Oil leak on six month old 'R'

[stagger321]

Lo there.

Oil leak issue on my 6 month old 'R'

Yesterday got my Satnav updated to the 7 digit postcode s/w via the 2.8 upgrade disk.

Stupidly, as you are aware if you do this, you have to have the engine running for some 40 mins while the upgrade completes otherwise the system goes into sleep mode and the s/w get corrupted.

Well I had a 20min trip to do so set the upgrade running then returned home. So for the last 20 mins I had the car sitting on the drive idling away while the upgrade completed.

Upon driving away today I notice telltale signs of oil on the drive. Not much, but not what I expect for a nearly new car.

Levels don't appear to be low (difficult to tell with this strange dipstick), but I def have a leak from somewhere. Nothing obvious from the top of engine.
Are these engines prone to oil leaks??

Ta

 

[DKZ5745]

Straight back under warranty. :eusa-think:

 

[stagger321]

Straight back under warranty. :eusa-think:

...........and I just have done - this morning

Bearing in mind I have had the car a few weeks and it is only just over 6 months old - a Pug Managers ex-car and (I thought) well looked after, I was a little alarmed by the initial reports coming back from the mechanic at my local Pug service.

He called me in after 5 minutes to ask me who had worked on the car last - as the undertray was only held on by hand tightened bolts.
Apparently the under-tray had oil swilling round in it (hence the drips on my drive) and that had splattered all the bottom of the engine - so they had no clear idea where the oil was coming from. At one point there were 3 mechs and the service manager peering under the car trying to find the location of the leak. No joy.
He's cleaned the oil from the engine and undertray - refitted the undertray and asked me to return in a week to see if the location of the leak can made easier to find.

 

[renegade79]

not the best news to be hearing on your new car. sounds like the previous owner didn't look after it as well you had hoped!!!

 

[stagger321]

not the best news to be hearing on your new car. sounds like the previous owner didn't look after it as well you had hoped!!!

The other "owner" was the Pug dealers Manager.
So maybe I was sold a line when I asked about the weight of his right foot - in that I was told with a laugh he was all for MPG and not MPH. :crazy:
I had incorrectly assumed that even though he might be heavy on the accelerator he would have at least had it well cared for by his minions in the service dept.

 

[DKZ5745]

Having had company cars, normally, the slightest thing gets sorted immediately - after all it doesn't cost the driver anything. If I heard the slightest knock, or smelt the slightest burning smell - anything, it went straight in to be checked out, so I can't understand why a Pug Manager wouldn't have his car spot on at all times.

Hope you get it sorted soon. Stick with it though, don't let it drop & let us know the outcome

 

[renegade79]

not the best news to be hearing on your new car. sounds like the previous owner didn't look after it as well you had hoped!!!

The other "owner" was the Pug dealers Manager.
So maybe I was sold a line when I asked about the weight of his right foot - in that I was told with a laugh he was all for MPG and not MPH. :crazy:
I had incorrectly assumed that even though he might be heavy on the accelerator he would have at least had it well cared for by his minions in the service dept.

i'm thinking now that you were spun a yarn or two and maybe the pug manager has a weekend hobby that he failed to mention - like thrashing his R round a racetrack! did you get the oil leak sorted?

 

[stagger321]

not the best news to be hearing on your new car. sounds like the previous owner didn't look after it as well you had hoped!!!

The other "owner" was the Pug dealers Manager.
So maybe I was sold a line when I asked about the weight of his right foot - in that I was told with a laugh he was all for MPG and not MPH. :crazy:
I had incorrectly assumed that even though he might be heavy on the accelerator he would have at least had it well cared for by his minions in the service dept.

i'm thinking now that you were spun a yarn or two and maybe the pug manager has a weekend hobby that he failed to mention - like thrashing his R round a racetrack! did you get the oil leak sorted?

