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Knocking and Then Died on Highway


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Hello! Long time lurker, got a lot of valuable info from this forum. Just want to share some symptoms and a fix in case this happens to someone else. 

 

Recently I was on a roadtrip with the smartie and I heard a knocking noise coming from the engine about 100km after a fill up, and took a video of the noise (First video attached). It sounded like the engine was clattering, so I checked the oil level but that was fine, so I continued driving as it still drove normally, up until 170km from the fill up.

 

https://youtu.be/xhifrlBTflc?si=kpUByGFauVYXNTbH

 

At that point, the smartie shits the bed going up a hill on the highway. 0 power and the engine gives a cartoonish "put put" and dies as I pull off on the shoulder. Trying to restart the engine, it does fire up, but runs even worse than before. Undrivable in that state (second video attached). 

 

 

 

I got it towed an hour away to a friend's house in New Brunswick, and hitched a ride back to Toronto to grab some parts. 

 

Codes read, no codes. 

 

Ended up finding a hydraulic lifter that had completely shattered, causing the follower to slip out from under the cam and hammer against the side of the head and valve spring. That explains the "chuffing" noise heard as the exhaust valve was unable to open. 

 

https://ibb.co/kcMcrMD

 

Eventually got the hydraulic lifter piece out with a motorcycle inner bearing puller that has a slide hammer.

 

https://ibb.co/9TwpdqT

https://ibb.co/PDQd4Gr

 

Also noticed a valve spring keeper was laying in a pocket on the head, looks like the follower was hammering on the side of the valve and ejected one keeper. Ended up having to make a custom tool to compress the valve spring in order to get the keeper back in. 

 

https://ibb.co/QD5R3NF

 

https://ibb.co/124s3cM

 

https://ibb.co/6yPbwsR

 

On another note, I rebuilt the High Pressure Fuel pump since the camshaft had to be taken out. After rebuilding, the car would drive normally unless under high load (highway/ big hills), in those situations, the car would stall and would not restart (just crank) unless you waited 2-3 minutes. I also got a P1187 (Fuel Rail Pressure too low). Thanks to "bmwmilos" post of the exact situation, I ended up rebuilding the high pressure fuel pump a second time and polished the head surfaces like he did, cured the problem.

 

Now that it's back together, it runs like it should! Was just wondering what you guys on the forum thought could be the cause of the lifters failing? I had been running the smartie 6 hours a day non stop this trip, but was very mindful of temperature and coolant/fluid levels. It did reach 100c at times, but the front radiator fans would come on and that temperature wasn't sustained. I was using synthetic 5w40, though not diesel, or 229.5 spec., which I believe could have been the source of the problem, but let me know what you guys think! I'm now using 5W40 diesel spec

. Synthetic oil 

 

 

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I blasted up a 1775 metre pass at 120 km/h in 5th gear near redline in my fully laden remapped car when it was 38 degrees outside (at the bottom of the climb) and the engine temp peaked at 112 degrees but no more. Just as it should in extremis.

 

That was several years ago and so far, so good at 183,000 km.

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On 9/12/2024 at 1:18 AM, MikeT said:

I blasted up a 1775 metre pass at 120 km/h in 5th gear near redline in my fully laden remapped car when it was 38 degrees outside (at the bottom of the climb) and the engine temp peaked at 112 degrees but no more. Just as it should in extremis.

 

That was several years ago and so far, so good at 183,000 km.

I'm at 175,000km :)) Bought it this January 2024, at 162,000. Also got mine remapped by Malone Tuning shortly after I got it. 

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On 9/12/2024 at 3:09 PM, smart142 said:

Is your intercooler fan working?

Do you have an intercooler scoop?

Intercooler fan is working. I just looked it up and saw all the posts of all the broken scoops! I'll check mine, it's probably broken, so thank you for the lead. Would high intake temps cause a failure even if coolant temp. never got to 120? I don't have a scan gauge (yet).

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I believe that high intake temperatures caused am engine failure in one of the smart cars I owned at 190,000 kms.

My intercooler scoop was gone and the i/c fan didn't work - I chose to ignore that. Turned out the valve lifters had failed causing a loss of compression.

An expensive lesson.

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Check the shape of the area that the lifters sit in the rockers for distortion. I found they wear to their individual lifters over time which means if you install new lifters they may not rotate or sit in the rockers as they should. Especially if one has been damaged like it has here...?  Also check the top of that valve stem for damage???  It looks like it has a damaged edge..??  Might be just the oil shimmering to make it appear this way...??  I'd also be changing all 6 of these lifters just as a precaution.
Did you take the engine out or do just the head removal? 

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