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[nixoro]

Well I thought had cracked my oil problem by redoing the rocker cover but yesterday I had the mid flash up "oil lack" so I checked the oil and fair enough it needed a topup, now I am beginning to think its something else as I checked all round the rocker cover and in the plug wells and there are no signs of any leakage and having looked under the car it all looks to be around the sump, my original thoughts were the rocker cover was leaking at the front and oil was running down behind the Cambelt cover now this seems not to be the case as its still leaking from somewhere.

I even checked the rear crank breather back when I did the rocker cover and there were no signs of seapage from there.

Can anyone suggest anything else that could be causing my problem.

[bestseany]

Sump gasket maybe?

[nixoro]

Sump gasket maybe?

I seem to remember cleaning around the sump a while back and couldn't see anywhere possible it was seaping from although I think I will have another look as it appears to be coming from that area now.

I have also been toying with the idea of oil pressure switch as I think that is in the same area.

What I dont get though is there is no oil hitting the floor.

[Markie]

If it aint hiting the floor.....

its either burning it ( doubt it as you would have noticed and posted to that effect)

or

Its a mischevious reading from somewhere......

Is it actually physically losing oil ?

[nixoro]

If it aint hiting the floor.....

its either burning it ( doubt it as you would have noticed and posted to that effect)

or

Its a mischevious reading from somewhere......

Is it actually physically losing oil ?

Well the sump looks to be coated and the dipstick when I checked indicated below minimum so yeah quite alot imo but where is it all going as the car had an oil change before xmas and its now shows it losing again, think my next option is to get it in the air at the w/e and see if I can source where it is definately loosing from.

You mention burning oil since my scare when it was MOT'd I have kept a close eye and have since then not seen any blue smoke, granted I think I found the source of that problem and have now fixed.
(rocker cover leaking and exhaust manifold wasn't sealed properly so oil was running down the thermostat housing and into the exhaust manifold gasket and seaping into the exhaust).

So now its leaking from somewhere else.

[Markie]

and was it losing oil before previous oil change ?

[MaxV6]

in the vein of silliness i seem to be inhabiting...   a bit like the odd sock fairy, perhaps there's an oil munching gremlin living in your sump??


or perhaps more sensibly.....   what about the oil pump gasket ?  i'd guess  if it's leaking you'd get nothing on top... but it would coat the sump.....


Max

[Markjay]

Mine was recently leaking from the sump plug (it was over-tightened by Vx), difficult to spot because it is being sprayed backwards towards the cross member so not obvious.

Also, are you sure there is no oil in the coolant header tank?... which could obviously point to an oil cooler failure.

But how much are you loosing...? perhaps the engine is burning it - apparently the permissible consumption figure is quite high.. also, have you changed the oil type from what you were using beforehand? (Yeeeepeeee another oil thread us on the way!)

[Markie]

yep, my reason for askingn if it was losing as much before last oil change was that if it wasnt it may well be leaking from the sump since then.

Perhaps the washer wasnt changed on sump  :-/

[nixoro]

and was it losing oil before previous oil change ?

Unfortunately it was but I thought I had cured the problem by redoing the rocker cover gasket which had been leaking in any case due to the fact I used the wrong sealant. Green Snot now used the black and its fine now fingers crossed.

[nixoro]

in the vein of silliness i seem to be inhabiting...   a bit like the odd sock fairy, perhaps there's an oil munching gremlin living in your sump??


or perhaps more sensibly.....   what about the oil pump gasket ?  i'd guess  if it's leaking you'd get nothing on top... but it would coat the sump.....


Max

The oil pump gasket is one thing I had thought of but wasn't sure of the affects of it being faulty, shall be having a good poke about underneath weather permitting at the w/e.

[nixoro]

Mine was recently leaking from the sump plug (it was over-tightened by Vx), difficult to spot because it is being sprayed backwards towards the cross member so not obvious.

Also, are you sure there is no oil in the coolant header tank?... which could obviously point to an oil cooler failure.

But how much are you loosing...? perhaps the engine is burning it - apparently the permissible consumption figure is quite high.. also, have you changed the oil type from what you were using beforehand? (Yeeeepeeee another oil thread us on the way!)

The sump plug was torqued to the recommended haynes setting.

Being that its a 2.0 I'm not sure if it has an oil cooler or if so where it would be, and having checked the header tank its a nice red colour and looking inside it no signs of oil.

How much oil am I loosing well fact that it had a change just before xmas and I made sure it was on maximum its now just below the minimum I think I'm loosing quite abit really. Regards if its burning it I haven't seen any blue smoke come from it since I sorted the manifold and gave the general area a good clean up.

