eurospeed951

This could not have come at a worse time. Tonight I was taking my roommate to pick up a part for his car, when suddenly my 88 951 began to make a hellish noise. It sounded like a loud grinding noise and the car began to vibrate. I pulled over immediately pulled over and opened the bonnet. I could hear a loud clanking and chattering noise coming from under the valve cover. I shut it off and had it towed to my house. At my house I checked the oil and it was almost empty. Just a day ago I checked it and it was full. I did not see any signs of oil leaking on the bottom of the car or at the place where I pulled over. The car has 177k and has burned a small amount of oil since I have had it. ANY advice at all would be much appreciated. This is my daily driver and as I said this could not have come at a worse time for me. Thank You.
Chris

Perry 951

Find the leak. Check the exhaust for an oily residue. It is possible that is where it went.

Do an oil change and filler up. Turn it over by hand a few hundred times to see if you feel any binding or hear noises. If nothing is found, start her up and be ready to turn it off.

If you ran it low on oil, lifters will make a hell of a racket. It takes a little bit to get them pumped back up.

If the noise is bottom end, start looking for a beater and lining up parts. Noises in the bottom end are no good.

eurospeed951

bump

Perry 951

Did you find where the oil went to?

Pull and intercooler hose and see if there is an excessive amount of oil up in there.

Peter L

Also check your coolant

jim968

Not sure, but I think your '88 has the external oil-to-air cooler... little radiator, probably lower right front, behind the grille. This is connected to the engine with two flex hoses. If the oil went away as fast as you say, you may hae a blown hose or seal, or loose fitting, there.

BTW, if the oil level dropped enough for the engine to get noisy, you should have had all kinds of red lights on the dash: oil pressure, oil level, and master caution (!) all at once, I'd think. You need to check the functionallity of all this stuff if it didn't work.

Anybody got any idea of the life expectancy of those oil hoses? My 968 has 'em, and it kinda bothers me to have my baby's blood flowing thru something that can fail so suddenly & totally...

Jim, sometimes nervous over nothing....

Perry 951

Typically they will last as long as the car, provided they are not cut, bent, scraped, etc. I have never heard of a street driven 944 series car blowing one.

They are pretty beefy!

I know someone will bring up the fuel lines. This is a diffrent case due to the mounting location and the fact the gas is corrosive.

jim968

Much thanks, Perry. Knowing me, I'll still replace 'em around 100K just as a PM (preventative maintenance / peace of mind ) item. I spent 'way too much of my mis-spent youth working on hydraulics for Unc Sam, and replaced too many blown hoses then.

Jim, "Underway! Shift colors!"

Hans

eurospeed951
Did you find where the oil went?
If not leaking out, in the exhaust (as per Perry) and not in the coolant (you still have the seals in the NA type cooler!!!), than where?

Had this once before in an VW Sirocco,('79-GL,50K mls), lost about 3 liters of oil in a short distance but could never trace where it went.
Re-filled and the problem never occurred again,(car sold at 175K some 8 years after the event).
Could not explain then and can't still now.

eurospeed951

Ok I could not ever find the oil leak. Basicly the whole bottom of the engin was coverd. I drained the oil. I did not find anything on the magnet or in the oil . I filled it back up again and started it. Once all the oil got to the liffters, most of the sound went away, though it does sound like one of my vaulves is sticking. The next morning I atempted to drive it to a european auto repair shop just down the road. I got about half the way down my drivw way and I could hear a loud droneing/vibration nois. This was the same nois I heard that made me pull over the first time. I decided to have it towed. Today the repair guy said he could not find the oil leak, but he suspected it to be the turbo. If it was I have no idea what kind of damage this could have caused. Rebuilding the turbo is not something I mind doing, but the mechanic and I are not sure if that will be enough. I knew when I bought this car it needed to be rebuilt and that it leaked/burned a little oil. I had been hoping to have it last till this summer, when I could bring it home and do the rebuild. I am away at collage and do not have the tools/space to do the rebuild. I also needed next semester to save up the mony so I could afford the rebuild. My question now is wether or not I can bandage the car enogh that I can use it to get back and forth to class, or if I need to park it and try and find a cheap beater car till the summer. Thanks for all your help.
Chris

eurospeed951

Update:
I tried to drive the car home from the shop tonight. While driving it I could feel the vibration that I described earlyer. The mechanic and I think it was a balance shaft damaged by the lak of oil. About half way home I was comeing to a stop when I heard a loud KATHUNK! from the engin followed by lots of banging and clattering. Once again I pulled off and had it towed for the 3rd time this week. Well I guess it will just have to be parked till I can afored the rebuild. I'm renting a car tomarrow
That's going to suck!

keith

Doh! you shouldn't have driven it until you knew what was wrong.

On the 86 951, one of the oil line hoses to the cooler started leaking at 190K. It is seeping slowly from the inside out, no visible signs of damge, and was VERY hard to locate the source. I had to clean the engine thouroghly and then run the engine with me under it, looking...

While tyhe bottom of the motor is wet, your mechanic will never find anything.

eurospeed951

Great news!
All of the noises I was hear were coming from the tensioning gear for the balance shafts. It had loosend and basicly killed it self. Both of the balance shafts seem to be just fine. I still have the matter of the disapearing oil. I just spent $650 to have it towed from Tn to Va. I guess I'll visit it over the holadays and start the rebuild. (hoping Santa will bring: gaskits,bearings,pistons and head)
Thanks to all who replied on this post.
Chris

keith

Good Luck!

bs

all this talk of towing makes me think of two things:

1) what is the best way to tow a 951/944?

2) (advice) join AAA!! you get all the free tows you need. not sure if they'll tow across to another state for you, but my brother once had a crown vic ltd towed about 2 hours across vermont for free just by pushing it out to the side of the road and calling AAA.