Car mechanics/savvy folk - a question!

Hi car people! :)

My car died the other day, in the middle of the freeway. From what I can gather, she overheated pretty badly. Although, I had no warning of this - my temp needle didn't move from normal, I have no oil indicator light come on, no water indicator light come on, and I had topped up about 2-3 weeks ago.
Anyway, travelling down Monash Fwy and it all of a sudden feels really sluggish, then I lose acceleration altogether, as I am pulling off, masses of smoke. Yay for my car!! LOL
Once I stopped, the smoke stopped, temp needle snapped all the way up then all the way down in about 1 second, then back to normal. I let it sit for a minute, the smoke didn't come back, then I turned it off.

Tow truck man said when he put it on the truck (about an hour later) there was a huge oil puddle. :doh:

Anyway, it won't start now, but my question is, is it a good sign, a bad sign or a nothing sign, that it is still making noise? It is still *trying* to start when I turn the key, it just isn't. I mean, if it were reeeeally screwed, it wouldn't make any noise, would it?

I am having it towed to the mechanic next week and really just trying to brace myself as to ho bad the damage is firstly from it overheating and secondly of course as to why it did it with no warning in the first place.

Any ideas? TIA! :)

Hubby said he's not sure, but it doesn't sound great. What kind of car is it?

1997 Volvo V70
:( Thanks Niadalla.

Hmm if it dropped the oil, I wouldn't be trying to turn it over anymore... If things are misaligned in the engine, or there isn't enough oil in there, you could do damage to valves, score or scratch the bores etc. Even if its still trying to start, that means that ignition, starter motor etc might be ok, but you could do pretty severe damage to the engine that could be irreparable... Probably not the news you want right near Christmas, but I would for sure not be doing anything until it had been looked at.

Fingers crossed it is minor and there is no internal damage :) That must have been a bit of a scary thing to have happen!

Thanks Frog. :) Yeah, only tried it once to see if it would start and in the pitiful hope that it was some random and fixable issue! LOL

take off your engine cap - does it look all mucky (like dried up iced coffee?)

check your oil colour - is it black? milky?

:hug: car issues suck

I had that at Easter and I'd blown the head gasket :( thankfully my (at the time) FIL was able fix it.

Hopefully that's not your problem as it was horribly expensive and took ages for him to fix.

Hi LS, I've only just read this. I will talk to the Man about this in the morning (he's just gone to bed), so hopefully I will have an answer for you. :hug:

It could be the thermostat. If it overheated yet didn't register on the dash, I'd say that it is likely to be the thermostat.
After that, it sounds like a head gasket may have blown, which would explain the smoke & oil. If that's the case, that's not a great thing. Hopefully it is something less than this that is easily & cheaply fixed.

Unfortunately it sounds like the engine is cooked. Yes some will still 'try' to start even when cooked. Was there a burned rubber smell? Puddle of oil could be a seal has gone somewhere. Actually come to think of it sounds like a cracked head. Check if it looks like there's water in with your oil.

Okay. Just spoke to the Man. Sorry for the delay.

He says, and three others of us seem to agree, that the "sluggish" would have been the car's computer going to "limp home mode", which runs the engine at a maximum of 30% power, to help you move out of danger without causing engine damage.

And to ask your mechanic to check the oil pressure sensor, as if this came out (it does happen), you won't get a warning light, but the engine will drop oil pressure, which the computer will pick up on, putting it into limp home mode. The smoke would have been oil falling on the hot exhaust.

Let us know what your mechanic says. x