Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[ukdave2002]

Was chatting to a bloke at our local over the weekend, he had replaced the turbo on his wifes Laguna diesel because it "whistled" a little at speed.

After completing the job he started the engine up, apparently it didn't quite sound right so he switched it off, just before the engine stopped turning it fired up of its own accord, but was going backwards, sucking air through the exhaust and blasting fumes out through the air filter, reving faster and faster.

The only way he could stop it was to engage 5th gear, let the clutch out and stall the car!

Net result (discovered thus far) is a wrecked new turbo & intercooler! but the real problem is he is not sure what he did wrong, so will probably have to take the car to a garage to have it fixed.

Dave

[Scotty]

That was it probably running the right way - you know how the French do everything backwards!

In all seriousness though, I'd be crapping myself now as to how much damage has been done running an engine backwards, even just for a few moments. Perhaps he'll be lucky and get away with it other than the damage you've mentioned, but the more I think about it the more I wonder.

Scotty.

[ukdave2002]

I agree , someone else commented that backward running used to be quite common in commercial's some years ago, the way they stoped them was to block the exhust pipe, which is now of course acting as the air inlet, otherwise the engine would just rev until summat big and expensive broke !.

dave