Alright a bit OT!! but my ditzy daughter for some unknown reason went and dumped around a litre of Antifreeze down the oil filler of her Mondeo earlier. Fortunately she realised her mistake and some muggins looks like having to do an Oil change tomorrow;(.
If she had run the engine would this have harmed it at all?.
Never heard of anyone doing this before always a first time I suppose! Anyone any ideas on what the outcome might have been if it had been started?..
TIA......
Happens all the time when head gaskets go - in fact that's one of the clues. Happend to me about two months ago on a Daewoo Lanos and over a week, about gallon of water/antifreeze mixture was 'dumped' into the sump whilst I was using the car - this being 'boiled' off after starting in the morning and during driving.
Not a situation that you could leave for too long though!
Brian G
corrosion and more rapid wear. Nothing disastrous though, not for a while anyway.
NT
Remember to warm the sump before draining and then I suggest to simply put a bit of flush in to make sure the water is gone.
Do the oil change and you'll have caught it in time.
It could easily do so if "running" the engine had involved high rpm or high load. A litre is a large proportion of the total, raw antifreeze won't boil off as quickly as diluted coolant and it's certainly not a good lubricant.
I've no idea what a Mondeo sump looks like, but there are some engines where it's difficult to get a good clean drain of the last dregs in the sump. Make sure the car is tilted the right way (jacking or blocking one end if needed)
============= I doubt if a simple drain down will be good enough. It would be worth giving the engine a good clean with flushing oil before putting in new oil. This will clean out the antifreeze and leave a clean sump for the new oil. Flushing oil always seems a bit expensive since you only use it once and then throw it away but the results can be very impressive. And it's much cheaper than a new engine.
Cic.
Antifreeze and oil go together about as well as women and cars.......
Do an oil and filter change, let her run it for a day or so, then change it again, just to get rid of any dregs that may be left in there.
Probably not immediately, but it certainly wouldn't have lubricated all the bits it should have.
Try working in a garage for a while, you will see plenty of it!!
Expansion tank full of oil, and the engine run, buggered up all the hoses.
Some muppet who mistook the oil filler for the fuel filler (I kid you not) and filled (yes, completely filled to the brim!) the engine sump with diesel. Bloody big bang when he started the engine, and blew a hole in the side of the block.
I saw that done on a Hillman Imp years ago. Fairly easy mistake to make on that car.
Thanks Dad.x
It was a dark and stormy night....
When I bought my Imp, and I spent a long time on the garage forecourt going round and round it looking for the fuel filler!
Even tried behind both the numberplates before I eventually found it under the "bonnet" (opposite end to the engine )
Great cars, if you ever broke down (which was frequent in the ancient one I had) they have a sapre engine in the boot!
It won't have helped, but if she just ran it, didn't go down to the hairdressers and back (!), it should be OK.
Drain the oil/antifreeze off, change the filter and put in new oil, go for a leisurely run. If you felt *particular*, you could change the filter, fill up with cheap oil, go for a run, re-do oil/filter change, but I don't think it'll make a lot of difference (fill the new filter with oil before fitting it).
I sort of agree.
What I would do is drain, refill with the cheapest oil thati s useable, run till warm at very very low rpm - Ticvkover - drain while warm then refill with good stuff and fit new filter at that point.
Bearings stand up to running without any oil but the fiilm on them for quite a while if not stressed.
The antifreeze will boil and spew out of a hot engine via the crankcase breathjer points...so getting rid of most of it, evaporating the rest, and draining the residue is what sems best to me.
Were there many diesel Imps?
:-)
Cheers
Peter (Hillman Imp - petrol)
No... but "mistook the oil filler for the fuel filler" as described! More spectacular with petrol...
What everyone else said +
I would not got the full 10,000 miles or whatever till the next change, I would check frequently to make sure the oil is not emulsified (mayonaise like) and then change again sooner rather than later.
Just saw the mythbusters last night wher they tried all sorts to an engine and the only thing that looked really bad was bleach in the oil. Made the engine overheat. Although the other stuff didn't do any quick dammage the long term effects would have been bad. Other things they did was, 1.sugar in petrol tank 2.mothballs in petrol 3.penny in carb 4.cola instead of water in rad and finally an egg in the rad to bung up a leak. Interesting show!
Paul
I wouldn't do that anyway - change the oil more frequently than recommended. If it says 6,000 miles, change at 4,000 and if it says 10,000 change at 6,000. Use good oil, too. Take note of time intervals between changes on little-used cars as well.
Thanks for all who replied. Oil drained, flushed with flushing oil and refilled with the pukka stuff, new filter, and all done at 55 Quid:)
I passed one on the M4 a week ago. Either they get smaller as they age, or I'd forgotten how tiny they really were. There was a family of 4 in it too...
;-)
It also used to be common practice to use diesel as a flushing oil in a petrol engine.
Don't see why. Despite oil change intervals being 20,000 miles now with some, engines last longer than ever. Excepting things like cam belt failures, etc, which are rarely due to lubrication issues. Many cars these days have a service indicator system which takes into account the car's use and adjusts the change intervals accordingly. I'd agree with the time limit part - but most service schedules will advise on this anyway.
I can remember when cars would need a complete engine overhaul - rebore and crank grind etc perhaps twice in their life - despite 1000 mile oil changes. Now you'd have to look quite hard to find a firm capable of doing such a job.
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