so it would be pure speculation as to what oil was put in and what damage the engine sustained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onecal Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 53 minutes ago, onecal said: Hi Johathan The following would be helpful as your question is way too vague First of all find out what oil? or no oil? or water did he put in his vehicle (Was it actually serviced, at that time ) What did the mechanic say when it was repatriated home? Take it from there Regards Again the question is way too vague without some answers >? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmac Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Hi, with so little detail it is guesswork as to the cause of the failure. If the motorhome had a service and cambelt renewal then set off on its journey through France it had probably clocked up less than 1000 miles with the new oil. For the oil to be the cause of the failure after such a short mileage it would have had to be way way way off spec. Metal in the sump would indicate main or big end bearing failure. Incorrect oil levels could cause this, too little oil would cause a low pressure but would trigger a warning light, too much oil in the sump puts excessive load on crankshaft and conrods and can cause bearing damage. My Mercedes has a high oil level warning, don’t know about Fiat’s. Another possibility is if the motorhome had gone through a number of regens on the dpf the oil could become contaminated with unburnt fuel oil. That’s my best thoughts. Regards David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onecal Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Hi David I concur to all of the above , but the OP needs to supply a lot more detail from his friend, way too vague a question Regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 As Jonathan's original posting said ...I was talking to a friend who last year his engine blew up on the way down to Spain, so had to be recovered back to the UK... it may be (fairly safely) assumed that the real reason for the 'blow up' would have been accurately identified by now and the motorhome's owner knows the cause. There is plenty of on-line discussion about using 5W/30 oil instead of 0W/30 (or vice versa) and whether this might result in damage, and received wisdom (!!!) seems to be that the chances of damage occurring are minimal. If (say) SAE 40 mineral oil suitable for the petrol/oil mix of a chain-saw (or Castrol R40) were put into a 2018 Ducato's motor, it's to be expected that harm would soon result - but that level of mismatch is most unlikely to have happened in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverback Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 Hello all, thanks for the replies, sorry for it to be a bit "vague" my friend has no mechanical knowledge at all and details are sparse, He had just had a cambelt change and full service prior to his trip at an independent garage, so yes less than 1000 miles, when the van got back to the garage they confirmed (I presume through analysis) that the wrong oil was used, the engine was a total write off! it cost 13K to get a new engine and put it in, now this is where it gets a bit muddled the garage paid half only and he paid the other half, the garage said that he must have put some extra wrong oil in! now if that was me they would be footing the whole bill, but him and his wife are in their late 70's and the wife is disabled, I think they were just so grateful to get the van back that they couldn't be bothered to see it out, I do not know what oil was put in at the service (assume they know which is the correct oil) he denies putting anything in it, he also says they were no warning signs on the dash it just blew up with a bang! and crunching (his words) I am not really one for saying this but he is a bit dithery. he is glad to be back on the road and the incident is now in the past and they don't dwell on it, but this got me thinking (hence the question) and why did the garage only pay half (in doing so admitted responsibility) I didn't want to push him on that bit because I didn't want to embarrass him with questioning! hope that's a bit clearer or the real question would be if the garage was to put 10w 40 in by mistake would this cause damage! I presume the engine would heat up and seize I have no knowledge on this hence the question the other bits of info are just that info Jonathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John52 Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 35 minutes ago, silverback said: the real question would be if the garage was to put 10w 40 in by mistake would this cause damage! No Tesco Oban discontinued 4 litre bottles of their own brand (made by Carlube, Bury) fully synthetic 5w40 C3 selling them off at £5 each. so I went mad. Got enough to last me a very long time. 😁 Bear in mind Fiat have to give an oil for worldwide use when they say 0w30 C2 for my X2/90. But, being on an island surrounded by water warmed by the gulf stream we don't get extremes of cold. As the chart in the handbook of my X2/50 Citroen Relay shows, even 10w40 C2/3 would still be well within the temperature range we get here 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 There are several things to consider. Would putting 10-40 in instead of 0-30, cause a engine failure, very unlikely, in fact there may well be conditions where it is recommended such as operations in a hot climate. Could putting any type of wrong oil in cause an engine failure, possibly. I've seen the results of SAE100 axle oil being put in a Tranny engine, it broke the oil pump drive. Also putting a oil in that wasn't suitable for a turbo engine has been the cause of many turbo failures. There is also a remote chance a totally unsuitable oil was put in such as hydraulic oil, unlikely but sometimes these things happen. Lastly why would the French mechanics say the wrong oil was used. I can think of two reasons, firstly it was a tottaly unsuitable oil and obviuosly so, or was something 'lost in tranlation', did he actually say the wrong amount of oil had been used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve928 Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 (edited) There's so much more to oil being 'correct' than just the SAE grade. For example, put the latest VW508/9 specification C5/C6 oil into the previous generation (still Euro6 and very modern) engine requiring VW507 C3 oil and you can expect metal-to-metal contact to occur; engines are built to specific HTHS dynamic viscosity requirements and at the lower 2.6 centipoise film strength the 508/9 oil will damage an engine designed for 3.5 centipoise. Edited March 20 by Steve928 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onecal Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 (edited) Hi All Question needs clarification as to this still rather vague question by the OP??? A full picture is needed ,as to what condition was the engine in when repatriated home Was the assessment carried out by the Garage that you say serviced the vehicle and (the garage said that he must have put some extra wrong oil in!) ? and also independently by an mechanical engineer. If so what was their professional assessment as to the cause, with of course photos of the damage in helping to substantiate the evidence of damage to same Regards Edited March 20 by onecal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmac Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 Hi, it would be interesting to find out the exact cause of the engine failure, wrong oil, incorrect oil level or whatever but the owner has drawn a line and moved on . Time for us to do the same. Regards David 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevec176 Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 Considering that the garage that did the service also carried out the assessment and repair(replacement) it's very unlikely that any evidence has long gone so as said best to move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverback Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 thanks all, I will take it that the answer is no regards Jonathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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