Maybe. Who knows.
Yes, oil leak sorted. May have been sump plug not tightened up enough when oil changed.
My main issue was discovered when oil leak last checked - totally collapsed jacking point, as per my recent posts.
Not a happy bunny. :evil:

 

[stagger321]

My 'R' has had to return to local dealer for another investigation on a minor oil leak. :brickwall:
As before, leak coming from the bottom of engine. Ally block looks OK when I looked under car with mechanic, so its coming from the sump area, but further up than sump plug.
No obvious culprit. Mech scratching his head, and said he's never seem this before on an RCZ
Mech has booked me in for sump removal and re-seal/refit, in case there is a slight gap in the sump gasket/sealant bead.
Anyone seen this on their THP?

 

[DKZ5745]

I haven't got a clue how much oil is in my engine, the dipstick seems to have been made by an Egyptian Pyramid designer, and holds many secrets, including unfortunately exactly how much oil is in the engine :eusa-think:

I tend to rely on the oil level message on startup, which is not ideal, but a modern car should be able to run between services without losing enough oil to affect the engine, unless that is, as in your case, there is some sort of leak issue.

I have not had any such issue on my 200GT and as far as I know, this is not a "recognised" fault with the Prince engine, but maybe a more experienced owner on this forum may be able to advise further.........

Hope you get to the bottom of it soon, there is nothing worse than an ongoing niggle to put a damper on owning such a wonderful car :auto-car:

 

[stagger321]

I haven't got a clue how much oil is in my engine, the dipstick seems to have been made by an Egyptian Pyramid designer, and holds many secrets, including unfortunately exactly how much oil is in the engine :eusa-think:

I tend to rely on the oil level message on startup, which is not ideal, but a modern car should be able to run between services without losing enough oil to affect the engine, unless that is, as in your case, there is some sort of leak issue.

I have not had any such issue on my 200GT and as far as I know, this is not a "recognised" fault with the Prince engine, but maybe a more experienced owner on this forum may be able to advise further.........

Hope you get to the bottom of it soon, there is nothing worse than an ongoing niggle to put a damper on owning such a wonderful car :auto-car:

Yep, that dipstick sure is a cooky french design. Probably modeled on the Pyramide du Louvre :crazy:

RCZ's run with 4.25l of finest extra virgin synthetic.
Mine is not a massive leak.
My drive looks like my Triumph Stag has been standing on it - and that's to be expected with a 40yr old car - not a 9 month old R.
I'm not worried about major oil loss, but its like you say, its more a p*ss off factor niggle.

 

[Tomas_90]

What about the timing chain tensioner thing? Didn't some of those start leaking oil before they went bust?

 

[stagger321]

What about the timing chain tensioner thing? Didn't some of those start leaking oil before they went bust?

Yes, i did check that, but it's not coming from that far up, as per my previous post.
Nothing coming down the block.

 

[the big blue]

Hi Stagger321 :greetings-wavingblue:

...trust me when I say I screaming for you as your anguish is felt by me and others I'm sure. :thumbup:

Its not a case of a heavy foot OR the car not being looked after its a "quality control" matter. Modern engines are supposed to be made to greater tolerances and with state of the art technologies hence no running in period as such which used to be the case for those old enough to remember owners of new cars having hand written notices in the back window!

A company car or private car is only ever looked after as good as the keeper of it, BUT engine wise your leaks and sump plug not allegedly being tightened are simply quality of workmanship issues whether it be technician or production line! :x

You say the car is six months old and the faults to date are unacceptable and like I've said on the forum before its easy enough to design the shell of a decent and sexy looking car BUT building it is another matter as its what's underneath that decides how the car will ultimately be judged. Maybe just maybe the "Prince" engine was the wrong choice much like VW seems to have decided with its overly complex and temperamentally engineered 1.4 supercharged AND turbo charged Roc engine, engineering is all about tolerances and mass produced engines need real world & workable tolerances to be reliable.

