Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[toller]

Got my first omega yesterday, a 2.5 1996 GLS with 102k on the clock for those that didn't see my other post.
I bought it for peanuts mainly as it had an oil leak and the garage selling it couldn't be bothered to do anything about it.

Today i got to have a  proper look at the car in daylight and jacked up and essentially the entire underside of the sump & engine is covered in a layer of oil, this has then been blown back almost along the whole underside of the car.  Obviously when it's like that it's damn near impossible to tell where a leak could be coming from so i'll have to get the pressure washer on it and clean it down.

What i have noticed is that it doesn't drip when the engine is cold, only when it's been running for a few minutes and warmed up, there is no oil in or around the spark plugs or anywhere above the sump.  

Whats the best place to start looking for this leak (if there is a best place) and also would having the leak like this and oil covering the underside of the car constitute an MOT failure as it's due one at the end of march.

Something else i've noticed too, when acceelerating in 3rd or 5th gear the gear stick has some noticeable give in it, if you come off the gas in either gear there is a small jerk on the stick, it only happens in those 2 gears and only if you're going at a reasonable speed (more than 30)

Sorry for all the questions, this is my first ever omega, infact my first ever vauxhall and i know sod all about them.  I knew all my previous ford's inside out so it's a little frustrating to say the least.

On a lighter note i spent most of today getting the omega scrubbed up and for an 11 year old car it looks rather nice now, a few little rust scabs that will be sorted in time but other than that i'm very pleased, certainly for £275

Ta again,

Kris

[ians]

Try taking a HT lead off one of the plugs at the front and having a look in.  If the plug is covered in oil (so much maybe that you can't see the top of the plug),  then your cam cover seal(s) have gone. (In which case check out the excellent guides to replacement and cleaning the breather system on this site).

May not be the problem, but highly likely I would say, and certainly easy to check.  (I read somewhere that they often leak from the back so not easily visible)

Cheers,

Ian

[toller]

Already had a look at the plugs and they're clean.  I'm hoping to be able to give the prvious owner a call sometime this week and find out a bit more about when the problem started at the spark plugs and they look clean.

I'm hoping to be able to get in touch with the previuso owner tis week anyway to see if he can tell me when it started leaking, hopefully that might give me a few pointers.

I can see this being a pain

[Chopsdad]

The only place I can suggest to check for an obvious leak would be the metal breather pipe attached to the top of the sump.  It won't leak when cold as it has no oil, but if the gasket's gone or the bolts are loose you could be lucky - but I doubt it  :-/

Just a thought - perhaps the garage/previous owner changed the plugs recently and it's only a matter of time until they get wet again and help pinpoint the problem.

[toller]

I was going to do the rocker cover gaskets as a matter of course anyway along with the cambelt then at least i know they've been done.  I'm sure i'll be able to get a better idea of where the leak is from once i've cleand all the crud off.

Thanks for the suggestions

[rpont]

The oil pressure switch is at the front of the engine and they can leak so oil from that would cover the bottom. Should be fairly easy to eliminate that.

[r.welfare]

Let us know how you get on Kris...I've a similar problem that I noticed on my 3.0 Elite today, after I spent 6 hours changing the crank sensor yesterday...took out each of the 3 plug leads on the left bank but no oil in the wells (although the rearmost lead was covered in white powder...).

[Elite Pete]

I had a similar problem with a 2.5 CD, Mine turned out to be the sump gasket which comes in two parts.