[BarbedReverie]

Hello everyone.

I was wondering if I could get some opinions/advice on my 159.

I was driving along the motorway bank holiday Sunday a few weeks ago when all of a sudden thick black smoke started coming from my exhaust pipe. :depressed:

I got the car towed to a local garage, they've had a look at it and have said that my glow plugs have snapped off and could have gone into the engine. They have also done a full compression test and said that there is no compression at all.
They're now telling me I'm probably going to need a new engine fitted.

I'm not much of a car guy. I have no idea what happens under the bonnet, and I've only been driving for a few years.

could it be anything else? is there something I could ask the garage to do before they replace the engine?

The funny thing is, I had the Alfa up for sale from a couple weeks before. Maybe I hurt her feelings.

It's a 2008 159 1.9 diesel engine

Any thoughts and input would be greatly appreciated.:thumbup:

 

[sizewell]

Hello everyone.

I was wondering if I could get some opinions/advice on my 159.

I was driving along the motorway bank holiday Sunday a few weeks ago when all of a sudden thick black smoke started coming from my exhaust pipe. :depressed:

I got the car towed to a local garage, they've had a look at it and have said that my glow plugs have snapped off and could have gone into the engine. They have also done a full compression test and said that there is no compression at all.
They're now telling me I'm probably going to need a new engine fitted.

I'm not much of a car guy. I have no idea what happens under the bonnet, and I've only been driving for a few years.

could it be anything else? is there something I could ask the garage to do before they replace the engine?

The funny thing is, I had the Alfa up for sale from a couple weeks before. Maybe I hurt her feelings.

It's a 2008 159 1.9 diesel engine

Any thoughts and input would be greatly appreciated.:thumbup:

Don't lay any cash out until you have taken it to a Specialist Independent. It may not be terminal and if your glow plugs had dropped into the engine, it would be much more dramatic than black smoke coming out of the exhaust. You would have had a cacophony of noises. I'm sure its not as bad as you think. Good luck.

 

[BarbedReverie]

Thanks for the advice.

Something I forgot to mention. When the smoke was coming out of the exhaust pipe, I pulled over to the side of the road. I tried to turn off the engine and take out the key, but the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree, and the car was over-revving a hell of a lot.

I'll have a look around for some specialist garages near me.

 

[halftone]

Engines with no compression won't run at all, under any circumstances, so it must have had compression at that point. Did you manage to stop the engine?

Your symptoms sound like diesel runaway, when the engine starts burning its sump oil as fuel, usually via the turbo bearing failing and allowing engine oil to be drawn in through the boost pipes. Left to its own devices the engine will only stop as it runs out of oil, by which time it will have destroyed itself quite spectacularly. See Youtube for examples. If you managed to stall it or otherwise stop it before that happened, it should be OK.

A runaway wouldn't snap off the glowplugs. A garage might, trying to take them out to do a compression test through the holes.

 

[BarbedReverie]

Yeah, it took a little bit of trying. maybe 30 seconds - a minute, it did stop from when I got the key out.

I thought it could be a turbo at first. They checked it out and saw no problem there.
their diagnostic machine didn't note anything witht he Turbo either.

 

[giblets46]

Love the title, little bit of an understatement!
As above sounds like it's been running on its oil. Common areas are the turbo oil seals leaking (I experienced that on an Audi, runaway with disco effect white smoke out the back ), or possibly too many failed regens topping up your sump oil level.


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[BarbedReverie]

Thanks for the input.
I'll make a note of it all for when I speak to the garage.