22 plate Ford focus eco boost 1ltr - Automatic

32k miles

2 weeks ago car was running sluggish and stalled at lights. Started to then judder. Took it to a garage who changed spark plugs and said there was no oil in the engine so they filled it with 4 litres.

This appeared to solve the problem until the same thing happened again. Taken it back to the garage and there is no oil in the engine again.

Mechanic told me ever buy a car with a wet belt.

Any ideas on what could be wrong and what damage this could do to my wallet.

Cheers

Hi,

I don't see what this has to do with a wetbelt? Belts don't consume engine oil...

Either there's a major leak dumping it on the undertray. Or oil is getting into the cylinders/exhaust and being burnt away.

For reference, your engine uses a chain for the timing. The wetbelt on this engine is only a small one for the oil pump. If the oil pump belt had failed the oil warning light would be on the dash permanently, and oil wouldn't get pumped anywhere, so it would just stay in the sump at the correct level.

Clearly there is a major issue with your engine. But I don't think it's anything to do with the oil pump wetbelt. Assuming the garage have removed the undertray and can't see any visible leaks, the next step would be a compression test to see whether there's a split in the headgasket or crack in the head or a bad piston ring, allowing oil to be sucked into the cylinders.

Also worth checking the turbocharger, as a failed oil seal on that will allow oil to enter the cylinder or exhaust, though I can't remember seeing an oil seal failure on this particular turbo before, it is common on some other turbos.

Thanks for the reply.

The only reason I mentioned the wet belt was because the garage mentioned it.

The main symptoms I have are

• Oil dissapearing somewhere

• White smoke from the exhaust

• Low power when accelerating (But this doesnt always happen)

• Engine juddering but this only seems to be when the oil has dissapeared

I expect they checked the undertray. They said they couldnt find the oil anywhere which Is why they came to the conclusion it was being burnt off.

Im assuming this is going to be a costly ordeal. Im really trying to weigh up my options to decide if putting money into the car to fix it would be worth it.

White smoke from the exhaust is a classic symptom of a blown turbo oil seal on the hotside. The oil leaks into the exhaust where it's hot enough to smoulder but not fully burn. I had exactly this on a different car with a blown turbo oil seal.

Generally oil that gets into cylinder will produce blue smoke as it gets much hotter and burns fully.

If it only needs a turbo then that doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive. Cheapest option is to buy a used one, as long as you accept the risk for a much lower repair cost. Middle cost option is fitting a non genuine turbo, or only replacing the turbo cartridge. Most expensive option is complete brand new genuine turbo.

Obviously it's difficult to say how much internal engine wear has been caused while running low on oil. So it's your decision whether to try a turbo, or whether to just cut your losses and get rid of the car.

Thanks for your help, its appreciated

Having to add 4 Liters of oil to an engine that has a total oil capacity of 5,05 Liters (including oil filter) means that there has barely been any oil left inside the engine.

There is a major chance that this engine suffered from oil starvation and already developed some kind of engine damage (or at least increased internal wear).


I suggest to top-up the oil and get rid of the car. Sell it to "We buy any car" before you end up with a total engine failure.

The seal had gone in the turbo which allowed the engine oil to be burnt off

The low engine oil has now totally destroyed the turbo and hopefully not the engine

Fit a new turbo and keep an eye on your oil level

I'm surprised that the oil level got that low without putting the low oil pressure warning on

11 hours ago, JW1982 said:

I suggest to top-up the oil and get rid of the car. Sell it to "We buy any car" before you end up with a total engine failure.

Seconded second option👍🏻