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msoylemez
Jedi Trainee
Offline
So this weekend driving around in the little bugeye and I go around a curve pretty quickly. I hear a pretty loud noise (thought it was from the engine, but not sure, so in true bury-my-head-in-the-sand-so-I-don't-get-bad-news fashion, I kept driving a little bit)...and then I feel oil dripping on my left leg.
OMG. There is oil spewing into the car. Holy cow.
I immediately pull over, turn off the car, open the bonnet and then I am astounded at what I see next.
Oil has filled up the battery box and there is oil seeping on the master cylinder area. It's all over the wiper motor, wires going to the battery, the heater box...It's a disaster. But there's no other oil around the engine...I look and look. Can't find where the darn oil has come from. Not one area on the engine looks like it has just blown or exploded...nor is the engine covered in oil (relatively speaking compared to the battery box, battery, master cyl, wiper motor, etc.).
I spend the next 20 mins in horror looking around the engine compartment looking at everything I spent so much time on over the past many years just simply covered in motor oil. I have no rags, save a few napkins. I fruitlessly try to wipe away anything I can.
With an enormous pit in my stomach, I push the car home, leaving a long trail of oil behind me. I finally get her home, and immediately pull out towels, and start wiping and wiping. Out goes the battery box, undo the heater box, undo the master cyl. Try to mitigate the disaster the best I can. I am heartbroken, as some things will need total replacement if I ever want them to to look factory new again (i.e., cloth wiring harness pieces, etc.)
I spend the next 3 hours cleaning. I still can't find the source of the problem. The engine, albeit a little dirty, is fine.
At that point, my wife comes out and sees that I am starting to lose my mind, and decides I have had enough for the day. Having wiped up the best I could, I call it a day.
This morning, I head back out, of course. And I try to reconstruct what happended, and after about 10 mins, it dawns on me what has happened.
No, its not the engine breathing system. That's complete, and looks fine.
Nope.
What happened was the oil pressure hose--a stainless steel one that I have on there--brushed up against the positive battery post. It shorted and sparked, and caused the hose to fail internally, although I could not see the inner hose was fried. The oil came shooting out, filling the battery box (runs near there) which ran over onto the heater box, wiper motor, etc. Sure enough, I checked the pressure hose, and there was a 1" black smolder mark on the bottom side of the hose. Other than that, it looked remarkably fine from the outside.
And I could only blame myself. I had originally tied it down rather loosely, but 2 people had told me (one in the last week!) to make sure I did a better job tying it down. I ignored their advice (or just hadn't gotten to it). And this is what I got.
UPDATE: I spent most of Sunday coming up with a strategy to clean up this mess. I went out and bought some tough oil/grime fighting spray stuff. I basically ripped apart the interior by the foot wells, and plan to redo from scratch, as oil has penetrated some of the carpeting and the flimsy board material that goes around the heater ducts.
As for the engine, I took out the items that were impacted (master cyl, wiper motor, heater box, wires/looms, etc.) and will be replacing the gaskets and anything that can't really be cleaned.
What a mess. And I have no one to blame but myself.
Wow. What a weekend.
OMG. There is oil spewing into the car. Holy cow.
I immediately pull over, turn off the car, open the bonnet and then I am astounded at what I see next.
Oil has filled up the battery box and there is oil seeping on the master cylinder area. It's all over the wiper motor, wires going to the battery, the heater box...It's a disaster. But there's no other oil around the engine...I look and look. Can't find where the darn oil has come from. Not one area on the engine looks like it has just blown or exploded...nor is the engine covered in oil (relatively speaking compared to the battery box, battery, master cyl, wiper motor, etc.).
I spend the next 20 mins in horror looking around the engine compartment looking at everything I spent so much time on over the past many years just simply covered in motor oil. I have no rags, save a few napkins. I fruitlessly try to wipe away anything I can.
With an enormous pit in my stomach, I push the car home, leaving a long trail of oil behind me. I finally get her home, and immediately pull out towels, and start wiping and wiping. Out goes the battery box, undo the heater box, undo the master cyl. Try to mitigate the disaster the best I can. I am heartbroken, as some things will need total replacement if I ever want them to to look factory new again (i.e., cloth wiring harness pieces, etc.)
I spend the next 3 hours cleaning. I still can't find the source of the problem. The engine, albeit a little dirty, is fine.
At that point, my wife comes out and sees that I am starting to lose my mind, and decides I have had enough for the day. Having wiped up the best I could, I call it a day.
This morning, I head back out, of course. And I try to reconstruct what happended, and after about 10 mins, it dawns on me what has happened.
No, its not the engine breathing system. That's complete, and looks fine.
Nope.
What happened was the oil pressure hose--a stainless steel one that I have on there--brushed up against the positive battery post. It shorted and sparked, and caused the hose to fail internally, although I could not see the inner hose was fried. The oil came shooting out, filling the battery box (runs near there) which ran over onto the heater box, wiper motor, etc. Sure enough, I checked the pressure hose, and there was a 1" black smolder mark on the bottom side of the hose. Other than that, it looked remarkably fine from the outside.
And I could only blame myself. I had originally tied it down rather loosely, but 2 people had told me (one in the last week!) to make sure I did a better job tying it down. I ignored their advice (or just hadn't gotten to it). And this is what I got.
UPDATE: I spent most of Sunday coming up with a strategy to clean up this mess. I went out and bought some tough oil/grime fighting spray stuff. I basically ripped apart the interior by the foot wells, and plan to redo from scratch, as oil has penetrated some of the carpeting and the flimsy board material that goes around the heater ducts.
As for the engine, I took out the items that were impacted (master cyl, wiper motor, heater box, wires/looms, etc.) and will be replacing the gaskets and anything that can't really be cleaned.
What a mess. And I have no one to blame but myself.
Wow. What a weekend.
Messy but could have been so very much worse.
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