I booked a test drive of a Focus 2017 diesel at a local ford dealer today, since covid you take the car out on your own.

However I was noticing that the engine was reving on it's own while I was changing gear. 

I then noticed white smoke behind the car and pulled over, when it redlined the engine. It's all a bit of a blur, I tried turning off the ignition and it came up with an engine malfunction and I opened the car door and there was so much white smoke I thought it could be on fire. The engine did stop, but I couldn't say how long it had been burning oil. Someone stopped and said they had been following me seeing the white smoke, so it might have been a while.

I phoned the dealership and they didn't seem to grasp what I was saying, they told me to try driving it back. The engine wouldn't start and had oil and engine lights on. So I called them back and they came out. They couldn't start it either, the oil and engine lights came on & it told them it needed servicing. They took me back to the dealership and said they would refund the reservation fee, I was disappointed as I quite liked the car.

I hadn't heard of diesel runaway before, but googling bought a load of examples which I'm convinced is what happened.

Fast forward a couple of hours and they phoned me and said they have started the car and it drives ok, am I still interested?

There are no fault codes, except they say I was in the wrong gear and that "can cause it". Though I'm still not sure they are aware of quite what happened, I was there and it was pretty surreal.

I explained the situation and told them that after my recent 2012 ecoboost disaster, I really don't want any hassle whatsoever. They seem pretty insistent on trying to sell me the car, saying they can get the car looked at again on Monday.

This worries me a bit as I'm sure that it can't have done the car any good, plus there must have been some kind of underlying issue. Whether it's overfilling of oil, a turbo leak, or something in the engine.

I'm car less and it's annoying me, the car ticked all the boxes. But I'm thinking I should run away from it as quickly as possible.

I want to know whether it could have been something I did, I had only in the car for about ten minutes. I've driven petrol fords for 30 years and my driving style hasn't ever killed them before.

 

Don't really know what you could have done if you were driving it normally BUT......don't even think about buying it as there is clearly something wrong with it 😲

Plenty more fish in the sea 👍

Don't suppose you checked the oil level before or after the incident?

Could have been a stuck injector or a DPF regen causing hanging revs and white smoke but if you're sure it was redlining then that does sound like a diesel runaway burning oil.

First check would have been oil level in case it had been overfilled or heavily contaminated with diesel.  But I appreciate that wouldn't have your first thought at the time.

As above though, I certainly wouldn't be buying it after that experience.

Time to walk away you will find another that ticks all the boxes

If it was a runaway engine it would not start again, no chance 

33 minutes ago, tomo2001 said:

If it was a runaway engine it would not start again, no chance 

Not completely true.  If you can shut it off soon enough it'll start again.  It's only when they runaway beyond switch-off that they'll continue to run until the engine blows or seizes. 

You can even stall an automatic runaway if you're quick enough, need to pop the bonnet and cover or stuff the air intake with whatever you have to hand...synthetic jacket works well!  

For those who are interested there is a more expensive version here to save sacrificing your jacket.

https://www.amot.com/en/products/diesel-engine-safety-products/air-intake-shutoff-valves/valves-filtering-database/

ScaniaPBman.

9 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Not completely true.  If you can shut it off soon enough it'll start again.  It's only when they runaway beyond switch-off that they'll continue to run until the engine blows or seizes. 

You can even stall an automatic runaway if you're quick enough, need to pop the bonnet and cover or stuff the air intake with whatever you have to hand...synthetic jacket works well!  

Trouble is when it happens to the unsuspecting driver, you just watch it go up in smoke and feel helpless lol

On 7/14/2023 at 5:53 PM, Pedro Suarez said:

Fast forward a couple of hours and they phoned me and said they have started the car and it drives ok, am I still interested?

NO, NO, NO

On 7/17/2023 at 7:53 AM, DaveT70 said:

NO, NO, NO

Yeah, they phoned again. I was almost tempted to answer, just to listen to whatever rubbish they were touting.

Checked online, they dropped the price. I think they are kinda desperate to shift it.

10 hours ago, Pedro Suarez said:

Yeah, they phoned again. I was almost tempted to answer, just to listen to whatever rubbish they were touting.

Checked online, they dropped the price. I think they are kinda desperate to shift it.

Don’t be that guy!