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[dellboy]

please help i have bad oil leak, oil seems to run down front of engine left hand side of crank shaft pully i dont have oil in sparkplug holes. i have taken plenum off to try to look down front of engine but cannot see because of timming belt cover, would there be any advantage taking off front timming cover to see, there does seem to be oil on top where i think oil cooler is but this leak has been there for about year and may be sprayed about by wind i have no water in oil or vice versa
thanks in advance.

[Timbuk]

The more you take off the more you will see !! As for oil cooler, if that was knackered you would be getting oil in your water system as you said, if the oil cooler plate was leaking you would be losing water not oil, unless one of the banjo bolts is leaking where they bolt onto the oil cooler itself, unlikely i thinks??

[Markjay]

How far up the front of the engine does the leak go? One possible culprit is the Oil Pressure Switch, which is located at the bottom of the front just to the left of the crank pulley.

Oil leaking from the washer will be splashed up by the wind when driving, but no more than a couple of inches above the Oil Pressure Switch itself. If this is the case, the fix is easy - if you have the old type swutch, renew the copper washer and torque-tighten to 55NM (using 24mm deep socket - i.e. spark plug type socket). If you have the new type then the washer will be integral and made of alloy so the whole unit will need replacing - but the good news is that a new switch costs under a fiver from Vx.

[dellboy]

ive just been looking there is a lot of oil under the inlet manifold i was just going to try to take it off to check connection to oil cooler

[Markjay]

Yep - oil under the manifold is very likely to be oil cooler....

[TheBoy]

The banjo bolts on oil cooler may be leaking a little - if you undo them, you must replace washers and the bolts...

[dellboy]

thanks for that there is a large pool of oil in the casting around the cooler also round the front banjo bolt so its off to vauxhall to get new bolts and gaskets

[Markjay]

thanks for that there is a large pool of oil in the casting around the cooler also round the front banjo bolt so its off to vauxhall to get new bolts and gaskets

You seem to be sure that the leak is from the pipe/joint - but it is often the oil cooler itself that leaks due to corrosion, in which case it will need replacing as well....


(Copyright notice: pictures taken from JSeaman)

[RonaldMcBurger]

I must agree that oil cooler does sound potentially leaking. For what it costs and the fact that these DO pack up, it would be worth replacing it now at the same time as you are doing most of the work already.

Second guess is rocker gasket. If it is leaking on the outer edge nearest the inlet manifold, you won't necessarily get any oil in the plug wells. When were the breathers last checked?

[TheBoy]

If you change the oil cooler, do not bend the oil pipes to move. Instead undo them from near the oil filter.  Tunnie will agree with me here, putting back on bent oil cooler pipes is stressful, and leads to tools getting broken, and glass flying everywhere  

[v6man54deg Geffd]

Quite common for the bolts to back off with time - done a few on vectra's recently - replace the 4 washers - you also need to replace the dowty washers on the water bridge - as this needs to be removed to get to the rear banjo bolt.
You can replace the washers without lossening the pipes from the block but the rear one can be difficult - best to undo the pipes from the block - do not use a open ended spanner on the pipe unions as they will go out of shape - use a special socket with a split in it or a crow foot spanner.
theres a pic of this socket on jseamans thread on the other forum - theres also a pick of how he screwed the old pipes up using an openended spanner for the job  

thanks for that there is a large pool of oil in the casting around the cooler also round the front banjo bolt so its off to vauxhall to get new bolts and gaskets

[dellboy]

I must agree that oil cooler does sound potentially leaking. For what it costs and the fact that these DO pack up, it would be worth replacing it now at the same time as you are doing most of the work already.

Second guess is rocker gasket. If it is leaking on the outer edge nearest the inlet manifold, you won't necessarily get any oil in the plug wells. When were the breathers last checked?

i agree i am goling to replace oil cooler and i have just taken spark plug out there is small amount of oil in hole so i am goig to do rocker gaskets aswell

[TheBoy]

According to my local dealer, you cannot buy the washers for the coolant bridge (that needs to come off to get to rear bolt) - you have to buy whole bridge!

[dellboy]

just spoke to vauxhall in hemel hempstead, will sell me washers for £1.49 each,£81.00 for oil cooler  
£25.00 for rocker cover gasket + vat do you think that is reasonable      

[Timbuk]

Got my oil cooler from ebay, 76 quid including next day delivery and vat. You might get a bit of discount if you want a few bits

                                  See here:-


       http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10404&item=200005163391