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[Sir_Mixalot]

Hey,
Around 6 months ago I had a massive oil cooler failure.  I swapped it over for one I got from a scrap yard (it was £25 vs. ~£200 from autovaux and instant collection vs. a few days delivery)...I justified using the second hand part that if it does go again (v. unlikely), its only another £20 and I can replace it in a long afternoon.

Anyway, over the past few weeks the car has started to loose oil and water.  Almost unnoticeable at first, but now its going through both relatively quickly (water more than oil, which appears to be coming out the exhaust as i am getting a long period when starting up of white smoke at the exhaust).  There was mayonnaise-ing occurring on the coolant header tank cap, and the coolant looked murkey.

So today have stripped it down to get the oil cooler out and it doesn't look like it has a fault.  I have "pressure tested" it by holding it onto a tap and blocking the other end looking for leaks.  When my old one failed you could do this and see water seeping out the side, but with this I can't see anything leaking.  The coolant the oil cooler was sat in doesn't actually look that murkey (its still pretty much pale blue) and there isn't much sign of oil/water mixing in there.  On the plate that sits on top of the oil cooler there does appear to be a bit of an oily residue but i am not sure how much of that could be either left over from before or from a bit of oil coming out of the cooler and on to it while i was dismantling today.  Heres a pic of it:



Anyway, just wondered if anyone new of any better ways to test the oil cooler as the fault in it could be minute? Or if there is a chance of a possibility of head gasket failure?  A "new" (second hand) oil cooler from the local scrappers now costs £50+vat, so I want to make sure its gone before I replace mine.

On a last note I am going to sell the car shortly after the xmas break, if it isn't that bad shall i just clean out the header tank and sell it on? obviously a bit dishonest, but i did buy it from someone who knew the "head gasket" was broken but didn't say anything to me (turned out luckily to be the oil cooler). How long do these oil coolers hold on for?

[Marks DTM Calib]

50+Vat....a new one is only 80 quid! (auovaux in this case are a rip off)

Could be oil cooler again or could simply be that the heater is blowing hot for the first time and its displaced some gunk from the last failure............

[Sir_Mixalot]

thats a really good point actually i have had the heaters on alot lately and the gunk showing is probably from that.

where can you get them for £80 from brand new?

Only thing is if the gunk is just from the heater circuit, where is my oil and water going?

[TheBoy]

where can you get them for £80 from brand new?

Dealer.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Oil -  Check plugs etc for cam coover leak
Water - Either heater bypass valve, coolant bridge seals, oil cooler plate to block seal or stat to block seal..

Coolant bridge seals and oil cooler plate to block seal I guess will be having new items fitted anyway given how much is stripped down. Its worth re-doing the stat to block seal whilst you are there (use the same grey sealant as used for the oil cooler)

[TheBoy]

Only thing is if the gunk is just from the heater circuit, where is my oil and water going?

Seeing as the cooler came from scrappy, did you get new seals for oil pipes to oil cooler, and for coolant bridge?

[Sir_Mixalot]

Only thing is if the gunk is just from the heater circuit, where is my oil and water going?

Seeing as the cooler came from scrappy, did you get new seals for oil pipes to oil cooler, and for coolant bridge?

I didn't the first time I changed the oil cooler, but then realised it was leaking loads so had to take it all appart, go to a dealer, buy all the seals, replace and reassemble.  Good lesson there for anyone thinking of doing an Oil Cooler change themselves.

Think I am just gonna put it back together then sell as is.  It goes fine at the mo and for the hassle i will just keep topping up with oil/water.  This is more hassle than I need in my life.

thanks very much for your time and suggestions.