Motors My cars oil system. Wah :(

So, I have had a thing for a while now where every few weeks I have to replace some oil in my car. Its a 99 ford fiesta, and I havent noticed it burning oil, but I have noticed the oil light comes on (thus loss of pressure in the oil system) when the oil has been in for a while and I either turn a shrap corner, or brake.

This leads me to believe there is some how or something in the oil system related to the brakes, thus pressure drops when its applied, and also a bit leaks out - this would explain all my problems - oil needing to be replaced and pressure drop.

Now, the problem - the real problem (except for that you have already noticed). I went to put a bit more oil in there today and it was full of this thick oozey gray ****. Being the scientist I am I looked at what had changed in the last few weeks... the weather. Its filthy out there now. I suspect some dirt and particulate is getting in through this hole and is contaminating the system. Now, obviously on monday its going to the garage, but in the meantime has anybody got any experience with this type of thing? Im going to clean the **** out of the oil cap today but its probably a bit all over the system.

Any ideas as to alternative suggestions for how a "gray ooze" could be created?

 

Sounds like your Headgasket has gone. Usually the gray ooze comes around as a part of that.

It might get expensive I'm afraid.

 

Hmm, did a search then and they were also suggesting that moisture in the system could cause the gungey type of thing to fill up, moisture cased by recently poor weather conditions getting into small holes?

I was under the impression if it was a head gasket then oil would be being burnt.

Note that the car runs fine, if I wasnt topping it up with oil I would never have suspected anything was wrong (from the way it runs).

Coolant isnt a problem - I do 50 miles a day (25 miles there and 25 miles back) and the engine temperature isnt going anywhere.

 

Not necessarily. It may be leaking water into the oil. Do you mainly do short journeys? (just seen 50 miles a day)

Oil system isn't related to brakes, if it is then I wouldn't get in it,

Could possibly have a dodgy oil pump. May explain the loss in pressure once the oils been in for a while and got a bit thicker.
What oil are you putting in it? 5W30?

I never had any problems with oil/oil pressure with my 89k miles 99 Fiesta.

Hows your coolant level? Is that staying at the right level?
Can you see oil leaking from anywhere underneath?

 

50 miles a day yeah, 25 mile jouney to and from work - not sure if you would call them journeys "short", but I wouldnt neccessarily have thought so.

5W30 Ford Oil from Halfords - Part Synthetic.

Coolant, im not sure where to look in my engine tbh This is the first car ive had I have had to do anything with. I know where to put oil in, I know where to put fluid for the screen in (screenwash, not the water though)

I took a photo of the engine, sadly I only have a 200 pixel camera so it looks a bit blocky:

 

The thing in the top left corner that's full of murky water is the coolant.
The bottle on the other side is brake fluid.

This is what your engine bay looks like. (few things diff like the air filter which in this pic has a K&N fitted).

 

Ok, so the coolant is at the right level then (the pic you showed me is a bit different, I dont have the second big black cap on the left, but the fluid level in that coolant thing seems to be roughly the same from the shadow its casting).

I need to go out again tonight so ill check the fuid level in there before and after and see if it is changing.

 

Doesn't sound good I'm afraid.

That gray/yellow-ish ooze in the oil cap is actually oil mixed with water. That could come from a leak between the cooling system and the oil system. This usually means a broken head gasket or a cracked engine top.

It could also be condensation. Try driving for a couple of hours (without stopping the engine) and see if it goes away. This usually happens when it's cold outside, but it doesn't explain the loss in oil pressure.

When did you last change the oil filter?

 

Oil filter was changed only a fewmonths ago, and the problem with the oil pressure was happening before then too. The pressure thing has been going on for months, its only the past few weeks when the ooze has been forming - which is why I suspect the weather is causing it, to an extent.

 

I see. Then it may be as simple as condensation.

Do the loss of oil pressure have any relation to oil level? Loss in pressure under braking could be that the oil level is just on the limit of empty. When driving normally it's not a problem yet, but under braking the oil may slosh to the front of the engine, causing air bubbles in the system.

