Can a full DPF cause an oil leak?

[RandomTask]

When my wife was driving our diesel Insignia last week it broke down at a roundabout. My brother in law drove cam up to meet her and said that it was accelerating itself and had clouds of white smoke coming from the exhaust. Since then it was drivable, but sounded very tappety low down, had an oil leak coming from the front passenger side, and oil coming from the exhaust.

It still in warranty for 6 months so I put it into the Vauxhall garage today. They claimed that it is all down to a full particulate filter, and can be regenerated at a cost of £79.

Does this sound likely, I fail to understand how a full particulate filter could cause an oil leak?

[trickywoo]

Sounds more like a turbo failure to me and the car was burning engine oil in the combustion cycle.

[Mikeyplum]

Sounds like a runaway...

Turbo seals have failed allowing oil to enter into the intake acting as fuel which will "run itself".

Sounds like you got lucky that the engine wasn't completely ruined. Youtube "Runaway Diesel" - some scary stuff!

ETA - sounds fishy that the garage are saying the DPF is at fault, I'm no mechanic, but can't see how that would be. IMO

Edited by Mikeyplum on Tuesday 21st February 15:30

[TheEnd]

Yep, I guess the dealers weren't paying attention to the description of the problem.
It probably has a full DPF, but oil in the exhaust and the runaway probably points to the turbo bearings leaking and it is burning its own oil.

[RandomTask]

Thanks, I did some googling when it happened and it sounded like it was the turbo sucking oil into the inlet and burning in the engine, but I'm not hugely mechanically minded so thought I'd ask on here.

[wolf1]

Yes the oil level will rise after quite a few failed regen attempts by the ecu. This is due to the excessive amounts of fuel used to regenerate the dpf. The engine runaway will have occoured due to the high oil level allowing the hot thinned down oil to enter the breather pipe and then into the engine where it will combust

[Noesph]

Mikeyplum said:

Sounds like you got lucky that the engine wasn't completely ruined. Youtube "Runaway Diesel" - some scary stuff!

Edited by Mikeyplum on Tuesday 21st February 15:30

I did, it was.

[RandomTask]

wolf1 said:

Yes the oil level will rise after quite a few failed regen attempts by the ecu. This is due to the excessive amounts of fuel used to regenerate the dpf. The engine runaway will have occoured due to the high oil level allowing the hot thinned down oil to enter the breather pipe and then into the engine where it will combust

Thanks, I've said to go ahead with the regen, as they wouldn't investigate further without it. I'll take it on a drive tonight and see if its any better.

[Golf10]

Hey guys!!! New to this forum recently had a similar problem with my 2.0tdi mk6 golf. Engine management light came on limp mode then cut out wouldn’t restart.
Mechanic removed oil breather and it started but blew loads of oil out of the breather. So was told I need a new rocker cover as it’s built in. Had it changed still the same but no smoke or nothing when was started. But dpf light comes on prob every other week.

Any help would be much appreciated!!!!

[E-bmw]

Golf10 said:

Hey guys!!! New to this forum recently had a similar problem with my 2.0tdi mk6 golf. Engine management light came on limp mode then cut out wouldn’t restart.
Mechanic removed oil breather and it started but blew loads of oil out of the breather. So was told I need a new rocker cover as it’s built in. Had it changed still the same but no smoke or nothing when was started. But dpf light comes on prob every other week.

Any help would be much appreciated!!!!

Go to a different garage.

Preferably one that has competent mechanics that can actually diagnose engine problems on it's payroll.

You say "engine management light came on limp mode" what do you actually mean by this? An engine management light coming on is not "limp mode".

You then state that it wouldn't start but that a mechanic removed the oil breather and it blew out loads of oil, but how did it do this if it didn't start? You have obviously missed out lots of potentially relevant information between these two statements.

You then say that it is still the same, what is? The engine not starting, the breather blowing oil, the engine management light, the limp mode?

LOTS more info required before any help apart from my first statement can be given.

[Sardonicus]

Make sure an inj seal as not failed (internal to cam cover) this will cause chuffing out of the filler/dipstick as compression leaks into the crankcase causing poor combustion and hence DPF soot values to rise rapidly , seen this many times on this engine , an oil change will be essential if this is the case too due to oil diesel dilution , depending on how bad its leaking owners seldom notice the slight loss in 1 cylinders performance and drive on making the problem worse , get a proper tech too check the vehicle out however or you will go down a worm hole trust me