My V6 just dumped its oil...

[jim3]

Driving the GTV home from work tonight with the windows down and heard a subtle but odd noise. Looked in the rear-view mirror and saw a shed load of blue smoke and the oil pressure light came on. Got to the side of the road as safe as I could (100 m or so with no/minimal throttle) and shut down. Looks like it's the oil cooler pipes. Once stopped another few litres of oil leaked out so I'm praying the engine isn't damaged. Owned it 11 years and 60k miles...

[Nigel_O]

I've seen V6 Alfas come into the workshop for a routine service with less oil in the sump than you describe - you should be OK

What was the noise you heard?

[paulmakin]

in an odd sort of way it sounds positive that it kept spewing out after shut-down (still had some in there to lose, if you see what i mean).

now off to check his own cooler/pipes as it's been a while since i saw them last

fingers crossed for you

paul

[Oilchange]

Could the noise have been a bird or something hitting the pipe, fracturing it?

[davebem]

Its common for the oil cooler pipes, connections or cooler itself to corrode and leak with age.

[Vitorio]

The V6s arent known for being as vulnerable to low oil as the TS units, so 100m of running with loads of oil still spewing out afterwards should be fine.

Id say replacement pipes + new oil should have it going again.

Best of luck!

[SturdyHSV]

It'll probably be fine, as others have said, there was clearly still plenty of oil in there, and as you were already driving along, all the surfaces will already have a nice coating of oil on etc.

Best of luck and hope it's a simple and cheap (as if!) fix

[rxe]

The pressure light coming on is a bad sign. For the entire time that was lit up, the bearings were mechanically in contact. I'd change the big end bearings at the very least - they may be ok, but if they are torn up, then change the mains as well.

[jim3]

As an update, it was indeed the oil cooling pipes and no engine damage was done. In fact it's running better than ever thanks to some new flexi exhaust pipes and lambda sensor. Very relieved!

[ST270]

jim3 said:

As an update, it was indeed the oil cooling pipes and no engine damage was done. In fact it's running better than ever thanks to some new flexi exhaust pipes and lambda sensor. Very relieved!

Excellent news, I am new to the fold of V6 ownership and seeing threads like this can be sobering if it had caused additional damage, glad yours is back to form!