As a rule I tend to stick with VX semi synth haven't put anything else in other than that.

[nixoro]

yep, my reason for askingn if it was losing as much before last oil change was that if it wasnt it may well be leaking from the sump since then.

Perhaps the washer wasnt changed on sump  :-/

I am beginning to think its something from that area now as originally I thought the rocker cover was leaking as all the lower parts ie ac compressor and pas pump and most stuff around that were/are getting coated, my thinking was the cover was leaking at the front and going down the back of the cambelt cover and spreading but I may have got it totally wrong and should be looking lower down.

The car had a brand new sump plug fitted at its change before the xmas one with new sealing ring so it could be possible not sure how long they last.

[Markie]

best process is often the simple ones......clean the sump and bottom of tank to within an inch of its life. That way you will see if its re-emerging.

Check it daily to see if theres any seeping. Would have thought that it would be quite a lot if your noticing the oil loss from top end ( dipstick)

Presume you dont have any significant oil marks on your drive / road to help you pinpoint the location?

[nixoro]

best process is often the simple ones......clean the sump and bottom of tank to within an inch of its life. That way you will see if its re-emerging.

Check it daily to see if theres any seeping. Would have thought that it would be quite a lot if your noticing the oil loss from top end ( dipstick)

Presume you dont have any significant oil marks on your drive / road to help you pinpoint the location?

Looking to give it a good clean at the w/e, still I've ruled out its lossing at the top now so shall start with the bottom end now.

Looking to use a couple of cans of carb cleaner or if not soapy water.

Another thing I have thought of is the oil pressure switch? is this in the same place as on the V6 only have seen a thread mentioning a leak from there maybe its worth a look.

Unfortunately no visible oil marks on the road out front where I park its abit of a mystery I i'll get it sorted.

[nixoro]

I put my car on the ramps on Saturday and the whole front is coated, managed to have a good look and well I didn't know where to start.

So I started with the easiest, and cleaned around the sump there only seemed to be oil around the edge of the sump not on the actual sump.

I checked the sump plug bolt and it was dry no leaks.

Slowly moved around the sump with my fingers squeezing the join to see if any oil movement and sure enough 1 side when squeezing the sump to bottom of engine you could see oil in the join moving, so I retorqed what bolts I could get to and am going to give it a few days to re check.

When looking from underneath upwards the whole front top to bottom is coated behind the cam cover so I am thinking its still old oil ideally needs cleaning but not sure how to without removing the cambelt and rear cambelt cover.

Noticed that since torquing the bolts on the sump my car has a little more poke now whether this is good or the beginnings of more bad luck for me time will tell.

Idealy I would have liked to change the sump gasket but I am not sure the best way, part of the sumps runs under the centre crossmember and there are 4 bolts there and space is just so resticted.

While I was there I checked around the oil filter and pump housing and also the pressure switch and all were dry so trying to work out if anything else could be the problem other than the sump.

Any Ideas would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Roy

[Markjay]

Haven't done a engine oil sump gasket on a meega yet, but from what I nunderstand it's officially an engine-out job - though you might get away with disconnecting the engine mounts on one side and winching the engine upwards and sideways to allow the sump to be removed. If the oil leak can be reduced by torqueing the bolts and using RTV-type sealant on the sump joint seam from outside, you may be better off just living with it...

Also, as far as I understand, there is no gasket as such but a rubber 'pipe' that fits in a groove around the sump, and needs sealant on both sides only (at the points where the rubber 'pipe' overlaps) - if so applying sealent from outside on the sump sides might be enough, has anyone tried this before?

[nixoro]

Haven't done a engine oil sump gasket on a meega yet, but from what I nunderstand it's officially an engine-out job - though you might get away with disconnecting the engine mounts on one side and winching the engine upwards and sideways to allow the sump to be removed. If the oil leak can be reduced by torqueing the bolts and using RTV-type sealant on the sump joint seam from outside, you may be better off just living with it...

Also, as far as I understand, there is no gasket as such but a rubber 'pipe' that fits in a groove around the sump, and needs sealant on both sides only (at the points where the rubber 'pipe' overlaps) - if so applying sealent from outside on the sump sides might be enough, has anyone tried this before?

Cheers for the response markjay I am going to leave it a couple of days and see if the oil level changes and if there are any more signs of oil loss, having looked at the sump its annoying as it looks like there is only 4 star bolts under the centre cross member with those removed the sump will come away.

I'm thinking it may be a garage job if things get worse or even worse a case of having ago myself, my trouble is i'm not to comfortable with engine mounts.