XR6 Turbo Oil Temp problems? - Ford Forums

SimonH · 04-27-2003, 20:27

Just wondering if anyone has heard anything about the XR6 turbo
having oil temperature problems.
I read an article in the herald sun motoring section (april 11) saying that Wheels Magazine (january) reported that the engine in a test car had shut down a number of times because of the oil temperature.
Ford said they would not recall the XR6s, but would repair the problem as the cars came in for regular service.
The writer of this article stated "I just hope no XR6 owners find this fault when overtaking"
oh yeah would be just a little scary!

Superoo · 04-27-2003, 21:04

This story dates back to COTY testing I think and was fixed with an ECU flash upgrade. One of the very first issues that emerged with the turbo. I believe the problem was an incorrect oil temp reading rather than the oil actually overheating.

Falchoon · 04-27-2003, 22:33

My car had this problem not long after I bought it (but not while overtaking). I was cruising along the highway doing 110km/h when the engine stalled for no apparent reason. Luckily there wasn't much traffic around so I pulled over safely to the side of the road. Tried to re-start the car but it wouldn't run properly, like I had a jetted up 1150cfm Holley on a stock 289. I turned the car off and tried ring Ford Roadside Assist but the mobile phone dropped out. I was just about to lock the car and start hitchhiking then I decided to try and start it once more and it was fine, like there never was a problem! I drove another 500km or so back to home without any more problems and took it into the dealer. I had known about this problem having previously read about it on turboxr6 forum and in Wheels and expected the local dealer to know all about it as well. They didn't. They said they were going to phone Ford head office and try and find more info/cure to problem. The car hasn't had a problem since so I can only presume they reflashed the ECU as they never infomed me as to what the did (communication is the key).

SimonH · 04-27-2003, 23:10

geeee mate you were lucky when it stalled you could safely pull over.
Good to hear its running fine now!
But shame on Ford to not have this problem resolved before selling cars to the public. What maybe a minor technical problem but a major driving safety issue, to have cars stalling like that is really bad!

Falchoon · 04-29-2003, 16:02

I took my car to the dealer for an oil change yesterday and was talking to the mechanic about this problem. He seemed to think it was to do with dirt/dust getting into some VCT solenoid, not to do with oil temp readings. He said the cure was to reflash new software into the ECU that made the solenoid do something? (can't remember what the guy told me now) on the overun which stops the dirt/dust clogging this solenoid. He also said he had had some problems when reflashing the ECUs on some cars as it had completely wiped the programing from them and the car wouldn't go any more! He said he'd had a couple that had done that with one still in the workshop.

russellw · 04-30-2003, 01:15

The information given to you is correct Falchoon. One of the joys of 15,000 km oil change intervals with the BA VCT mechanism and it's very fine oil filtering mechanism is that it can become blocked by micro particles and the VCT solenoid will fail to operate.
At it's worst the engine stops because the VCT solenoid leaves both cams fully adjusted which results in zero compression - end result of having no valve overlap.

The ECU flash upgrade works by sending additional pulses to the solenoid on the overrun to keep it clean. This works on some cars whilst on others the only solution is to remove and clean the VCT solenoid.

Just another minor glitch on the road to motoring happiness.

Cheers
Russ

460Fairmont · 08-04-2003, 21:44

One possible cause of the oil overheating could be due to a constriction in the oil return pipe to turbo connection which will "hold" the oil in the turbo longer also causing it to leak out the seals and smoke in some bad cases they found some minor leaks so a sealant was used on the metal gasket but in most cases too much is used and it squeezes into the opening taking it down to about half the diameter also if any of you see one of these turbos removed from the car look where the oil is supplied all the oil to the turbo is forced through a jet less than 1mm in diameter and i know for sure these block up very easily

Cobra · 08-06-2003, 03:13

I remember some XR6 Turbos running really badly. I was told something along the lines of the VCT solenoid getting clogged up and putting a cleaning device which cleans it all out. Don't really know much about it.

460Fairmont · 08-06-2003, 08:54

each OCV has a small mesh filter in the underside of the camshaft bearing cap which is supposed to filter all the oil to the OCVs if they actually work i'd say they'd clog up first