.the big blue (..a Forum back bencher full of rant AND an illuminated engine management light !)

 

[frankvdb]

I agree with you that the choice for the Prince engine is unfortunate, but it was driven by the political pressure to have models with good fuel economy and emission etc. If you squeeze a lot of power out of a small block, you can expect a larger risk of things failing, so indeed it is much more important that each individual part has the required quality and endurance.
The latest trend in petrol engines appears to be to go back to larger volume (e.g. Mazda SkyActiv starts at 2.0l and latest BMW 3 cylinder engines at 1.5l and 4 cylinder engines at 2.0l) and use other technology to reduce fuel consumption and control emission (which BTW is a big problem with very small turbo charged petrol engines that all emit quantities of fine dust which would make a diesel engine fail any emission test).

Luckily the HDi block is the PSA DW10 2.0l engine that is used in many Peugeot and Ford cars since 1999 and has proven to be very reliable and combine good performance with excellent fuel economy.

 

[the big blue]

Hi Frankvdb :greetings-wavingblue:
Yes its right that the political push for greater fuel efficiency and reduced emissions has led to engine fragility as a result of manufacturers attempting to squeeze greater amounts of power from smaller power plants. The RCZ-R is an example of taking this a degree further having squeezed over 270 horses into the space of 1.6 cubic capacity. Fragility and longevity becomes a natural substitute when chasing horses then stabling them in such a small space.

VW's 1.4 (160 hp) super & turbo charged engine in the Roc won "Engine Of The Year" meaning low emissions, good mpg & small capacity not too long ago ONLY to have it beset with a wrath of unhappy owners with engine issues and then they mysteriously choose to drop the engine from their line up.

A good engine needs longevity and that is achieved by not over stressing the components of the engine and having a sensor trip every time it has to deal with an internal issue that the now 'thoroughbred' ECU commanding its overly stressed engine can no longer adjust to deal with. Racing motorcycle two stroke engines had the same trait, they were in such a high state of tune they required major fettling after every race and even then they were still susceptible to engine seizures ,,so much hp from such a small cc, sounds familiar !

As you stated Frankvdb, manufacturers going back to the drawing board and increasing the cubic capacity of engines again heaving experimented with over stressing smaller power plants in real world scenarios is possibly the future. :beer:

.the big blue (..a forum back bencher who's researching the virtues of the 2.0 flat four engine) Peugeot made me do it :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

As the Americans say, there ain't no replacement for displacement

Realistically it is possible to engineer small, high powered, efficient engines with the same reliability as a large unstressed V8...but not at the prices mass market manufactures can sell cars to us mere mortals.

 

[stagger321]

Hi gents,

Re my oil leak, I don't necessarily think that this is bad design - in this case, or the fact we have a 1.6l pumping out so many gee-gee's. I think in this particular case its a manufacturing fault.
The sump seals on these cars are piped on al a Mary Berry icing a cake. One small gap during this and I'm sure its easy to get the oil weap I see.
So I tend to side with my Dealers Mech , in that its likely to a manufacturing fault,
.............but then I would say this, due to my education and previous jobs, i.e. a Design engineer always blames Manufacturing :twisted: ..... and of course visa versa.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there. My wifes RCZ (1.6thp) has been loosing oil since i got it in April 2014 (2010 model bought with 17000mls on now has 22000mls, reakon I've topped up with about 5l over this time). No obvious signs of leaks, no marks on the garage floor etc, so i thought it was was slowly burning the oil. But the car was in for an MoT today and the garage (independent) phoned to say there is an oil leak coming out from what they think is the sump gasket. They will check further remove sump etc on monday. I'm hoping it is something as simple as the sump gasket.

 

[Anonymous]

Ref my oil leak - Garage phoned today and the oil is coming out of the timing chain inspection cover bolts, very difficult to see and only noticable at higher revs. So luckily nothing too serious and fingers crossed it's now sorted.