Not Even An Informed Biker Could Save This Guy's Mercedes From Deadly Diesel Runaway

Another fascinating diesel engine runaway video has emerged where a Mercedes engine dies a painful death

18 May 2015

Whenever diesel engine runaway occurs on camera, it always makes for fascinating viewing. The phenomenon is usually caused by oil mist escaping in a worn engine. The engine can run on this oil mist, and it continues to feed itself more and more oil as the revs increase, until it seizes.

Since turning off the ignition is ineffectual, there are two main ways to stop it when this occurs. The first is to cover the air intake, or shoot a CO2 fire extinguisher into it to smother the engine. Alternatively, if the car has a manual gearbox, you can put it into a high gear with the brakes applied and let the clutch out quickly, thus stalling the engine

Check out the full Wikipedia article for more information.