Watch Out for These Symptoms of Bad Piston Rings

2021-12-13Auto Parts

In the engine inside your vehicle, you will find the series of rings known as piston rings. Piston rings help in regulating the oil pressure as well as the amount of the engine’s oil consumption,

When these piston rings are worn out or get damaged, your engine will end up experiencing all sorts of issues. Although piston rings are inexpensive and small parts, these are play an important role for the engine’s operation.

The tricky thing when it comes to symptoms of bad piston rings is that these are almost the same with those symptoms of faulty valve seals. Either way, it is important to let an auto mechanic check your vehicle.

Here are some of the most common symptoms that will tell you that something is wrong with your piston rings.

Excessive Consumption of Oil

If the piston rings are already worn out, with oil leaking to the combustion chamber, this can result to the vehicle using up more oil than normal.

It means that you need to add oil on a regular basis to your vehicle instead of waiting the standard miles of 3,000 to 5,000 before you actually do it. Once you noticed that you start to add oil more frequently than you should, make sure you ask a mechanic to check your piston rings.

Too Much Oil in Air Intake

When there is oil in air intake, this is usually due to blow by. It is when the mixture of oil and air in the combustion chamber ends up escaping way past the piston rings, resulting to positive pressure forming in the crankcase.

The pressure will then get vented from the PVC or positive crankcase ventilation hose back to the intake. If this blow by has a large amount, you might notice a quite oily intake.

Poor Acceleration

Once the piston rings get damaged or suffer wear, the engine is going to end up losing its power since less compression takes place.

It means that every time you place your foot on your gas pedal to speed up, it will take a longer time for your vehicle to accelerate. When this happens, you need to replace your piston rings to get the issue fixed.

Excessive Exhaust Smoke

Once you notice that your vehicle produces excessive exhaust smoke, it might be another telltale sign that your piston rings have already gone bad. This smoke usually looks very thick with blue or dark gray colors to it. Most of the time, this also comes with the smell of burning oil.

When your piston rings are bad, engine oil starts to leak into the combustion chamber. When this occurs, the oil burns and creates that thick exhaust smoke with blue gray color that you will see coming out of your vehicle.

Poor Performance of Your Vehicle

Probably the worst-case symptom that you have bad piston rings is the moment all power is lost in your vehicle. You can no longer accelerate the vehicle, with its performance becoming very poor overall.

You might even need to have your vehicle towed to the nearest mechanic due to its bad performance. But you will only suffer this symptom if you don’t pay attention to some of the earlier symptoms once they show up.

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