Check out this oil pick-up screen from the engine of a Hyundai iLoad van!
We were presented with the van with a symptom of loss of performance accompanied with a screeching noise.
On inspection we found that the Turbocharger had failed. When questioned the driver said that the engine oil warning light had been flickering prior to the noise & loss of power. With this information we suspected that oil starvation had caused the failure, & so went looking for reasons. The cause of the oil light flickering turned out to be a blocked oil pick-up screen.
The screen was completely coated with carbon particles. The source of the carbon was from combustion leaking past the injectors which in this engine are located under the tappet cover, so any carbon will find its way into the sump.
Leaking Injector seating washers are more common than you might think; we see it quite often on various makes. A common symptom is a part misfire or rough running on cold start-up, possibly with white exhaust smoke. If the injectors are inside the engine as in this case, it’s something that should not be ignored. It can lead to failures like this Hyundai suffered or worse. Combustion leaks from injectors located outside of the engine are not as potentially catastrophic but can be a messy & time consuming job to put right.