Risks with Low Oil in 300tdi

[footprint]

Good Afternoon,

Just got back from checking out a low k's 300tdi 98 SE7 Auto (only 86k) and when i went to check the oil dipstick, i found NOTHING. Not even any oil registering.

So the mechanic came out and ended up putting approx 3 litres in.

Apparently the last service was at 76k so i'm scratching my head as to why this car lost half it's oil in 10k.

Is this alarm bell territory? Is it a bad thing for 300tdi engines to be running on half oil? The oil looked very black on the dipstick when it slowly filled up.

When she fired up, she still smoked a bit AFTER the first usual puff. Took it for a test drive and i didn't hear any noises.

I'm just debating whether i show commitment (with a subject to...) at the dealer to then get it down to a landy specialist. Or just walk away.

Any advice on this issue would be great. I'll try to track the owner down today.

Large Portion of Cheers

[mcrover]

I'd walk, sounds like it either has an oil leak into the turbo (I dont know if it's possible with them, I havnt heard of it but does happen with quite a few turbo's like transits etc) or has a persistant oil leak from a seal or something or maybe glazed bores.

If it is smokey, I would say Turbo or glazed bores.

It also depends on the price, If they are selling it for $5000 then I would say buy it and change or rebuild the motor if it is terminal or fix the problem but if they are asking more than about $12000 then I would run, not walk.

[ladas]

I would give it a wide berth

[footprint]

Thanks for the input mcrover and ladas. With all the homework i've done on these cars, i felt a bit sqeamish in my guts when i saw nothing on the dipstick.

With a large portion of the landy tdi family swearing that they change oil every 5k, the thought of buying a truck that potentially has done 10k on half the oil makes me very nervous.

Funny to think that the dealership didn't check. The sales rep just said that it came in late last week, had a clean (more like swim in armour all) then put on the lot.
They were asking $15,990 with a 3 year 175k warranty BUT my guess is used have to do repair work with them. (mitsi dealer)

Very appealing package but i've already had one HUGE surprise with another tdi with supposed specialist landy service history that turned out to be a massive time bomb.

[MacMan]

Funny to think that the dealership didn't check. The sales rep just said that it came in late last week, had a clean (more like swim in armour all) then put on the lot.

I recall looking at a diesel GQ Patrol at a large "excellent decision" 4wd specialist on the Nepean Hwy. Slick as wet soap with armour all, and all the praises from the dealer.

I asked him what they had to do to it and his response was "nothing". I look under the front end to find brand spanking (still with greasy fingerprints) nolothane bushes on most of the front end.

There will be exceptions (I haven't found them) but guy who takes your money at a dealership won't have looked at anything other than the rego so won't know ***** from clay about the mechanical side of things. The mechanics won't do anything they are not told to, so not really surprising.

Early on I drove a Disco that had flat tyres and no fuel when I rolled it out of the yard, and it died in the driveway one the way back. Complete mystery to the dealers!

[PAT303]

I would look a bit closer.Was there any oil were it was parked?.The donk would have to be very bad to use that much oil,at 86k's you wouldn't think so.When I bought my 'fender new in 98 they used mobil 1 oil and mine needed topping up every 2 weeks for the fist 40,000klm's.I took it to Rumbles at Dungog and they dumped the synthetic oil and replaced it with mineral oil and I'll always remmember what Owen Rumble said(he's in is 80's)Drive it like you stole it.I did and at 60,000 it stopped using oil and has ever since.Slick oil won't let a new engine run in. Pat

[footprint]

Pat303. I didn't notice any visible oil stains on the ground...although water was puddling everywhere under the car so would have masked the stains. I went over undercarriage pretty thoroughly and there were no signs of an oil haemorrhage. At only 86k it would appear that the engine has had little use for it's 1998 birthday but it hadn't been serviced since 76k. So even if it had your problem where it needed topping up every 2 k, unless i speak to the owner, i'd have to assume it's missed a lot of topping ups. The name and address they had on the paperwork isn't coming up on whitepages either.

Macman, it's a shame the dealerships have these reputations that no one can be trusted. I too worked as a sales rep for a few months but actually got further than i expected because i didn't bullS@#t. You almost have to prepare yourself for battle everytime you step onto the dealer lot because you expect to be the main target for a good screwing over. Just a real shame.