Wear and tear on saxo engines.

[logic_guy]

I've been wondering how durable the engines of these little cars are? I checked my oil today and its black, I'm worrying because only 5 k ago it had clean, transparent oil.

what is the weakest component in the engine?

[Cam]

Depends how its driven..

[jonathon5]

Black oil is good, shows its doing it's job

[chinkostu]

Black oil is good, shows its doing it's job

Unless its as thin as mine was!

[m4tt274]

after some abuse my top end got more tappy than it was. black oil means its doing its job, on and engine thats driven hard i change the oil every 5K anyway

[Stevo123]

Engines are really strong generally, head gaskets go around 60-70k miles and starter motors seem to get weak on a few of them. As mentioned the weekest point of the engine is the driver/maintainer, keep the oil fresh, change every 5-6k miles with a new filter, 10/40 semi synth is fine on a standard vtr motor. Don't rag the car when it's cold - mechanical sympathy is needed with french cars!

[f13sta]

there not too bad mines on 134k and still going strong, have done some engine work i.e head gasket valve stems, valve re-grind ect.

oil is as clean when comes out to when it went in when i service it or maybe a little darker :P but it is a really clean engine and i'm ocd when it comes to servicing i only do about 3-3.5K a year but i service every 6months. i'm a mechanic so it's not as expensive for me as it is for most people.

but back to my main point, never had a problem with it tapps a little now but i haven't done he tappets since re-build. but it were silent before hand tho.

[Gandi699]

As said good servicing is the key. My mate had a little 1.1 8v TU in his old saxo, It was suffering a head gasket failure as there was oil in the cooling system, unless it hadnt been cleaned properly, buteven with 120k it on it ran fine, and it he did used to belt it done the motorway every day and give it some stick as he didnt have much mechanical sympathy

[stevo1600]

114k vtr boosted engine and im absuing it now its near the end of its life. slightly tappety butstill strong. :) and its all standard internals. let the engine warm up before going out for a blast. and as said, fresh oil every 5-10k.

[logic_guy]

What worry's me is wearing out piston rings and valve seals. Only done 65K.

I treat it with TLC, not driving about 3.5k around town/ pulling away and i ALWAYS let the car warm up fully before giving it some beans. I think i'm scaring my self?

[ReV0h_VTS]

Hmmm, i think i need to start showing some love to my motor. Give it some beans every now and again from cold. I still don't rag it all over the place though. Should stay strong for a while from what you guys are saying. :P

[ReV0h_VTS]

Hmmm, i think i need to start showing some love to my motor. Give it some beans every now and again from cold. I still don't rag it all over the place though. Should stay strong for a while from what you guys are saying. :P

[Barry123]

Really wouldn't worry about it. My S is into the 100k mileage and it runs sweet as a nut. I've had it from the last 30 k miles so it's had 80 k of presumably god awful abuse. They're pretty good, just wish the same could be said rest of the car.

[ReV0h_VTS]

hehe, gotta agree with that last post, Feels like it's shedding weight via nuts and bolts falling off when i'm driving along :P

[Gabbastard]

I had an old VTR engine that had been abused stupid, Im talking attempts being made to get it to blow up and it wouldnt die.

Also know of a guy whose oil filter fell off on his VTS while on a test drive the night before a track day - he drove it a mile or two home,put a new filter on and filled the oil. It was fine.

[Gandi699]

Stem seals are not hard to change anyway, while you are there lap in the valves and do the head gasket. Afternoons work to be fair

[Saaamon]

My 16v has been fine, give it abit not much, only ever had one of the camshaft pullys sheer off. New engine seems fine.

[KrisB]

With regards to oil, you need an oil with good detergent properties. Generally the more you spend the better.