When is the last time your engine died?

[Morningside]

Modern cars seem much more reliable and robust than cars of the 80s and early 90s

So how many fails have you had and when is the last time your engine really failed? I dont mean a small problem. I mean, really died! Packed up, self detonated. Big end gone, head-gasket, warped head.

All mine are in the 1980s

Mini 850 - Replaced with 1000cc from scrappy.
Princess - Pissed oil everywhere. Big end went. Gold seal engine.
Rover SD1 2000cc - Overheated and warped head. Cost a fortune to have the head skimmed.
TR7 - Going *cough* Mph on the M25, lifted foot and the oil pump packed up. Total rebuild.
Rover SD1 26000 - Sitting at Dartford crossing. The top half got staved of oil and seized the cam solid. Being fairly new I sold it to the garage.

Only close one recently was about 4 years back when the TVR decided to blow the radiator! Fortunately I managed to stop just in time.

Hmmmm.... Seems to be a BL, Rover, Austin trend. Then again thats the only ones I purchased so its hardly a fair test.

[theironduke]

My Corsa hack threw its cambelt last summmer...was a 1994 car i think, alas no longer.

[joebongo]

Austin Metro, C reg 1.0L. Dunno what happened as I was a complete dick with cars at the time and didn't check oil/water as I have subsequently learned to do.

Engine seized on the M1 southbound. Not a good day.

[drakart]

Company Ford Focus 1.6 - big end. May bank holiday 2009

Honda Integra Type R - big end, oval cylinders. January 2010

Blown a two stroke or two as well, over the years

Shameful!!

[Si_steve]

Blown up a corsa C before, My fiesta Si threw its cambelt and its previous engine threw a rod out the block.

[43034]

A mates 147GTA immobiliser gave up at around 2200ish one night. Raining too!

[Don]

My old 51 plate Vectra bust a cambelt a couple of years ago. Killed it stone dead. Quite a recent car to have that fail...

[Ozzie Osmond]

Morningside said:

Modern cars seem much more reliable and robust than cars of the 80s and early 90s

Yes, they are. The "too much electronics" crowd are just talking nonsense.

Go to a scrapyard and most cars will still have an engine which runs, especially the automatics whose engines last longer than manual cars. These days cars typically reach "end of life" for other reasons. Ironically this includes automatic gearbox failures...

[inman999]

My 02 Focus snapped it's cambelt in 2008.

The only major engine failure i've encountered personally.

[edo]

Never owned a car that has had a major engine problem - or even a minor one come to think of it. Touch wood. Thats done it.

[jbi]

1995 Vauxhall Omega 2.0 sold it at 146,000 miles and running great

1986 Ford Crown Victoria 5.8 ran it for a little while as I needed a car quickly, it had cylinder blow-by and drank fuel but still ran decently. No idea how many miles on it... lots presumably

1991 Mercury Couger 3.8 sold with 85,000 miles on it and running like new. Rust killed it shortly after I sold it

1996 Dodge Intrepid 3.5 Drove it until it read 178,000 miles and then traded it in as collateral on a loan (was leaving the country). No engine problems, but everything else was on the way out.

1998 Fiat Cinquecento 1.0 Showed 40 odd thousand miles before the engine seized. Biggest (smallest) piece of crap i've ever owned

1995 Volvo 850 2.0 Sold it to my friend at 110,000 miles or thereabouts and still running strong, no problems

1992 Toyota Celsior (LS400), No problems, approaching 100,000

1991 Land Rover Discovery 200tdi (X2), both running fine, however one will be donating it's engine as a spare for the other while i fit it with a shiny new V8

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Head gasket - rover 100 back in 2003 (predictable really )

Head gasket - Corsa 1.4l a month ago

Mondeo 2.0l TDCi - Hydrolocked after driving through a puddle

That's about it really.

[interloper]

I think the OP has been a bit unlucky I've had a one seventies car and a lot of eighties metal, none of which have self destructed.

The only engine failures I've experienced, one was self inflicted (hydrauliced my 944's engine trying to get through a flooded road).

The other was totally unexpected and definitely not my fault. A couple of years back I was driving down the M4 in the company shed (Saab 93 TD mid nineties vintage). Minding my own business, overtaking in the outside lane I started to notice a drop off in speed. It took a few seconds to register but the car had actually suffered a total loss of power. Fortunately I managed to coast it onto the hard shoulder.

The post mortem revealed that the timing chain/belt had failed and the valves had decided to meet up with the pistons!

[GTO Scott]

Last Sunday.

[dylan0451]

Morningside said:

Rover SD1 26000 - Sitting at Dartford crossing. The top half got staved of oil and seized the cam solid. Being fairly new I sold it to the garage.

which garage would this be? i wanna get me a 26 litre sd1

[snuffle]

Suffered a couple of dreaded HGF's .
not so much a terminal problem , more weekly maintenance done at same time as tyre pressures etc.
I really wish it had been more reliable as K's are otherwise a great engine.

[GTO Scott]

dylan0451 said:

Morningside said:

Rover SD1 26000 - Sitting at Dartford crossing. The top half got staved of oil and seized the cam solid. Being fairly new I sold it to the garage.

which garage would this be? i wanna get me a 26 litre sd1

Bah. I'd rather have me a 27 litre SD1 with a Meteor V12 from a tank.

PPC's V12 SD1

[Hammerhead]

edo said:

Never owned a car that has had a major engine problem - or even a minor one come to think of it. Touch wood. Thats done it.

IIRC, didn't the 206 gti have a dose of the splutters/running on 3?

My 480 turdbo died on me once. Wasn't technically the engine though - the alternator packed up. That was a nice ride on the transporter back to the Volvo dealership

[*Al*]

About 3 years ago my 2003 Subaru Impreza had big end failure @ 34K!!!! FSH.

Just to add: Oil level was fine, oil pump fine.

Edited by *Al* on Monday 26th April 19:31

[anonymous-user]

I've never had an engine failure. I guess the closest I've had is my old corsa wouldn't a few times because it had a loose instrument panel, gave it a quick hit and it worked.