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Black Specks :(


pdt
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I've read about black specks on the rear bumper meaning that the cars burning oil so thought i'd ask for a bit more info.

I've got a 1.4 sport with 73k on the clock. It never skips a beat, runs nice and smooth, pulls well etc but i've noticed the dreaded black specs. How big are they normally cause i've got millions of the things.

I washed the car today at 2pm, drove about 40 miles and once i'd stopped, the whole of the rear of the car was filthy, as in all up the boot, the window, slightly round the sides, and either side of the exhaust, not just above it. This seems a bit extreme as i've never really noticed it before and the rest of the car is still 100% clean :S

Only thing is, i have some oil running down the block, which i assume is the rocker gasket, could this be related? is it posible that it isnt the rocker gasket?

Sorry for the essay, pretty worried!!

Paul.

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The dirt on the back is just that...dirt! The Lupos seem to have been designed in a way that the rear bumper chucks all the dirt up off the tyres and onto the boot and window. Mine is filthy at the back yet the sides and front look clean.

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is your oil level going down? if it is droppin quite fast then its prob oil but if its not it will just be dirt. the black spots i had on mine were all small and a kind of dry texture but unlike dirt if u spayed it with water it stayed where it is, u had to rub them off. also wipe the bottom of the inside of your tail pipe, mine was really thick with soot but it was slightly sticky, hope this helps

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As a sudgestion, which could prolong the issue slightly. Have you thought about flushing the engine and going to a thicker oil? say a 10w50??

It might hide the problem for a while, give you time to save up for the valve stem seals to be done.

John

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Thanks for the replies people!

I washed my car again yesterday and yet again, covered in specks already. I'm hoping its just crap off the roads as theyve all been gritted and i run wide wheels which flick more dirt up.

Really can't be bothered with refurbing the engine!

As the guy above said, p/xing it is sounding better and better!

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i gte the black specks on mine and i slightly burn oil, but the car runs fine and has done afor a good few thousand miles like this so im just not thinking about it anymore, just keep a closer eye on oil levels tho, ill start to worry about it when it starts not running properly

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yeah again im sure there was a topic on this before. I dont think anyone actually suffered any lack in performance or reliability issues i think its just worn piston rings that are leaking oil through and subsequently burning it off and out of the exhaust. If you can live with it it should be fine. Like said above just keep an eye on levels and stuff like that. :wacko:

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Just compared my car to my mates 59 plate fiesta and his is covered in the exact same crap as mine, so it must be the road!

Also a good way to check, as he pointed out, is rub your finger inside the exhaust tip, if its covered in oil, bad news, if you just get soot, good news!

Hope that helps people.

Im off for a celebratory beer :)

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Are you guys sure it's not just abit of water?? If I start mine up with the back up against the garage door, it plasters it with black specs, old cars are dreaful for it.

My cars black, so I can't really see any specs, and it doesn't burn any oil.

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well mine had sticky stuff in the exhaust but it wasnt really gooey or anything just like normal soot but excessive ammounts and it was slightly tacky when u rubbed it between your fingers. i also didnt have any performance issues but it did get to the stage where i had to fill up with oil every time i filled up with fuel! all in all for a brand new bottom end from vw, have my head refurbed, new cambelt, service etc, labour and vat it came to just shy of £1600. :(

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well mine had sticky stuff in the exhaust but it wasnt really gooey or anything just like normal soot but excessive ammounts and it was slightly tacky when u rubbed it between your fingers. i also didnt have any performance issues but it did get to the stage where i had to fill up with oil every time i filled up with fuel! all in all for a brand new bottom end from vw, have my head refurbed, new cambelt, service etc, labour and vat it came to just shy of £1600. :(

ouch.

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i gte the black specks on mine and i slightly burn oil, but the car runs fine and has done afor a good few thousand miles like this so im just not thinking about it anymore, just keep a closer eye on oil levels tho, ill start to worry about it when it starts not running properly

When was your last mot? Just keep an eye on it, bacause you will go over on unburnt hyrdocarbons if it gets too much, which will fail.

Have you switched to a thicker oil? That will help you burn less.

John

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I had this on my Sport, though in my case it was throwing out tiny chunks of black dirt.

The standard backbox has a section which stores dirty oil which has passed through the exhaust system, perhaps this section is simply full and dirty oil is being passed through this section and out the back.

After 4 oil changes with Quantum Gold and an engine cleaner (once) in 10k miles and a new stainless steel backbox which doesn't have this stupid oil section, all was fine.

The only build up after that was just light black dusting on the tip which built up a little bit after two weeks. My Sport does use oil but thinking about it logically they designed the backbox like that knowing these engines pass through oil. It does say in the book that they can consume up to a litre of oil per 1,000km or something silly like that depending on how you drive the car.

Nothing to worry about.

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