406oc.co.uk

Hi

I was just driving my mums 406 which is a 1.8 16v and quite quickly it went from sounding normal to sounding like a diesel engine. After having a look under the bonnet the sound is coming from the head. I opened the oil filler cap and there appears to be no oil getting to the head. My local mechanic thinks it might be a blocked oil gallery. I have a couple of questions i'm hoping someone with more knowledge than me will know. If the oil pump had gone would there be a light to indicate low oil pressure? And does anybody have anyideas. i've checked the oil level which was fine and swapped the oil filter. I've also just tried running engine flush through but has made little or no difference.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Andrew

P.s. I apologise for originally posting this in the for sale wanted section. No idea how i managed that. lol

I see you haven't been overwhelmed by the response.

What is the history of the car? Mileage? Has it been getting regular oil changes?
If the oil pressure was low I would think that the ECU would warn you or shut the engine down to prevent damage.
A garage should be able to check the oil pressure.

All I can suggest is to pull the cam covers off and see how much oil is in the head. The cams will have an oil feed to the journals and the hydraulic lifter are pumped up with oil. So there should be a fair amount of oil lying in the head.
Get someone to start it while you watch. There should be oil being flung all over the place. If not you got a problem.

It could be a hydraulic lifter making a noise.

We once had a Pinto with no oil getting to the head. By looking at a oil feed diagram we figured that by pulling the cam out we would be able to use air pressure to clear the oil feed into the head.

sounds like my partners vectra , she was driving along and within seconds
it suddenly sounded like a diesel, was just the hydraulic tappets fooked, and do agree
think you would have been given prior notice of a drop in oil pressure

Its done 120K and not had an oil change in 30k, its always been the work horse car. I've had a look through the oil filler and theres appears to be very little oil in the head when running compared to previously. I'll try getting the rocker off to have a closer inspection next weekend. I'll let you know how things get on.

Thanks again

Andrew

acqu135c3 wrote: not had an oil change in 30k

That may well be the culprit. Skipped two oil changes?

IMO even a work horse should get regular oil changes if nothing else.