Engine whines but stops when oil cap is off

8th June 2011, 16:08

Hi there ive been trying to solve a problem with my 1999 saxo vtr which i have just bought.
There is a whining noise coming from the engine i thought first it was the alternator belt but i took that off and the noise was still there.
For some reason i took the oil cap off??? and the noise disappeared completely. Then when i put it back on the noise come back.
Now i have been looking at some images of the oil plumbing online and the person had the car before me put a cone airfilter on and i feel think they have bypassed an oil pipe.

In this photo i found online the pipes that come off the rocker cover are different, i have circled in the picture where the pipe goes on mine (from the rocker cover to the circle) is this right? and if so what is the pipe that i have circled?

Thanks in advance to anyone who trys to help.

8th June 2011, 16:24

the pipe you have circle is fitted correctly its the idle control valve feed pipe and goes to the right hand side of the top of the air filter box.

you should also have a pipe fitted going from the breather pipe to the top of the inlet manifold (you might want to see where the pipe is going. its the one next to the map sensor (one with the blue lable and the bolt through it mate) they make a rasping noise when not connected.

best bet is to post a pic of your engine and we can have a look.

8th June 2011, 16:43

hi there thanks for the quick reply.
yes there is also a pipe going from the breather to the manifold.
When i checked yesterday the oil was a bit low but still within the limit on the stick so i topped it up slightly with semi synthetic and it has helped alot but is still there occasionally.
The bloke i bought it off was russian or something and im thinking that he has just been a bit of a cheapskate and filled it up with mineral oil which i think has been done very recently as the oil filter is brand new.
Is there a possiblity that if there was mineral oil in there than that could be to thick causing the problem?
I have gone out and bought a new 4L of castrol gtx semi syn today for £10 from asda 10w40 (BARGIN) so im going to go change that now and see if it stops it completely.

8th June 2011, 20:37

well the oil change didnt stop it completely its still there.....
when i pull the dipstick out slightly it goes away and i think i must not of pushed it all the way in yesterday when i topped it up, making me think that was helping solve it.
when i pull the dipstick out literally 2mm it stops (or the oil cap as i said before)
Its quite a high pitched noise just like an alternator belt would make when they slip and it goes away when the revs are over 2200rpm.
I took it to too garages and they didnt have a clue what it was.

I also have another question which is how much oil do the 1999 vtr's normally take as ive put in 2.5 litres and it is showing as full on the dipstick (now this dosent seem like alot of oil to me) but i have read another post on here and it says they take 3.5 litres.

8th June 2011, 21:08

camshaft bearing??

8th June 2011, 21:25

no its not the camshaft bearing because the noise stops when i pull the dipstick out a bit or remove the oil cap and a bearing would be constant, i am thinking that there is something wrong with the crankcase vent system maybe a blockage or something because i have noticed that there is a large vacuum when i take the oil cap off.

9th June 2011, 17:19

Sounds to me like the oil pump is on its way out.

9th June 2011, 19:57

how much oil did you drain out? if its reading full at 2.5 ltrs then thatss a whole ltr lower than what it should be maybe sump is full of shite wich has blocked some breather pipes also causing the engine to be running too low of oil (but not low engough for oil light to come on?)