Curious as to the cause of this epic failure.

[TFC]

This happened to Citroens back in the 90s, somehow they had fitted the wrong length dipstick to some engines, I was at a dealership when one let go in the workshop.. all the mechanics ran for it and the engine grenaded

 

[EddScott]

This was mentioned as a possibility that my car (Audi A4 2.0TDI) might do this when the turbo seals went. The oil filter hadn't been changed probably from new and it just clogged up and blew the seals.

Fortunately it didn't but I'd never heard of it before.

 

[Howard]

I was at a dealership when one let go in the workshop.. all the mechanics ran for it and the engine grenaded

Haha

 

[Outcast]

I've seen it happen to a Volvo F12 Truck on the A1 @ Colsterworth many moons ago.
That looked like a destroyer laying down a smoke screen !

When the revs reach that high you can't engage any gear and unless you block off the air intake it'll rev to destruction or seize.

[edit]

Oh.. Diesels can also run backwards !!

 

[ci_newman]

An old Rover detonated itself outside my old office once

 

[ubersonic]

I was out in the car earlier when I see white smoke start pouring from an early 2000's Octavia, the guy pulled over & got out & as I passed a few seconds later it sounded like the car was just bouncing off the rev limiter with nobody on board & smoke pouring out. The smoke quickly turned black shortly after with the car vanishing in its own cloud.

Sounds perfectly normal for a diesel

 

[Dr Who]

Diesels don't restrict the air with a throttle valve so once the oil gets in the intake it is like running at full throttle on a petrol engine.

End result is a big bang, even sticking in high gear and dumping the clutch will just result in a burned out clutch 99% of the time.

 

[lemonade]

Excellent, hopefully all Diesels will suffer the same fate and vanish of the streets , no more horrible dag dags flying around and stinky horrible soot in the air going into my lungs.

 

[Gaijin]

It's gunna explode! Yep 95% people would panic and go into spaz mode.

I did exactly this when my Evo continued to run when I went to turn the engine off and took the key out (albeit it just continued to tick over on idle).

Cue a baffled facial expression whilst staring at the key in my hand. Took a minute of so for my brain to engage and to think of how to stop the engine manually (stalled it). I think some engines have manual cut off switches or you can tinker with the IACV/bypass Screw, but stalling it was more practical.

Turns out the turbo timer had thrown a benny. Half an hour later it was in the bin and the car was fine.

 

[WillyNelson]

My focus did this when my wife was driving it about 18 months ago. Turbo had gone kaput and it was sucking oil up through the intake. A passing Sainsbury's delivery bloke stalled it for her and luckily the engine wasn't destroyed.

 

[kaiowas]

An old Rover detonated itself outside my old office once

HGF

 

[Em3bbs]

An old Rover detonated itself outside my old office once

It's ok, the owner has bought a bargain MG from eBay to run about in while he fixes the old car.

 

[vanpeebles]

I had this happen on an old charade turbo diesel, it was pretty scary. Didn't know which to run! The engine was flat out plus the smoke out the back was thick and billowing. The whole street stank of burnt oil for ages and the noise was something else. My Dad jumped in the car to force a stall.

I put the issue down to old engines that use a bit of oil and then feed it back into the engine as part of an emissions thing, rather than dumping it to air with a small k&n style filter.

 

[Mr.Nick]

Diesel engine runaway, worn piston rings, leaking turbo seals
Blocking the air intake is generally the best way to stop it, providing you cant stall it.
One reason you should change oil and filters regularly

 

[snapdragon69]

Most modern (like in the last 13 years) have at least one throttle now.
One is an antishudder valve that closes when the engine is turned off, plus plastic swirl flaps (which would probably get ingested) and diesels with CaaS (Cylinders as a Service) have a throttle on each bank of cylinders to make a smooth transition from all cylinders to just some.

 

[BigDannyO]

I remember finding this clip a while back. Same thing, on a slightly larger, more terrifying scale!:

 

[Django x2]

This very thing happened to me infact, after a bodged oil service by a BMW dealer on a (then) modern 57 plate 530d. They overfilled the car with a litre of oil. Fortunately there were / are engine protection shut off features in place but not unti after it had sat at the redline for about 10 seconds.