How can a 4WD bullbar cause serious engine failure?

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QUESTION

Hi John,

I'm 71 and purchased a new Isuzu D-Max four-wheel drive in December of 2017 to be my last car for towing my caravan.

The engine failed after 10 minutes running from cold on a 20° day. As I was winding up to cruise speed of about 90km/h, at about 80km/h the engine started to knock lightly, then started missing, and then smoking very badly.

This car has done 148,000 kilometres, I have trucked it back to the dealers and they contacted Isuzu who told them to do a compression test and remove the injector from the affected cylinder, and put a camera down to see the fault, which they did - and found number one piston faulty.

Isuzu Australia then asked for photos and they've determined that the aftermarket ‘roobar’ had caused the problem by not passing enough air through the intercooler.

The engine has had oil and filter changed every 10,000 kilometres, even though Isuzu says every 20,000kms, and it was serviced by the dealer until about 130,000 km on the clock.

My thoughts were that if a piston had failed through overheating that other things should have shown up like engine temp, air temp or water temp.

How can they determine from photos that it was not fuel related, i.e. injector failure? What are your thoughts on this and can you help me in any way?

Thanks,

Bill

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