When I recently had the turbo replaced (warranty) at the dealer, the *brilliant* mechanic who did the work oriented the clamp that holds the rubber pressure side hose onto the metal tube (just behind the rad) in such as way that the 2 inch screw from the clamp was touching the oil filter.
And guess what? In a few hundred miles, I had a pinhole leak and was spewing oil out the side of the oil filter.....on a long weekend driving 6-8% grades with a camper in the mountains a couple 'hundred miles from a dealer.

The Bad: I lost 8 out of the 12 litres of oil before pulling into a camp site and noticing a drip. The dipstick was essentailly dry. (but had a free undercoating of expensive Delvac 1 oil underneath and on the truck/camper back side)

The so-so: I was able to replace the 8 litres and put a new filter on at the campsite....found a place within bicycle distance. Folks at the camp were real nice and didn't kick me out for oiling their driveway.

The good: The oil pressure gauge did NOT head south and the check gauges light or engine malfunction light did NOT come on...so I had some oil pressure. When replacing the filter, I also checked the new turbo (compressor side) and it would spin freely without excessive play. The spool up and down seemed normal also by sound. I took some pictures and have the old filter to take to the offending dealer

Question - Did I get lucky or do I have a more serious problem to deal with...are the engine internals messed up?
Do I have any recourse with the dealer? I would llike to have this noted in the vehicle history noting that they caused this....

 

Honestly I don't know....some bad news though your oil pressure gauge is a dumby gauge and is really hooked up to a 6 psi switch...so as long as you have at least 6 psi of oil pressure that gauge with function "normally." At least that is my understanding of that gauge. Sorry man!

 

You may have dodged a bullet. You will know shortly. Most of the time when this happens a block gets SWOLE....(rod out of the side of the block).

 

I hate to hear stories like this. We owners almost have to inspect everything before leaving a dealer that has done work for us. I have had some work done where the dealers mechanic has left their 'mark' of stupidity behind as well. I finally have decided to never let them at my truck again for anything, might as well be my own warranty station as put up with their errors that also cost me, probably break even before all would be said and done anyway.

Did you take some pics of the clamp prixomity to the oil filter? Pic is worth 1K words u know what I mean - evidence. Also, did you save the oil filter so you could present them with evidence or take a pic of it cleaned off to show the rub? Then, pics of your truck and camper with the oil all over everything?

No evidence, you would be wasting your time trying to get any compensation now or down the line. And even with evidence, you could still have issues with them.


CD

 

I've ran my old 95 down to having only 2 qts in the pan when the turbo shaft broke....twice. I only knew about it once the oil pressure light came on, and I shut it down. Kept on running fine after refilled with 10 new qts of oil
At 350K miles, the thrust bearing went out, so I pulled it apart to fix it.

The bearings looked like the new ones, other than the thrust So I rolled in new bearings, a new oil pump, and slid in a Helix 2 just for good measure. 370K miles now, head has never been off, original pistons. Truck has made over 450hp with twins pushing 70psi, and is now tuned to 380RWHP with a single. Never has ran better.



So, in short...I don't know the metric system conversion off top of my head, but I'll bet your fine

Chris

 

i really hate cutting in on a story as serious as this one. Sry steve034x4 i hope the best for you but signature600 what kind of oil did run in that 95 cuz of that story u shared seeing the power, miles, abuse it took it sounds like a still heathly motor.

 

Yeah I would snap some shots of that one! This is the reason why I only let two shops work on my truck. A lot of dealerships and shops around MA just don't or are completely negligent.

Well that is good to hear!

 

I would get an oil analysis done pretty quick. That will tell you if your bearings are going. You might have dodged (no pun intended) it or you might have not. Take LOTS of pictures. Chances are things will be ok, but an analysis will tell you really what is going on in your motor.

 

is this accurate??

 

Bought the truck at 203K...I've been running AGCO Powerlube 15W40 in it since then, changed anywhere from 3K to 5K miles, depending on how much it's leaking at the time

I'm an ACGO dealer, I get it cheap...if it's good enough for our tractors, it's good enough for us. Run it in everything, from my motorcylce to our machines. Regularly get 300K miles out of Chevy gas engines as well.


Pretty much...basically, if you have oil pressure, the gauge says NORMAL...if not, the gauge reads Zero and the light comes on.



And to the OP...if the light never came on, personally, I wouldn't even worry about it, but I would make sure the dealer makes a note of it in the computer so that if something would happen under warranty, or just out of warranty, at least they knew about it

Chris

 

yes,so you won't be alarmed by a fluctuating gauge.

 

I have pics of the clamp/screw touching the filter from a few angles - I took off the air intake piping to the compressor inlet so I could get a good view (and not have to get underneath the oily mess to change the filter)....and have kept the old filter. I need to take a photo of the filter yet and I'll present all to the dealer....let's see what they'll do about it. I don't feel that an 'sorry about that, mate' is quite good enough.

 

YES, it accurate. Our gauges are just out and out junk when it comes to reliable live/real-time information.


CD

 

Why does it read higher when the engine is cold? my gauge moves around at different RPMs ..

 

The in dash guage is controlled by the computer. A cheap way for Dodge to get around just an idiot light. A real guage would cause many customers to think something was wrong when they would see pressures below 30psi and cause unessesary problems at the dealers.

I have installed a real oil pressure guage. The in dash guage reads fairly close to the real guage at highway speeds when the engine is warmed up. Cold at idle it reads a little lower than the real guage -in dash-65 to 70, real guage 80. At idle hot in dash around 30, real guage 20. The real readings are similar on the Cummins engines at work.

I added the oil pressure guage because I don't trust idiot lights on an expensive engine. Diesel in oil will cause a pressure drop (actually saw this at work and saved the engine when cp3 leaked fuel into crankcase), the in dash guage will not show this.

Steve034x4 might have seen a fluctuating pressure as the oil got low if the in dash guage was real. I am a chopper pilot and saw fluctuating oil pressure due to loss of oil in the transmission in Viet Nam. Quickly set the chopper down and saved the chopper and the trans (no damage internally).