Hilux 4x4 Forum

Hi all Hiluxers, been a while since I posted on the site, had a accident on the 1st December 2016 and wrote my Lux off. Took a while but eventually bought another, much older, and issues galore. Now recently had a strange grinding noise from the engine and lots of white smoke, some say it is the turbo but the mech who took it out says the turbo looks fine, will let it be tested though. Some metal scats found in the intercooler. The engine cranks very rough and will not start, smoke all over the place when cranking the motor. Anybody have an idea what the problem could be.

Hi Deon

I hope I am not the bearer of bad news. White smoke normally indicates unburnt diesel getting through into the exhaust. This can happen due to a few things including low compression due to wear, broken piston rings, pistons with holes burnt in them (any situation that would cause low compression). A diesel with low compression will not start either.

It could also be faulty injectors but judging by your description regarding the grinding noise I am inclined to say something has happened to the pistons/rings of at least one or more of the cylinders.

I hope I am wrong.

Marnus why would there be metal scats in the intercooler? The intercooler comes mos before the pistons. Rest of symptoms also sound to me that something inside got damaged.

Maybe something went wrong somewhere which caused the metal inside the intercooler and those metal were sucked into the engine which stuffed up the pistons and rings?

Whatever it is, doesn't sound good.

It is very hard to tell but yes the pieces of metal must have come somewhere from the inlet side and should have gone through the turbo or even come from the turbo. The fact that his technician says that the turbo is fine makes me wonder. He did not own the vehicle from new so it could be from a previous turbo which was replaced. It is not inconceivable that pieces of metal could have lodged inside the intercooler and remained stuck there until they noticed it.

What really concerns me is the grinding noise he is describing coupled with the white smoke indicating unburnt diesel and the failure to start. That really seems to indicate that something has gone wrong which caused a loss of compression. This is one instance where I really wouldn't mind being wrong.

We do not know how many ks the vehicle has done and we also don't know what other issues he has had before.

I agree with you that it really does not sound good.

Thanks all for your comments, it indeed is as bad as I hoped it would not be. I bought the Hilux from a company in Harties, Buskes Motors, and it seems that he sold me a piece of junk. In all the complete fuel injection system had to be refurbished, pump, injectors and common-rail and a 1 year guarantee given , the tank was removed and tar like black gum had to be removed. The turbo was removed and inspected and found damaged, although not the cause of this failure. It was refurbished at a decent cost by Turbo Works and a one year guarantee given. I had to buy a new inter-cooler as the old one was already patched and full of scats. Now for the bad part, the workshop opened the engine and found a lot of issues. All the pistons cracked, the top gasket blown between all cylinders, all the bolts rusted which, according to the workshop, indicates that this failure happened before I bought the Hilux as it should have heated up considerably which definitely was not the case in the 2000 odd kilometres I've driven it since I bought it end August 2017. This report with photos was also send to the warranty under writer as a claim was registered. The reason for me submitting this post is to find out if anybody had dealings with a company in Potch. This guy, Api, as advertised on google, says his companies name is "Industrial Service Centre" and that he fetches your vehicle from your residence, fits a new/recon engine and then gets the vehicle delivered to you again. All of this at a very decent price. If you had dealings with this company I would really appreciate letting me know if I can trust this individual. I need another engine as mine is deemed uneconomical to repair by the workshop quite urgent. My contact details is 0837049937 should you want to phone me.