Pretty much the worst day ever...

[nfpgasmask]

Seems like something like oh, I don't know, a low oil pressure light or a low oil level switch could be installed/upgraded to actually warn of impending doom. You'd think some clever car manufacturer would come out with something like that

Linda's Porsche has an oil level light in the dash. Everytime you start the car, you turn the key without starting and the dash lights up and you wait like 3 seconds and it shows the oil level. Kinda cool....leave it to German Engineering.

Bart

[pbkid]

sorry, not to jack your thread paul-

when my VX motor went, i had checked the oil level that morning and completely topped it off at the gas station before i drove up and over the mountains. (it was about a 1/4 of a quart low as it was every other gas fill usually)

then, drove up to the mountains, snowboarded all day, drove home, and right before i hit the summit i heard a loud banging/clicking sound... checked the oil immediately and was 1.5 quarts low.... topped it off, and 1/2 mile later it was 3 quarts low again....i knew it was done at that point, and had it towed to a denver isuzu specialist.
mine cracked a rod bearing....i had the motor replaced with a new block, but re-used all the external parts... cost me $4,800..... with R&R..

[VX KAT]

This has me a little bit wigged as I'm about to set out on a 3700 mile solo trip next week! My experience has been it consumes about 1/4 qt when driving 8 hrs highway (it's happened to/from Moab a few times...but not always) and none in any other instance in my 22 months of ownership. I thought I'd carry 3-4 qts...now I'm thinking I should carry more.

Jack or Paul, were you able to tell if it left a trail of oil shortly before it seized?

I'll be in and out of the car frequently so I'll sure be looking.

Also, just curious..what mileage were yours' at? I know there's a poll on model yr, but I don't recall mileage. Paul I'm not trying to t/j, just wanted to know.

[nfpgasmask]

Yeah, this leaves me wondering to. Jack, if you lost that much oil in that short a period, there must have been a big puddle under your VX.

This makes me think that some of these VX motors that failed, failed because of frequent running of the motor with too low oil. Basically, the damage was done before you topped off your oil, know what I mean?

Bart

[phines]

Jack or Paul, were you able to tell if it left a trail of oil shortly before it seized?

I'll be in and out of the car frequently so I'll sure be looking.

Also, just curious..what mileage were yours' at? I know there's a poll on model yr, but I don't recall mileage. Paul I'm not trying to t/j, just wanted to know.

I didn't get a chance to look for an oil trail; it seized up in the middle of that hail storm. There was about 4 inches of hail and water on the road that I was plowing my way through (craziest thing I've ever seen). I don't think it dumped the oil all at once... it's more likely that it just started using/leaking oil faster than I was used to. Over the past six months, with all the repairs and replaced parts I had been doing, it started to use less and less oil. As a result, I got out of the habit of checking the oil level everytime I filled up the gas tank. It was kinda nice... almost like having a normal vehicle. Oh well.

As for the mileage, I had just hit 151k a few days before...

[SlowPro48]

Man that's some seriously bad juju right there.... sounds like all hail broke loose! Sorry - couldn't resist. Insurance will take care of the other two cars and the skylights but you're SOL with the VX engine. Hope you find another engine (or rebuild) and get that zuzu back on the road soon.

...topped it off, and 1/2 mile later it was 3 quarts low again....

The catalytic converter will mask oil burning - but not 6qts/mile. That VX would have looked like a mosquito truck going down the road if it had been burning oil at that rate. Had to be a leak. After reading the thread about IndianaVx's spinning cam seal I wonder if some of these catastrophic failures aren't from sudden leakage. What I don't understand is why no flashing check engine light before things get crunchy. I mean c'mon - even my $300 pressure washer knows when the oil level is too low to operate safely....