1998/9 S-plate Fiesta, 1.3 petrol OHV engine, belongs to SWMBO.
Has lost nearly a litre of oil in the last month.
It's not leaking from the drain plug, the filter, the head or the rocker box.
There's no blue smoke from the exhaust that I can make out.
There's quite a lot of mayonnaise around the oil filler cap, but our local mechanic says this is just the condensation that this engine is particularly prone to. No other symptoms of head gasket failure.
Help! It's driving me beserk!
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You don't say what mileage the fiesta has done or over what distance the litre of oil was lost. But my 96N 1.25 fiesta has needed an oil top up every 500 miles since about 50000 (now just over 80K), again no blue smoke or leaks. Where is this oil going?, well I spoke to a ford techie and he assures me the oil is being being burnt, prob due to the valve stem oil seals shrinking and letting oil into the combustion chamber. When I asked why no blue smoke, he said that the CAT takes care of most of the bad stuff and unless your car is using more than 1 litre per 1000 miles then everything is normal and you have nothing to worry about.
BTw - My previous 1.1 fiesta was exactly the same
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Sorry, it's done 40k and SWMBO does around 800 a month.
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son's 1993 1.1 Fiesta - 56k miles- is the same. Same mayo, same oil consumptiomn.
I think I'll repleace the valve seals using the rope in the bores trick..
madf
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My 1995 1.1 Fiesta also goes through quite a bit of oil but not to the extent above. I've only had to top it up a couple of times since July and its never needed more than 1/2 a pint or so. Again, there's no blue smoke or anything with it. My mechanic keeps telling me that its just the way Fiesta's are so I suppose I'll have to keep checking it and topping up when necessary
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son's 1993 1.1 Fiesta - 56k miles- is the same. Same mayo, same oil consumptiomn. I think I'll repleace the valve seals using the rope in the bores trick.. madf
Rope in the bores trick? Please elaborate...
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Rope in the bores trick? Please elaborate...
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Feed string into a cylinder, turn piston to TDC and lock crankshaft. Remove valve spring, replace stem oil seal. Re-assemble, pull string out.
It stops the valve from dropping into into the cylinder, so saves having to take the head off just to replace stem seals (or broken spring).
Before anyone asks - yes it does work - I did it last month.
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Point I would check. Is the engine breather pipe from rocker box to inlet manifold. if you have Mayo on inside of cap. it will most likely block the pipe.Assuming its the same old engine?
Apart from that valve seals as mentioned
--
Steve
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If I start my car when cold with the oil filler car removed, I can see puffs of smoke in the rocker box, I've always assumed this was valve stem seals. It also goes from above top (I can never fill it right) to bottom of the dipstick between services (in 6 months, or 3000 miles).
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My 1994 vintage Fiesta 1.1 did the same at about 53,000. Mayo, oil usage etc. Don't know what the problem was as I decided to get rid, but I have read of valve stem seal problems on this engine - a colleague has just had it diagnosed on a 1.3 Escort.
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If the engine temp gauge is showing operating temperature at normal then there is a possibility that this may be down to oil thermal breakdown issues. The quality of the oil needs to be investigated what grade and spec is it? The HCS engine dues run very hot and some oils cannot cope with this.
I had the same problem on an 1100 HCS that was running on multigrade 15w40. I switched to a high quality semi-synthetic blend and the problem went away. I would advise you take off the rocker cover and clean all this mayonnaise. It would be worthwhile to remove any possible deposits from the breather pipes as well.
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There seems to be quite a few smokey Fords and Peugeots around, quite a few Fiesta make me gag and turn the RECIRCULATE on.
Maybe they are prone to it and these are just worse than yours, or maybe you can't see yours is doing it. Some makes seem much more prone than others.
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