Runaway turbo diesel
Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 12:04 pm
The other day on a dual carriageway all the traffic came to a crawl due to an intense smoke cloud. It was a Mercedes stopped at the side with a runaway engine, its been a while since I have seen one of these.
It happens when the oil seal fails in the turbo passing engine oil into the inlet manifold causing the engine to run at max speed all on its own oil with no way of turning it off. As far as I know unless it is a manual gearbox and you can stall it in a high gear or if you can block the air intake completely it will race away until all the oil is used up when it siezes completely.
Quite spectacular, but I did feel a little sorry for the owner.
It happens when the oil seal fails in the turbo passing engine oil into the inlet manifold causing the engine to run at max speed all on its own oil with no way of turning it off. As far as I know unless it is a manual gearbox and you can stall it in a high gear or if you can block the air intake completely it will race away until all the oil is used up when it siezes completely.
Quite spectacular, but I did feel a little sorry for the owner.