[Amime]

Hi

Joined to ask this question.

My car started displaying 'Oil pressure low' and a STOP message. There's oil along the top edge of the oil tank.

My mechanic called round and said he couldn't see anything and said it was fine to drive.I pushed to do something but he didn't seem concerned. I asked if he could at least do an oil change. I'm dropping it off later this week.

I drove it the next day.
The same message came up plus smoke started coming from the front left.

I drove it again the following day on a slightly shorter, same driving conditions - road and weather.
This time paying close attention to what I was doing and the point at which anything changed.

Order of occurrence
Slight burning smell on driving up a hill.
Error message when I reached the top.

I live in the country and hit a hill whichever route I take.

I'm concerned. My mechanic isn't.
I'm not going to drive it again until it's fixed, but I don't feel I'm being taken seriously.

It's a 2008 Peugeot 207.

[olduser]

Check the oil level with the dipstick, if its lower than Low on the dipstick DO NOT RUN THE ENGINE, put oil in until it is at least showing low on the dipstick, that is if you are having the oil changed. If not changing the oil fill until you reach the Full mark on the dipstick.

Modern engines do not usually show any oil outside the engine, if they do it may be spilled oil (wipe it away), or a leaking gasket (replace it), or a serious engine problem (investigate)

[NMNeil]

As Olduser said, check the oil.
As you can see oil on the engine the smell and smoke may be the oil dripping onto the hot exhaust.
First thing you need to do after checking the oil is find a competent mechanic.

[olduser]

Is it that modern cars are in the main reliable, or is that today no one has any idea of what is going on under the bonnet/hood?
Or could it be there is no respect for authority? (authority in this case being the car manufacturer)

It is common to get into other peoples cars and find them happily driving with warning lights on.
Does this mean manufacturers are over doing warnings?

Are manufacturers warnings dismissed as another motor industry rip off, take it to a garage and we find diagnostics is extra, meaning the garage is happy to start to fix it before they know what is actually wrong, and if they are wrong no worries the customer will pay, hence many repairs cost more than they should have but this causes drivers to stay away from garages because they feel if they go they will be ripped off.

Perhaps, because most cars are bought on finance, drivers have no concept of cost, a car becomes so much a month rather than it's full price.

How many here, know where they are relative to the next service, is oil level not behaving as normal, state of tyres, has car started to 'use' cooling water?
These I am aware of as part of running a car but when there is a warning it can be evaluated in some sort of context.

Perhaps I just am old and out of date.

[Rolebama]

@olduser With the AA I came across a few 'new' cars with destroyed engines because of no oil changes. From 36,000 miles to 18,000 miles, less than a year old. When I asked why, I was told that they were advised that fridges, washing machines and VHS players were also said to have to be serviced, yet they go on and on, so why not the car? On pulling the dipstick out, you could clearly see metallic particles glittering in the lump of clag on it.

[NMNeil]

Originally Posted by olduser

Is it that modern cars are in the main reliable, or is that today no one has any idea of what is going on under the bonnet/hood?
Or could it be there is no respect for authority? (authority in this case being the car manufacturer)

It is common to get into other peoples cars and find them happily driving with warning lights on.
Does this mean manufacturers are over doing warnings?

Modern cars are the same as such things as cell phone, TV's, washing machines, fridges. To sell they have to stand out from the crowd.
Take call phones, with 3 cameras, GPS, constantly connected to Farcebook so you can post a photo of your breakfast. All of these are advertised as 'features', and I'm sure one of the features is that you can make phone calls.
With cars it's "How many gadgets can we cram into the car and call 'features' so it will stand out and sell?"
A case in point, the 2026 Cadillac Escalade

$90 to $100,000 and it's all touch screen which if/when it quits will cost a small fortune to replace because it's not designed to be repaired; no profit in that.
Of course the engine will probably blow up before that happens.
https://niada.com/dashboard/gm-issue...2l-v8-engines/
Cars are built to a price, not a standard anymore.

[Beelzebub]

Originally Posted by NMNeil

Cars are built to a price, not a standard anymore.

Just like Henry Ford did, a century ago.

[NMNeil]

Originally Posted by Beelzebub

Just like Henry Ford did, a century ago.

Yes and no.
Mercedes from the 1980's would run for literally hundreds of thousands of miles without a problem, now; they are lucky to make it to the end of the street.
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Merced..._failure.shtml
Add complication or 'features' to any product and the reliability goes down. More things to go wrong.

[olduser]

Posts on websites about such faults are frustrating, I want to know, has the head gasket failed, are there signs of a cooling problem on that cylinder, what about the lubrication for that cylinder?

It certainly looks as though the last engine refinement (probably to cut cost) was a refinement too far.

[Rolebama]

The first car I had with a 'lazy' oil level check was my Rover Coupe. Hold down a spring-loaded switch, and the fuel gauge turned into an oil level check. Had to be done with the engine off. Current car has a click switch and has to be done after the engine has been run for a few minutes.

Usually, by the time an oil pressure warning light comes on, they are set to such a relatively low pressure, that engine damage has already occurred.

[NMNeil]

Originally Posted by olduser

Posts on websites about such faults are frustrating, I want to know, has the head gasket failed, are there signs of a cooling problem on that cylinder, what about the lubrication for that cylinder?

It certainly looks as though the last engine refinement (probably to cut cost) was a refinement too far.

And the worst 'refinement' ever was to have a toothed cam belt running inside the engine where it's exposed to engine oil. 🙄

[olduser]

As far as I can work out on that subject. The industry was advised a coating on the toothed belts would protect the rubber but who would fall for that? That is not to say, it would not be possible to create coating that would do the job in a lab but that's far from life in an engine. But then, how did the belts get through the car manufacturers test on new models?

I was working in industry when the toothed belt became available, I think in the early days there was a plastic version. (where plastic was used to replace rubber but it was expensive, made to order, and had limited temperature range, so it just faded away)

[NMNeil]

Originally Posted by olduser

As far as I can work out on that subject. The industry was advised a coating on the toothed belts would protect the rubber but who would fall for that? That is not to say, it would not be possible to create coating that would do the job in a lab but that's far from life in an engine. But then, how did the belts get through the car manufacturers test on new models?

Because after spending millions on developing a new engine the pressure is on to get it to market ASAP to recoup those millions, so they take shortcuts with the inevitable problems.
Just one example would be the Triumph Stag V8.
Fantastic engine except they put the thermostat and water pump at the highest point of the engine, so any coolant loss would cause the pump to lose it's priming. Add to this that the block was a sand casting and due to poor quality control in production, not the test engines, there was still core material in the waterways blocking cooling passages.
A world of difference between the engine test bed and the real world.
Such a shame as the Stag could have been a real turnaround for Triumphs fortunes.