I've got a problem-

[RyanV]

Alright, this isn't my car anymore, but my sister -in-laws now.

Basically she says the oil light came on or flashed rather and instead of parking she kept driving for 5 miles or so.

She said that when she got to her house the car was knocking. I went and looked at the car last night.

1.the car has clean oil at the FULL mark(checked like 4 times)

2.start the car and the lifters make alot of noise NO OIL LIGHT-turn the car off within
5 seconds

3.check oil-it's perfect, no metal flakes

4.start the car again-it immediately starts again-no oil light-no ticking at all. let ir un for 20 seconds maybe and I hear a "whirring" noise...

Anybody have any good ideas?

I think the oil pump is going out because of the oil light flashing on and off on her. Also this may be the whirring noise.

Thanks in advance
Ryan

[deadly_sleeper]

sounds like it's the oil pump is going bad. or there is a block passage and not letting the oil pass, but i doubt it's late, especially if the oil is clean. was it always taken care of?

the oil light is coming on saying that there is low oil pressure. it doesn't mean low on oil, but low on pressure. that would explain why the lifters are ticking, cuz they aren't getting enough oil.

[RyanV]

Well, they got the car towed to a mechanic. The prognosis-

1.You can move the crank 1" both way's indicating the "thrust bearing" is toast. (similiar to a 2nd gen DSM "crankwalk problem"

2.The engine has alot of gummy buildup, most likely from combining penzoil with another brand at some point.

3.The lifters have been starved

4.New motor time apparently...

Anybody have a goo dshortblock?

Thanks

Ryan

[RyanV]

Well- We're going to have the shortblock rebuilt for $600 and have the mechanic put the piece of crap back together with a new rebuilt head.


Ryan

[RyanV]

Apparently after teardown the prognosis is-

Someone didn't change the oil often enough and it wasn't me.

Motor is in the process of being rebuilt.

Ryan

[strutman]

i had that it killed my motor, i did the jdm swap... got one for $350. check with jdm exchange. give them a call.

[Kitty]

Dude 600 for a rebuild is awful.
Espicialy when you can get a low milage z5 for $3-400. and a shop would probaly charge you $200 or less to swap it.

[strutman]

A 200 dollar enigne swap!?!???? I need to find those shops. People in VA want between 800 and a thousand bucks for a swap, and that's low side. When you do the swap if you do, save your old sensors, you'll have to replace them with your us sensors for the wiring. Not a big deal though.

[mannydingo]

It's $295 for an engine swap here. Then again, that's w/o me having shopped around. I'm sure if I look around I would find cheaper. If I were a mechanic, I sure wouldn't swap an engine for a measly $200 or less. When you finally finish, you feel you did too much for too little regardless of how well tooled your shop is. Then again, that's me. Maybe other guys actually kind of enjoy working like at my current, non-mechanic, job.

[Kitty]

Once again a jdm z5 is so not better than the US one. You feel the need to get everyone to buy it for somereason.The only diffrence is it will probaly have lower miles because the people in japan realized "wow this engine ****ing sucks" and salvaged the car. And 800 for a swap is insane. I could understand putting and rb26 in a pro for that but not a damn 4 banger.

[RyanV]

Anyhow, the engine is on the stand at the shop right now. Apparently, someone at some point, swapped the head on this 1.5 for a 1.6 head. Why? I don't know, because the engine was still rediculously slow.

Question is, why would they have done this swap? The headgasket they used blocked off about 7 of the water passages on the head. Apparently they used a 1.5 headgasket on the 1.6 head.

So, will the 1.6 gasket match the 1.5 block?? we'll find out today as the shop ordered the 1.6 gasket to find out.

What a PITA car....

[mannydingo]

The 2nd gen is good if you LEAVE IT ALONE! It's not a good car for upgrading. It also needs maintenance more than other cars. Other than that, just replace parts that wear down like on any car like water pump, alternator, etc. You know, the parts that on any car eventually go bad. It's not a bad car but it is finicky. The only problem that seems to come up on this car even when well taken care of is the squealing drive belts but retightening in the correct, shop manual, way clears it up. It just has to be done more often than with other cars. Oh, I forgot, for some reason there are a few that eventually developed a compression problem on cylinder 4. That problem isn't minor but it's only on some and not most 2nd gens.

[beetle_orange]

ryan,

let us know how it comes out.

maybe at some point the Z5 head became junk cuz they are notorious for breaking down so the owner upgraded to the 1.6 head.

it has been discussed here that the 1.6 head would be better.

[strutman]

no 98... in japan cars have a very short life cycle, slight body damage junks them and it's expensive to keep cars so they junk them early in their lifespan.

how else can you readily find a motor with less than 50k on it that hasn't been beaten to death for that price?

[Kitty]

cars in japan are junked because in 2 years you have to pay another round of taxes and go through a super inspection and repair alot of random ****. This is why there junked early on. The z5 im running now had 20k on it. And I got it cheap pulling it myself. I also KNOW It had 20k. You honestly don't know how many miles an imported motor has. Can you check to odomotor. Oh wait its in japan. You can tear it down and judge the age. But thats about it. You have to rely on them not lying to you. And if you realize that your not going to have a car for longer than 2 years Why take care of it? I mean you could probaly not change the oil ever in it. It would run for 2years probaly. Then junk it. The best bet for an engine is to find a low milage wrecked 2nd gen. And with the car being so cheap its not that much damage to total it.