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5356

Omega General Help / Re: oil leak /crank sensor

« on: 31 July 2009, 19:49:58 »

The oil leaking from the cam covers drips on the exhaust manifolds first.

After that it runs down the block and on to the CS (to the right and below the oil filter in the second pic)

5357

Omega General Help / Re: HELP ROCKER COVER GASKET

« on: 30 July 2009, 22:42:01 »

6 years ago I went through the whole sorry sequence of buying new cam covers (because the dealers parts desk told me I couldn't buy the gasket separately). There didn't appear to be much wrong with the ones that came off.

Later I ended up taking the engine out to take the cylinder heads off because the head gaskets were rotten. When I had the heads off I took the breather off also. It was completely choked with baked oil deposits.

I suspect that no matter how good the seals are a blocked breather will blow the seals. If I were to have another problem with weeping cam cover seals I would start by fitting a new crankcase breather.

5358

Omega General Help / Re: Incredible disappearing sockets

« on: 31 July 2009, 12:14:12 »

So nobody's saying 'Don't be stupid, there's nowhere for anything like that to get stuck' ?

Its a bit like a lobster pot in there behind the engine. I discovered a whole new vocabulary when I first changed my DIS 

5359

Omega General Help / Re: Incredible disappearing sockets

« on: 31 July 2009, 12:06:00 »

The heat shields on the car body might be a bit loose and the socket might have slipped behind the sound deadening or it might have slipped into the gap between the oil cooler pipes and the block.

5360

Omega General Help / Re: V6 Breather system

« on: 30 July 2009, 00:27:32 »

4no 6mm bolts on the two flanges. They were a bit grubby when I took the photo but you can see all of them in the second photo.

I hadn't noticed it was even there until I took the head off

It is probably a bit close to the bulkhead but I would expect it to come out easily enough. You might need to take the wiper motor out to get to it, it is dark I raining right now otherwise I would go & have a look.

5361

Omega General Help / Re: V6 Breather system

« on: 29 July 2009, 23:15:10 »

Pictures of my 94 2.5 taken 6 years ago. I found that the breather was so caked up that I couldn't clean it out even with it off the engine.






The aluminium lump to the left of the picture is the crankase breather / oil seperator. Mine was totally clogged with solidified oil & sludge. I spent a day trying to clean it but I eventually gave up and bought a new one.....

5362

Omega General Help / Re: steering play

« on: 30 July 2009, 00:19:07 »

With my Omega when stationary with the engine off there is noticeable free play at full lock but I have never noticed it when driving. Maybe the power steering masks it? or maybe cornering forces take up the slack?

If you have any doubts about your steering get it checked. All the bushes and ball joints on your steering and suspension need to be in top condition, I have had to replace most of them on my car over the last six years but I haven't had any problems with the steering box.

5363

Omega General Help / Re: steering play

« on: 29 July 2009, 17:48:33 »

The Omega uses a steering box (not rack and pinion).

I assumed that the free play away from straight ahead was inherent in the design with a steering box.

What is wrong is if you have tight spots or obvious free play around straight ahead.

5364

Omega General Help / Re: V6 coolant leak

« on: 29 July 2009, 21:45:22 »

I took the engine out to clean it up and do a pressure test. While it was out I took photos of it. Sorry about the quality, some time in 2003 I seem to have tried to copy the pictures to a cd & I cannot find the originals.


The first picture is of the rear of the engine while pressure testing the cooling system. The coolant bridge is visible & coolant is dribbling from the left hand cylinder head.

The second picture shows the top of the oil cooler. I suppose you could have a leak from around the nuts under the oil pipes or from the aluminium plate that the oil cooler is fixed to but I didn't find a leak on mine.

The aluminium lump to the left of the picture is the crankase breather / oil seperator. Mine was totally clogged with solidified oil & sludge. I spent a day trying to clean it but I eventually gave up and bought a new one.....

5365

Omega General Help / Re: V6 coolant leak

« on: 29 July 2009, 19:49:15 »

The oil cooler itself is immersed in oil in a well in the top of the block so a coolant leak here would be from the where the pipes connect to the top of the oil cooler.

Surely its the other way round, the oil cooler is immersed in water in the V of the block and the pipes carry oil?

Oops! I think you might be right. It was 5 years since I last saw the oil cooler.

I think the seals I was thinking of are on the coolant bridge (also hidden under the inlet manifold) a lump of aluminium that carries water from the rear of the cylinder heads and has the coolant temperature sensors screwed into it

5366

Omega General Help / Re: V6 coolant leak

« on: 29 July 2009, 19:05:04 »

I ended up taking the cylinder heads off and getting a local machine shop to give them a light skim.

Before assuming the worst though you do need to pressure test the cooling system. I have an old pressure cap (from a Carlton/Omega A) that happens to fit the Omega B that I have drilled a hole in and fitted a Schrader valve to.

With a cold engine I can pump the cooling system up to 1 Atm (when the pressure relief valve opens) and take my time looking for a leak.

There is a jumble of rubber pipes behind the engine (including the heater control valve) which might leak. The pipes to the oil cooler are hidden under the inlet manifold in the vee. The oil cooler itself is immersed in oil in a well in the top of the block so a coolant leak here would be from the where the pipes connect to the top of the oil cooler.

I don't know what happens if the heater matrix leaks, it might find its way to the A/C condense drain pipes and drip out in the vicinity of the bell housing?

5367

Omega General Help / Re: urprised to V6 Water leak

« on: 29 July 2009, 17:57:28 »

My Omega was leaking in that area when I first got it.

Found a receipt for a heater control valve in the paperwork,  spent lots of time looking for the problem but eventually found that my headgaskets were weeping coolant onto the DIS (ignition coils).

My theory is that a previous owner ran with a leaking heater valve & topped up with raw water which rotted the head gaskets

Whatever it is it is a pig to inspect. I had to take off the wiper motor just to get a mirror in to look for the leak when I pressure tested it

Good luck.

5368

Omega General Help / Re: Wheel bearing..

« on: 27 July 2009, 23:35:55 »

I had a wheel bearing fail years ago on the rear of my MK1 Carlton but the noise was speed dependent rather than load dependent (live rear axle though so may not be relevant).

When I got my Omega (at 130K miles) the inner rear brake pads were seized in the calipers due to rust and the inner faces of the brake disks were rough enough to make intermittent grumbling noises that had me convinced that the wheel bearings needed changing.

I would check that the rear brake pads are free to move before ordering new wheel bearings.

5369

Newbie Welcome Area / Re: omega obd2 socket?

« on: 22 January 2011, 16:18:40 »

In the centre of the fusebox under the steering column.

Take care what you try to do with it as only the bare minimum of data is accessible using a simple OBD2 interface.

5370

Newbie Welcome Area / Re: New Omega Owner From Bedfordshire

« on: 26 November 2009, 17:51:28 »

Hi
im new to the club i own a Vauxhall Omega CDX 2.0 with LPG conversion its my first one its black currently needing a little work but its good lol anyways hello and im from Bedfordshire Dunstable 

Hi John

Welcome to the club.

I lived in Dunstable for 37 years, finally made my escape last year