Focus 1.8TDCi - Diesel Runaway

Focus 1.8TDCi - Diesel Runaway

Author
Discussion

spudster

Original Poster:

8 posts

195 months

Monday 11th February 2008
quotequote all
I now know why it's called runaway.

Thats the first thing you do when it starts.

My Precious Focus decided to do this at midnight on the M25. A good samaritan stopped and reminded me that stalling the car in high gear might stop the engine ( not the first thing i thought of ) that was only after the police put the fog warning lights up on th motorway and the brigade were called. AAAGGGGHHHH

Beware the dreaded runaway !!

JulianHJ

8,746 posts

263 months

Monday 11th February 2008
quotequote all
The throttle jammed open?

I'm not sure what happened with your car - please explain, thanks! (I have the same model) smile

spudster

Original Poster:

8 posts

195 months

Monday 11th February 2008
quotequote all
It's apparently when something goes wrong with the engine, and this doesn't appear to be a constant something, and it jams at full revs and continues to run even without the ignition on.

The engine so i've read draws in the oil from the engine and burns that as fuel. Apparently if you dont get it shut off it will basically explode with fairly devastating effects.

My cars in the garage at the moment and when i find out what went wrong i'll update the post.

Suffice to say it's a very hairy moment when it happens.

Frik

13,542 posts

244 months

Monday 11th February 2008
quotequote all
Dieseling eh? Nasty.

spudster

Original Poster:

8 posts

195 months

Monday 11th February 2008
quotequote all
Much worse than just dieseling, this will go on until the engine runs out of oil to burn and then just KAPOWWWW!!!!.

Fortunateley i managed to get it shut down before the big bang. smile

Edited by spudster on Monday 11th February 21:17

paul38

194 posts

199 months

Tuesday 12th February 2008
quotequote all
Is this something to do with the turbo going faulty, i've heard of it before when the turbo basically runs away with itself using the engine oil as fuel. The symptoms you describe sould exactly that, the engine runs at full throttle until either someones rear bumper or you can manage to stall it.

heard of it before on vauxhall and some audis.

hugoagogo

23,378 posts

234 months

Tuesday 12th February 2008
quotequote all
it will go on until it runs out of stuff to burn, be that oil or diesel, and then stop, as if it had run out of fuel
(unless of course something goes bang cos of it sitting there at high revs)

many moons ago when i worked at a bus garage we had a bus do this while we were working on it (bristol LH - and no, i'm not that old, bus fans, just united bus used to have some really old buses)
the old fitter with me stuck his hat in the air intake and stopped it

Trooper2

6,676 posts

232 months

Tuesday 12th February 2008
quotequote all
Diesels don't normally have throttles, the way to stop a runaway is to block the air intake with something rigid like a thick piece of plywood, etc. to starve the engine of air, since you can't cut off the fuel, if it's running on it's own engine oil.

spudster

Original Poster:

8 posts

195 months

Tuesday 12th February 2008
quotequote all
Thats a reasonable idea but......

On the M25 at midnight theres not normally a handy thick piece of plywood hanging around, and it's not normally the first thing that enters the mind of the standard car driver.

But thanks for the advice and i shall ensure in future i have a piece of plywood handy. LOL
smile

gwatson

2,504 posts

242 months

Tuesday 12th February 2008
quotequote all
hee hee... don't think I'd want to be anywhere near the engine bay to cut off the air supply when the engine as been running at max for the last three minutes.

stocky1

203 posts

207 months

Tuesday 12th February 2008
quotequote all
seen it happen on older cars but not on a focus , it happens if the engine is overfull with oil or indeed the turbo is faulty and then the car will run on the oil , is your car ok now ????????

spudster

Original Poster:

8 posts

195 months

Tuesday 12th February 2008
quotequote all
Not found out yet , but i might speak to the garage about the turbo as a few have mentioned it might be a problem. I did get a high pitched turbo like whine just before it happened as well so might be worth a look.

The first question they asked was had anyone topped up the oil so they are probably thinking thats the fault ???