[Durzel]

I had hoped I would never experience this - especially as I drive my car with a lot of respect, but its happened....

Earlier this evening my car went "bang". I don't mean a nice overfuelling pop or anything like that - I'm talking a full-on Uncle Buck style explosion.

All power gone, car trundles to a halt.

I try and restart car, it struggles badly. It eventually starts and dies instantly. Start it again, it dies again. Eventually it starts and manages to stay running for about 10 seconds, all the while black smoke is pouring out the back, a lot at first but then a steady puff-puff-puff of blackness out the exhaust. I switched the car off soon after this.

Any ideas on what might've happened? Couldn't see any oil, water or similar coming out of the car, and everything in the bay looked "normal" (but then Im not a mechanic)

It never rains but it pours..

 

[Durzel]

I forgot to mention (not sure if this is relevant) but the car was mapped recently and has been known to show 1.3 bar (1.31, etc) on the hand commander when previously - as far as I was aware - with the stock Abbey ECU I had on there the max was 1.2.

This is on steel turbos.

 

[davewilkins]

I will keep my fingers crossed for you but is does not sound good I would ask an expert, I always say that now) but a compression test should show if a piston(s) has holed. I think they usually use an endoscope to have look down the plug holes. The turbos should have been able to cope with the boost and I do remember Scott having a bad misfire and smoke out of the pipe at Kemble and all that was wrong was a loose intercooler pipe. Our cars are finely tuned so little things going wrong can make them run badly.
Who does the tuning work on your car?

 

[Durzel]

I'm hoping its something like that, Tim @ SVS described a similar problem now that I think of it.

My own personal experts will be looking at it tomorrow hopefully. Fingers crossed.

 

[davewilkins]

I am no expert (covering myself here!) but I though when the engine goes, it is white smoke from oil and black smoke is unburnt fuel i.e. ignition problem. My 2p worth.
Must be someone who had had the same, Dirk is an expert at blowing them up!

 

[Simon]

Nooooooooo

Damn. Sorry to hear that mate, it doesn't sound good.

The black smoke will be unburnt fuel, obviously there are many reasons that could cause the fuel not to burn.

I don't want to get your hopes up too much, but it *could* be a failed air flow meter. That would cause the symptoms you describe, but then again so would a holed piston I guess.

Can you run any kind of diagnostics on the PowerFC to check the sensors?

Fingers crossed it's one of the AFMs.

 

[PMJ]

Sorry to hear that

In my experience if it was the intercooler the car should be able yo idle but you wont be able to rev it.. but from the description you gave it does sound like an loose intercooler pipe letting in to much air...

 

[Durzel]

Cheers Simon

To cap it all off the AA subcontractor decided that my front splitter wasn't a massively high priority when loading the car onto the trailer and consequently bent it completely out of shape. Still, thats being claimed for on the AA (already spoken to them, etc).

Im hoping it'll be something as "simple" as what you've already mentioned, or one of the intercooler hoses come off etc. I daren't even consider the alternatives...

 

[matt j]

Black smoke.

Hi Durzel,

Similar thing happened to me on the motorway just after having a new intercooler piping kit fitted, one of the joints was not tightened properly which came off with the same symptoms you described.
Check to see if any of the pipework is letting in unmetered air to the engine.
Its the least expensive bang where the engine is concerned.

Matt.

 

[Durzel]

If it is that, and Im praying it is, then I will be getting a hard pipe kit sharpish.

Thanks again everyone for all the words of support.

 

[Durzel]

Re: Black smoke.

Hi Durzel,

Similar thing happened to me on the motorway just after having a new intercooler piping kit fitted, one of the joints was not tightened properly which came off with the same symptoms you described.
Check to see if any of the pipework is letting in unmetered air to the engine.
Its the least expensive bang where the engine is concerned.

Matt.

What other symptoms did you notice when it happened? A run down of exactly what you experienced would be very handy to be honest because I could compare it to what happened to me.

 

[Guy]

Bang

Durzel,

When I had the car, I had an intercooler pipe blow off.

It went bang, massive flames and black smoke and stalled.

It would not restart at all, other than for 2 secs and would not idle or run in anyway, I thought the engine had gone completely.

When the pipe was re-connected it was totally OK again.

Lets hope its a pipe blowoff. If there were no mechanical scraping/grinding noises then it sounds the most likely answer.

Guy

 

[Durzel]

Theres definitely no mechanical scrapeings, nor is there any oil or water under the car, or anything like that. No smoke from the engine, nothing that looks odd. That's good I guess.

The car does start, and move, but you can tell it doesn't like it. I had to start it briefly to park it outside the tuners last night (I can say safely now that I know its there - I had to leave it outside at night).

I'm just crossing my fingers at the moment. And my toes.

 

[TOKYO]

Pipe Off

glen

 

[Draxx]

Burnt Oil is thick white smoke durz, thats what happens when your turbo goes anyway, I would have thought that it woulod also happen with a piston, cause of the oil passing over the toop into the combustion chamber, lets hope it aint nout bad, and I reckon by the amount of folk thats said so It will be a pipe.

Keeping me fingers, legs, toes, eyes and teeth crossed for you mate.


Si

 

[Henry]

PIPE OFF!

Durzel,
Its got to be a pipe off.......You must be able to have a look mate & let us know.

At Bedford a couple of weeks back I had a pipe blow off at about 100mph,the engine lost revs,stalled and flames & gallons of black smoke poured out of the exhaust.It took about 45 mins to fix as I had to remove the whole front of my car to get to it! BTW,thanks to those who helped.

The very next day at Santa Pod Peglegs R33 did the same but lucky for him it was in a much easier place to fix,jammy bugger....

So fingers crossed for you.

Henry

 

[Daz]

Hope it's nothing major Durz mate.

Let us know how you get on.

Daz

 

[somberg]

What bang ?

For a split second, while browsing the new posts, I thought this thread was about another type of bang. Then, reading it again, I discovered it was GONE bang, not....

Like they say: a dirty mind is a joy forever....

Anyway, check your pipes first if you ask me..

Andre.

 

[Durzel]

Thanks for all the words of support.

I'm still waiting for an update but Im a lot more optimistic than I was when it originally happened - at the time I was just about ready to throw myself into the path of oncoming traffic.

I will keep everyone posted on what happens as soon as I hear anything.

 

[Smootster73]

Any news Durz??

Sounds exactly like the IC pipe has come off. Is a common fault and have seen this with Sunnys as well and same things happens.
I think you should be safe with the set up and get that hard pipe kit. You are probably getting a lot of flex as well in the rubber as you are nearly running DOUBLE the boost over std!

Keep us posted, NLW.
PS might be worth gettin a 2nd opinion on these thngs as well!!