VERY strange problem this morning

[issproking]

Hi All

Had a very strange, and possibly major, issue this morning with my S40 2005 2.0D this morning.

Had to move the car off the driveway so started it up, moved it and then turned it off - except it would turn off, despite even removing the key!

Although it didnt seem to be a full idle, hard to describe how it sounded (maybe that it was still cranking) but if I put it into first and lifted the clutch it kicked into full idle and went even with the key out. Could it have been the alternator that was still running?

Took it down the street and back and again wouldnt switch off, after another couple of attempts it then switched off and smoke started coming from the front of the engine, assume this was electrical as the engine wasnt anywhere near hot enough for anything else.

Ive disconnected the battery for the moment and will check again when I get home.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of something similar or know what it might be?

Thanks

[arisetobe]

What is your mileage?

Get the engine checked, don't use the car. As I understand based on other information about diesels, you won't be able to turn it off by disconnecting battery or something, just need to prevent it sucking air or fuel - just in case it repeats again and you don't know what to do.

"Shutoff valve"?

https://www.google.de/search?client=...rls=en&spell=1

[theRsole]

I had something similar on a MINI - the car kept running after taking the keys out and even after disconnecting the battery - it was an electrical fault in the car
(basically the power steering pump was dropping fluid onto one of the ecu's but I wouldn't imagine it would be the same on this, but still potentially an electrical fault somewhere…)

[julianps]

Two possibly meaningless observations; our domestic (oil) boiler "blew up" because it was over fuelling and when the injector stopped it continued burning the surplus oil in the combustion chamber. Ergo it overheated and has had to be replaced.

My neighbour runs a coach yard where they service diesels a lot. They had a Sprinter in there a while back and whilst working on it the engine "ran away" and it was only the presence of mind of one of the mechanics jumping into the van, putting it in gear and with the brakes hard on, dropped the clutch. Seems it started to siphon oil from the sump and began running on that (which was unmetered, hence rapidly increasing revs).

Is it possible your injectors are causing over fuelling and you're only getting a partial burn, hence you have residual fuel creating a run-on, or it's getting oil from somewhere else like valve seals or rings? I seems to recall though that engine oil burns with white smoke where incomplete combustion of diesel is sooty and dark.

If your car's like mine it has a neutral sensor in the gear selector mechanism on the gearbox lid so as soon as you put the car in gear I'm guessing anti-stall takes over and the engine management starts metering more fuel to get even running.

I agree with others here who recommend you get it towed in to a decent diesel specialist, car or van, before a bad situation becomes worse. It may for now be a simple fix after all.

[Lancee]

IMHO Don't start or drive it.
Check the oil level on the dipstick, it could be running on its own oil/diesel from the sump.
Diesel finds its way into the sump on some cars.

It could self destruct.

[issproking]

Hi All

Thanks for the replies.

In the end I don't think it was as dramatic as perhaps I initially thought. Thinking back to how it sounded when I turned the ignition off I decided it was just cranking therefore I started to concentrate on the starter motor.

Just in front of the motor there was a split in the loom and the metal bracket had split into the power cable that supplies the starter motor. Obviously someone who had been working in this area previously hadn't put the loom back into the holder bracket. Luckily there was still a voltage going through it so my best guess was that the starter motor had been shorted and that caused the smoke.

Went to closet scrappy that had a starter motor in stock and removed the old one, sure enough strong smell of burnt coming from inside it. Fitted the replacement and taped up the wire and loom and sure it enough started up (and switched off) no problem.