pcman_jh
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2003
- Messages
- 317
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Haddington
- Your Mercedes
- 2013 E220 Cabriolet
My 1999 E300 has finally bit the dust. I’d converted it to a 2 tank Veg oil kit in Sept 2006, and having done about 35000 miles on the kit. Over the past 2 months it’s had a noticeable loss of power - sometimes struggling to get to 50 MPH on a straight road, with slight incline. I’d also been experiencing oil consumption of about 0.5 litres a month for the past year, although no smoke out of the back. It has also been showing signs of backpressure in the engine as there would be oil leaking from the oil filler cap (which is well screwed on!!). Strangely it’s always started 1st turn/touch of the key, even when cold – which suggests compression was fine.
Anyway, a week past Friday I thought I’d give it an Italian tune up to resolve the flat power. On fairly heavy acceleration up to 80 MPH there was a huge white smoke plume from the front of the car, then a smokescreen for about 200 yards, then the smell of engine oil! During this blow out there was no loss of power from the engine. Since I was only 1 mile from home, I kept on driving. About 200 yards from home the ‘oil at minimum level’ warning came on. On opening up the bonnet, there was engine oil spewed, and I mean spewed, all over the engine bay. The white smoke was obviously the oil hitting the hot exhaust. The oil had came from the oil dipstick which had been push out of its holder leaving the oil to be pushed out the dipstick holder orifice. I suspect I've had gradual sticking of the piston rings, which is an alleged side effect of Veg oil use.
When visiting car garages the next day, to see what I’d get for a trade in, it had a noticeable power loss but was still driveable. Since my replacement car wouldn’t be ready for a week, I tried driving it with the dipstick sticking out of the holder, to help it breath, but this just resulted in more oil being spewed over the engine bay. It drove OK for 3 days with the dipstick back in again, but I intentionally never went above 50 MPH just in case.
I was looking to change the car anyway as I’d had it for just over 2 years, with the preceding months running it on a mixture of SVO in the tank. The main reason for looking for another vehicle was the alarming rise in SVO cost. It was 49p litre about 12 months ago. It’s now 86p litre which meant my company mileage rate wasn’t covering the fuel cost since I was getting 30MPG (remember it was a 3 litre). The blow out forced the issue of changing car. I got £3000 for a trade in which was the best I was offered – not telling them it had been converted as they’re only interested in age and mileage, then straight to auction. The worst value was £1400 against a Mini.
I removed the 2 tank kit, which is currently on ebay for sale. It did sell for £387, but the guy used a robot which set his max bid to £187,000!! Hence it’s being relisted tonight at 9pm.
Thanks to everyone who has responded to my questions over the last 8 years. I’ve also had a C Class (W202 model C250) which was also run on SVO, then a A Class for a year, before my E300. The forum has been invaluable.
I now have a 2 litre Golf Plus TDI. No doubt I’ll be back…
Anyway, a week past Friday I thought I’d give it an Italian tune up to resolve the flat power. On fairly heavy acceleration up to 80 MPH there was a huge white smoke plume from the front of the car, then a smokescreen for about 200 yards, then the smell of engine oil! During this blow out there was no loss of power from the engine. Since I was only 1 mile from home, I kept on driving. About 200 yards from home the ‘oil at minimum level’ warning came on. On opening up the bonnet, there was engine oil spewed, and I mean spewed, all over the engine bay. The white smoke was obviously the oil hitting the hot exhaust. The oil had came from the oil dipstick which had been push out of its holder leaving the oil to be pushed out the dipstick holder orifice. I suspect I've had gradual sticking of the piston rings, which is an alleged side effect of Veg oil use.
When visiting car garages the next day, to see what I’d get for a trade in, it had a noticeable power loss but was still driveable. Since my replacement car wouldn’t be ready for a week, I tried driving it with the dipstick sticking out of the holder, to help it breath, but this just resulted in more oil being spewed over the engine bay. It drove OK for 3 days with the dipstick back in again, but I intentionally never went above 50 MPH just in case.
I was looking to change the car anyway as I’d had it for just over 2 years, with the preceding months running it on a mixture of SVO in the tank. The main reason for looking for another vehicle was the alarming rise in SVO cost. It was 49p litre about 12 months ago. It’s now 86p litre which meant my company mileage rate wasn’t covering the fuel cost since I was getting 30MPG (remember it was a 3 litre). The blow out forced the issue of changing car. I got £3000 for a trade in which was the best I was offered – not telling them it had been converted as they’re only interested in age and mileage, then straight to auction. The worst value was £1400 against a Mini.
I removed the 2 tank kit, which is currently on ebay for sale. It did sell for £387, but the guy used a robot which set his max bid to £187,000!! Hence it’s being relisted tonight at 9pm.
Thanks to everyone who has responded to my questions over the last 8 years. I’ve also had a C Class (W202 model C250) which was also run on SVO, then a A Class for a year, before my E300. The forum has been invaluable.
I now have a 2 litre Golf Plus TDI. No doubt I’ll be back…
