[Engine] 1.6HDI engine failure

[Bingoman]

Driving along in slow traffic after a medium-sized (50miles) journey the oil light suddenly came on in my 1.6HDI Berlingo van (2007). Realising this was serious, not just a random glitch, I drove 200yds and pulled over in a retail park and turned the engine off. Before doing so I noted a rattling sound coming from the engine compartment. After waiting 5 minutes or so I started the engine again, and again the light came on plus the rattling sound. Checked to oil level - it was high with no leak visible. Called the AA and was later towed to a nearby garage.

What the garage discovered was:

- Turbo completely seized
- Low oil pressure, possibly due to broken oil pump
- Rattling sound coming from running gear in top of engine (likely to be damaged)
- Oil filter full of "iron filings" even though it was changed only 4-5000 miles ago

The key thing was though that they found the oil filter was incorrectly fitted - it has a spigot which should have been located in a special hole but wasn't.
Could this have been the cause of the engine failure? ie. filter misalignment not enough to turn pressure light on but enough to cause oil starvation. This causes excess wear on running gear causing "iron filings". This eventually causes oil pump to seize, taking out turbo? Any other ideas?

(Unfortunately it was me who changed the filter!).

[polar]

It stands a very good chance if the little drain hole in the filter housing was not plugged with the filter spigot/tit oil pressure would be low because oil would be draining back into the sump.

Looks like an expensive mistake! From the damage you say the engine has suffered it sounds like it would be cheaper to get a recon engine or get shot of the vehicle for spares or repair.

[LucyLeBingo]

Locating the filter pip correctly in the high pressure oil feed hole is a pain in the bottom on this engine and dealing with paper filters is messy too. Why the F! PSA went for such an antiquated design rather than a spin on cartridge is beyond me. Failure to get it right leads to engine destruction because filtration is not taking place then carbon from the EGR and piston blow by turns the oil into a high pressure grinding paste which destroys the turbo bearing but not before the turbo fins have been consumed and digested via the inlet tract into the cylinders, damaging the injector ends and causing all sorts of internal horribleness. The work involved in stripping, inspecting, cleaning and replacing is simply not viable. Find a replacement engine with a history of oil changes at least one a year or less than every 12k or scrap the vehicle.