This post is to dissolve the myth that engines do not fail because of lubrication failures. It happens all the time. In my experience cooling failures are more common, but lubrication failures take place all the time:
1. Low on oil. Engine fails because car runs out of oil. First, the car would not have run low on oil if the car did not consume or leak oil. The car consumes oil because the rings or valve seals went bad. The rings only go bad because of detonation, ring land expansion (design or quality error), or good old fashioned ring wear from bad lubrication. The valves go bad from a machining error, poor seal selection, or bad lubrication. The outer seals leak by bad design or poor lubrication (varnish ruins seals).
2. Piston scuffing. This is bad machining, or poor lubrication.
3. Bearing wear. It is pretty rare that a car gets pulled off the road due to bearing wear, but it does happen.
4. Massive leak. This is different than running low on oil because the car may have always had oil added, but still has a large leak. The leak can be caused by poor lubrication of any of the rotating seals. A valve cover or pan gasket is usually a different problem not directly related to the oil. The rotating seals are strongly affected by the oil condition
5. Emissions failures. You can replace your car in California because you fail emissions after two inspections in four years. Lots of cars fail because of excessive smoke caused by bad rings or valves.
6. Turbo bearings. The number of cars that have been junked because a turbo bearing went bad? Well, my sister just junked her Subaru WRX after 160,000 miles of "by the book maintenance" because the turbo packed up. I also junked a 1999 VW GOlf TDI for the same reason after 75,000 miles. That VW was religiously maintained. IMHO, all turbo failures are lubrication failures. The turbo doesn't pack it up for no reason. It is the bearing that goes bad first. Say what you want, but if that bearing had a healthy flow of oil at all times, the turbo would still be spinning.
7. Head gaskets. Belive it or not, head gaskets can blow because the oil allows corrosion to take place, or it just plain leaks oil. This qualifies as a lubrication failure in many instances. I used to work on Alfa Romeos and a head gasket leaking oil through a corroded gasket passage, or disintegrated O-ring, was a common failure.
8. Cam - Lifter - Tappet -Valve. Lots of cars have valve or valve system failures related to inadequate lubrication. In the case of the Lotus-Ford twin cam the cause was actually too much lubrication because the engine sent all the oil to the head. The valves were drowning in oil. We won't talk about the famous flat tappet ZDDP failures. I am convinced that was caused by the same poor quality heat treatment that happens today. Valves often go bad because of poor lubrication on the valve stem. This is caused by contamination, or inadequate oil. If you don't think synthetic oils can make any difference, try using Redline versus any other 80's dino oil on a VW Beetle and see what that does for your valve life.
9. Thrust bearing failures. Think your thin oil protects everything? NOT the thrust bearing baby. I had to rebuild several engines because of thrust bearing failures. Be careful when switching to a thinner oil than recommended!
10. Sludge. It sucks. Say no more.
Hopefully, this will wake up the nay-sayers who think that no engine fails due to lubrication issues. That myth should not be repeated on BITOG.
1. Low on oil. Engine fails because car runs out of oil. First, the car would not have run low on oil if the car did not consume or leak oil. The car consumes oil because the rings or valve seals went bad. The rings only go bad because of detonation, ring land expansion (design or quality error), or good old fashioned ring wear from bad lubrication. The valves go bad from a machining error, poor seal selection, or bad lubrication. The outer seals leak by bad design or poor lubrication (varnish ruins seals).
2. Piston scuffing. This is bad machining, or poor lubrication.
3. Bearing wear. It is pretty rare that a car gets pulled off the road due to bearing wear, but it does happen.
4. Massive leak. This is different than running low on oil because the car may have always had oil added, but still has a large leak. The leak can be caused by poor lubrication of any of the rotating seals. A valve cover or pan gasket is usually a different problem not directly related to the oil. The rotating seals are strongly affected by the oil condition
5. Emissions failures. You can replace your car in California because you fail emissions after two inspections in four years. Lots of cars fail because of excessive smoke caused by bad rings or valves.
6. Turbo bearings. The number of cars that have been junked because a turbo bearing went bad? Well, my sister just junked her Subaru WRX after 160,000 miles of "by the book maintenance" because the turbo packed up. I also junked a 1999 VW GOlf TDI for the same reason after 75,000 miles. That VW was religiously maintained. IMHO, all turbo failures are lubrication failures. The turbo doesn't pack it up for no reason. It is the bearing that goes bad first. Say what you want, but if that bearing had a healthy flow of oil at all times, the turbo would still be spinning.
7. Head gaskets. Belive it or not, head gaskets can blow because the oil allows corrosion to take place, or it just plain leaks oil. This qualifies as a lubrication failure in many instances. I used to work on Alfa Romeos and a head gasket leaking oil through a corroded gasket passage, or disintegrated O-ring, was a common failure.
8. Cam - Lifter - Tappet -Valve. Lots of cars have valve or valve system failures related to inadequate lubrication. In the case of the Lotus-Ford twin cam the cause was actually too much lubrication because the engine sent all the oil to the head. The valves were drowning in oil. We won't talk about the famous flat tappet ZDDP failures. I am convinced that was caused by the same poor quality heat treatment that happens today. Valves often go bad because of poor lubrication on the valve stem. This is caused by contamination, or inadequate oil. If you don't think synthetic oils can make any difference, try using Redline versus any other 80's dino oil on a VW Beetle and see what that does for your valve life.
9. Thrust bearing failures. Think your thin oil protects everything? NOT the thrust bearing baby. I had to rebuild several engines because of thrust bearing failures. Be careful when switching to a thinner oil than recommended!
10. Sludge. It sucks. Say no more.
Hopefully, this will wake up the nay-sayers who think that no engine fails due to lubrication issues. That myth should not be repeated on BITOG.
