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[Sion]

I have an Omega 2.5l V6 and i noticed a few months ago that my oil and water was mixing. Following this advice on the forum i changed the oil and flushed and replaced all fluids. This seemed to work when i checked after a week. But now about a month on i checked again and my oil and water are still mixing.

I have also noticed a slight drop in oil, but the water level has not changed. The car still runs fine other than the slight flicker on the oil light on start up and occasional lumpy tickover.

Has anybody else had a simular problem like this? I dont know if it is still a problem with my oil cooler or my head gasket.

I have been thinking that the oil cooler didnt affect anything and the change was only noticed as i changed the fluids and it has been gradually changing back. But as i have read the head gaskets are rare to go, so wanted a second opinion before i try to perform this mamoth task.

Vauxhall Omega 2001, 120,000miles, 2.5l V6 Manual.

P.S. Its changing the head gasket as hard as the oil cooler?

[tunnie]

oil is in your coolant, the expansion tank is all brown goo like?

Sounds like your oil cooler has failed, its fairly cheap to replace and straight forward 

[feeutfo]

question is where are your fluids mixing? What exactly are you seeing and where?

If you have oil in the coolent header tank, failed oil cooler.

Water in the oil in the sump, mayo on dip stick, failed head gasket.

[Andy H]

oil is in your coolant, the expansion tank is all brown goo like?

Sounds like your oil cooler has failed, its fairly cheap to replace and straight forward 

Agree that it is oil cooler. Don't agree that it is straightforward.

These two guides cover the process

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1221081908

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1211220529

[albitz]

Not completely straight forward, but a lot more straightforward than a Head gasket change.
Just to complete the list of possible symptoms re oil/water - Creamy goo in oil filler neck is nothing to get particularily worried about.

[Sion]

Sorry, my mistake. I forgot to say that i have already changed the oil cooler about a month ago when i changed the fluids.

I am seeing oil in the expansion tank and also mayo in the oil filler cap, but not yet on the dip stick.

[Neil (Cardiff)]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but to me it's sounding more and more like the head gasket (of course I might be wrong! ).

Are you getting any signs of overheating or erratic temperature? The only thing that doesn't seem to sit right in my mind is no loss of water but that could be because it's still in the early stages of failing.

Head gaskets ARE notoriously nasty to change, mainly because of where they are, but by no means impossible and VERY expensive in a garage. The last one I did on a Rover cost a little over £30 and on here I've seen people quoted hundreds!

[Andy H]

Cleaning out the cooling system after an oil cooler change is difficult to do completely. Is it possible that the goo is just the last remnants being washed into the expansion tank?

Mayo under the filler cap happens on all Omegas so isn't really a useful indicator of anything.

Failed headgaskets on omegas tend to be from the water jacket to outside (happened to me) or from the combustion chamber to the water jacket. While you could theoretically have a leak from the oilway into the adjacent waterjacket it doesn't seem to happen.

[Welung666]

It's not a 1998 is it?

[Marks DTM Calib]

Not the headgasket...its pretty much impossible to get oil in the water with such a failure.

I suspect you have

1) Mayo on the filler cap due to shorter runs or crap oil (e.g. castrol)

2) You still have mayo in the coolant system, try giving it a good flush using an additive e.g. Forte coolant flush

So what we are saying is there is no evidence or sudgestion of a failure

[Sion]

Thanks for all of the advice it has been very useful.

I did try and flush the radiator when i changed the fluids but the flush i used didnt see to flush much of the oil deposits (mayo) at all, so i may try this again with the "Forte coolant flush".

I am doing short journeys at the moment and i suppose the current bad weather would make the mayo build up the filler cap worse than usual.

Thanks again fo all of the advice, i will try flushing the coolant system again before changing any gaskets.

[Marks DTM Calib]

This is the stuff that works very well

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VEHICLE-BIO-DEGREASER-FORTE-COOLING-SYSTEM-DEGREASER_W0QQitemZ360068957347QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item53d5c844a3