*Urgent help needed* major oil leak!!!

[lisamiller]

Hi, I have a 2005 megane 1.9dci. Ive only owned the car for 2 months, it's done 107k, had new turbo last year and check injection light has been on since I bought it. The car had been driving fine but the oil light came on on tuesday so I topped it up with the recommend oil from halfords. Started the car weds morn and it literally dumped the entire contents of oil!! Seemed to be leaking from the oil filter. Got my hand down and tightened it up about four turns, topped up with oil, started it up and agen pissed oil everywhere and filter became loose, tightened agen but no joy. This morning fitted a new oil filter making sure to remove the seal of previous filter, ran fine for few mins but then dumped it all out everywhere, this time from bottom of oil filter not the top. Sounds like the oil isnt getin to the top of the engine, makes a metal sounding noise possibly lifters or pressure not too sure as turn car off straight away as it doesn't sound healthy. Any ideas on how to fix this (preferably without sending to a garage) would b much appreciated. Thankyou very much

[tomalamix]

the oil is coming out from the oil filter seal? is it confirmed?

[lisamiller]

Yeh you can see it literally oozing out from the oil filter where seal is.

[tomalamix]

the oil passes there then goes up...

when did you serviced the car? what oil did you use?

[lisamiller]

I haven't serviced it yet, its got mostly full service history and stamps in book think it was last serviced in july. The dash says next service due in 12,000 miles. I used oil recommended by halfords to top it up. Halfords own make 5/40 fully synthetic I think it was.

[tomalamix]

lets discard the oil and the service time from the cause pf the problem. for sure there is something that gets the oil stuck after the filter and that is not good, no lubrication while the engine rotates.

without knowing the oil path you will not be able to check where the oil gets stucked. i know the oil filters have a bypass valve but that will let the oil flow without filtering. if the valve is not in proper condition it may get stuck closed and the pressure will rise letting the oil escape. this should only happen while the RPM are a relatively high, not at idle RPM.

did this happen while that car was on idle?

[lisamiller]

With the old oil filter yes it pissed it out from idle and even while it was cranking over trying to start. It often takes few times to start from cold, its had new battery but needs glow plugs and injectors but not got round to doin that yet. Anyhow with the new oil filter on it was fine on Idle wasnt until I revved it that it started making noise and leaking again.

[tomalamix]

ok...if you changed the oil filter for another one im not seeing another solution instead of searching for the leak opening the engine..

just one more thing, the oil-water heat exchanger has also an seal where it connects to the engine block. did you check it?

[lisamiller]

Ive not had chance to get underneath to check. You could see while it was running the oil leaking from filter without getting underneath car so I presumed it was that and havent looked at anything else. Im guessing it must b a seal or build up of presseure coz its blocked sumwhere. Its had a small leak from back of turbo since I bought it but I dont think thats related to this. Will just have to strip it to find out I suppose. I did read that I was supposed to pour oil very slowly to prevent it getin into air intake but I can't see how that would cause it to dump all the oil.

[AlexB]

Hi,

Reading your first post... The car suffered turbocharger failure, which is usually caused by a lubrication system failure. The same previous owner serviced it before the sale, possibly with the same bad oil and filter, and now it is happening again. You are mentioning Halfords oils, saying they are synthetic, but we know that they do not contain synthetic basestocks... There is a chance that the filters are also coming from there...

It seems to me that there exists a clear pattern going throughout this entire story. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if the oil filter has collapsed plugging the oil path in the engine. It does not sound good. The engine can not operate without oil pressure for longer than a few seconds. If it has started making metallic noises, then something is falling apart there. There are no hydraulic lifters there to make this noise, it is a shim and bucket system.

What I suggest? Start with looking at the first failed filter. It is supposed to be Purflux LS933, but it is probably not... Cut it open and find out what happened to it. The next is to find out how to free the oil passages in the engine. Basically, I am suspecting that that an excessive oil pressure due to blockage somewhere downstream has blown your filter. I am surprised that the oil pump did not limit this pressure - they usually have a bypass valve.

Once this problem has been fixed, prepare to find a few more secondary problems, the turbocharger being most susceptible to such.

[lisamiller]

Thankyou, my partners back home now so ive got him out looking at it. Its does seem like theres a build up of pressure so need to locate where the blockage is. I dont know if all the pipes were cleared out wen the new turbo was fitted.
Can't see what make the old filter was but looking inside everything still looks in tact :-/. The new filter is from linco. Well all the halfords is now all over the road!!! So that was a waste of £40. Im getin ready to scrap the car if cant sort this problem out. Its done nothing but let me down since ive owned it.

[AlexB]

Apparently, there are reports about pressure release valves getting jammed. Please see this thread:
https://www.renaultforums.co.uk/archive/ ... 79682.html

The symptoms include repeatedly blown filter gaskets and exploding filters.

They suggest that it might be a lump of sludge or silicone sealant after repairs getting into the pressure release valve. I have no idea how to access it. Need to look in the manual in the sticky thread...

[lisamiller]

Managed to get fixed for £20 including oil top up . Turns out the seal had popped out of the oil filter. Just needed removing and replacing.

[tomalamix]

i told you to check it...

cheers