Used my car for business today and it broke down :(

"putting diesel in will kill (a petrol-car) dead, once it gets though "

I new I guy once, put diesel in a 1300 escort by mistake, it ran, but cut out at lights etc

He did eventually have to drain it off .......but it did run.

 

I beleive AT has described his experiences with this car fairly well in previous threads.

The car is a fiesta.

 

Oh dear.

 

I think it was "oh dear"

it was in the late 80s.....diesel was just coming in for your everyday motorist.

I was terrified of doing it myself.....never did

 

AT, maybe taking your own advice and using public transport..whilst saving up to buy something a little more reliable is the way forward.

It was very old and very inexpensive, so perhaps this was to be expected.

I've learned (the hardway) that you get what you pay for with cars.

 

Sorry I was a bit previous. I've had the car a month, done 150 miles in it, had it serviced 120 miles ago so this is the age of the oil.

It was just like the car ran out of fuel, but there are other symtpons such as the sludge (could be short run fever).

I am wondering if it is an issue with the oil cap as this acts a breather too.

 

Is it using a lot of oil?

It could still be head gasket, mine went on my old car and it used a lot of oil, but no water at all

 

Oh betty?

 

If it merely runs better with the filler cap off, check the rest of the breather system first.

Also take a real close look at what comes out of the oil filler with the cap removed and the car running. You can usually feel a 'pulsing' here, but if you seen blue fumes , then the bores are very worn. At this point, sufficient oil vapour can get forced up into the combustion chambers (with engine running under load and cap fitted) that the engine will 'detonate ('ping') and give the bucking sysmptoms you describe (oil vapour drastically lowers the octane value of the fuel:air mix).

 

All there is with the cap removed is a lot of steam but certainly no blue flames. It dosn't seem to be burning oil but its too early to tell. Its certainly turning the oil to sludge very quickly and fuel economy dosn't seem to be as good as I would hoped.

 

AT, it's an old car. Your oil will quickly look dirty. Try sorting out any breathing issues. Oil filler cap, and find out if there are any other filters. Polo's for instance have a flame trap at the back of the engine, that causes almost all the symptoms you describe if it gets blocked.
If that doesn't help, get shut, and buy something else.
By the way I can't believe a Micra would be more to insure than a Fiesta if you did it third party fire and theft.

 

Was speaking to a 1.1 owner at Honestjohn and he has the same problem. It turns out these engines don't like short runs so get sludged up quickly.

He also reckons a new oil filler cap will do the trick. I will probably cancel the trip to the garage now and just clean out all the sludge in the rocker myself.

 

IME if the oil hadn't been changed for a while before you had it done, it certainly can look pretty old again pretty bloody quickly as lordsummit suggested.

I just bought a Morris Minor van as my new works van, 36 years old but looks great, although it's kinda noisy .

 

....sorry, you've lost me...

 

interesting........different

 

Exactly, people look round when a moggy van goes past - so great advertising (so long as it's written). Lots of people especially those of a certain age+ like to see these old vehicles and stop and chat etc. Nobody takes any notice of modern vans .

 

look after it!

 

can we have a picture?

 

Sure, I've got to remove the old sign writing today (hopefully) and then I'll post a pic!