Do you use the dipstick to check the oil level, or do you just fill "a dash"?

Do you know if you have a oil level warning light, or if it's just oil pressure? (Oil level is usually a yellow lamp while oil pressure warning is red.)

 

If you do 50 mile journeys frequently then you can pretty much rule out moisture, it should've escaped once the engine is nicely warmed, because oil systems aren't totally sealed, just sealed enough to stop the oil leaking.

Sounds like head gasket to me, had any problems with strange starting behaviour or erratic temperatures?

The oil pressure could easily be a dicky sensor, if you can find a Haynes to help you try unplugging it and giving the connector a good clean.

p.s. That thing in the top-right of your diagram is the brake fluid. If it reads above the minimum mark leave it well alone.

 

The loss of pressure does have relation to oil pressure yeah - the process I go through is:

- Red warning light starts coming on under braking or sharpish turning.
- I fill the engine with oil, but I dont use the stick cause I can never actually see how much oil is there (oil is invisible coloured!)
- Oil light stops coming on for a few weeks.

I dont have any yellow oil lights, just a red.

Starting behaviour and temperature has all been consistent with all the time ive had the car:

- the temperature never leaves the bottom of the the reading and never has except for in july when I had completed 20 miles of my 25 mile journey and would be sat in a traffic jam on the A14 on a hot day when my car had its over revving problem (the car would over-rev when I depressed the clutch, making me look like a chav). Even then, it only got up to half way. Its been serviced since then and the coolant level was fine.
- starting is as simple as turning the key, never had a problem whatsoever even in the bitter cold of the last few weeks.

tbh I only assume its an oil pressure sensor as thats the system this car has - it might be a level warning as when I brake, like you say, the remaining oil sloshes to the front leaving the sensor exposed - similarly turning corners it sloshes to a side, perfectly reasonably explanation.

Thanks for the help so far guys, im not happy with the suggestion it might be expensive but its something I need to know

 

It sounds like the Head Gasket to me normaly loss of power and grey sludge = Head Gasket needs replacing.

 

The garage will probably figure it out if your head gasket is broken.


None the less, i would strongly recommend you to use the dipstick when filling oil.

Find a clean rag, wipe the oil of the dipstick and put the stick back into it's place. Pull it out again and look at it. You will see the oil level by seeing how much of the dipstick is wet.

You will probably see that you have filled far from enough oil.

It's not unusual for an engine to use a bit of oil. What's "normal" depends on make and model, really.

 

I said the car drives fine, no loss of power or anything like that.

Yeah, I know the garage will be able to work it out fairly quickly, I just like to go intpo garages with some knowledge of the possibilities, if anything I like to think it helps stop me being ripped off - but bit by bit it means I can diagnose myself in the future

 

Bloody hell. You've been putting oil in but not actually checked the level with the dipstick? That's pretty daft.

 

Yeah, im not very good at owning cars yet... its a work in progress. I dont think this problem will have come about as a result of overfilling, im always pretty careful about it. It started after kwik fit replaced the oil not long after I got it too, I trust they understand the dipstick

 

My Mini had a bit of mayonnaise stuff in the breather pipes because of the weather the other week.
So, it may be the weather, as it has been extremely cold.


When you say you don't have the big black cap on the left, that's just the cover over the top suspension strut bolt.
If you mean the one at the front of the engine bay, that's power steering fluid, so if you don't have Power Steering, you wouldn't have that bottle.


Now that we know you've not actually been checking the oil level, it may well be a dodgy oil sender, and you may be overfilling the oil.

What would have been the best thing to do is, when you put the oil in, fill it up to the max mark on the dipstick, then after say a week, check the dipstick again to see where the oil is, you may find its not going down, and you've just bee putting more and more oil in.


Also, re. KwikFit, you'd be surprised. KwikFit are, universally accepted as being pretty awful,

 

Never EVER go to Kwikfit.

EVER!

 

You might also want to check under the car by the font of your engine. I currently have a front oil sump gasket that is leaking and I have to put in oil every 2 months or so. Yours could be a worse version of what I have, also check the rear sump for leakage as well.