Oil leak ....

Oil leak ....

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Discussion

kinky

Original Poster:

39,554 posts

269 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2002
quotequote all
I've discovered the reason for my S1.5 stalling .... oil leak. The oil pressure gauge reads 0, and the oil level is just at the 'min' marker on the dip.

Every morning I check for leaks on the garage floor, and it's pretty good (neglible amount). However, it would appear it leaks when the engine is running. I have oil sprayed all over the engine compartment, including the battery, and top of the wheel arches. In addition, I have smatterings of oil all along the top of the bonnet, and in the headlight scoops.

Anyway - my question : tomorrow I'm going to top up the oil, and run the engine to see if any leaks occur. Can anyone advise on any particular checks I should do?

Many thanks in advance,

K

mhibbins

14,055 posts

279 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2002
quotequote all
You could get some engine cleaner and clean all the oil off then any new stuff would be easier to spot. Mind you with the amount you're leaking it shouldn't be too difficult to find I wouldn't have thought. I'd be a bit cautious if you really do have zero oil pressure though.

roulli

175 posts

269 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2002
quotequote all
The fact that you have no oilpressure and an oil leak, would lead me to have a look at the oil pressure sender first.
Mine (my car's!) didn't give any reasonable signal anymore and it was leaking! The fact that senders may start to leak, when knackered, was confirmed on this site.

On the other hand, I'd be astonnished, that you have oil spoiled all over the engine compartiment, due to a leaking oilsender. Maybe it is a hose for the engine ventilation, that is not on it's place. (I'm not sure if the S has got one, as I never checked...)

Check both things. Hope you solve it.

Cheers Patrick

tvrmark

368 posts

270 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2002
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quote:


On the other hand, I'd be astonnished, that you have oil spoiled all over the engine compartiment, due to a leaking oilsender. Maybe it is a hose for the engine ventilation, that is not on it's place. (I'm not sure if the S has got one, as I never checked...)

Cheers Patrick



There is a crank case breather on each bank. The one on the right goes in to the plannum chamber. As this is under vacuum in can crush. If this happens you can blow oil out of the left breather. However when this happened to be I only lost oil when I was pushing hard on a track day. Cleaned all the breather pipes out,it was OK on the road. Next trackday it lost oil until I found the problem

Mark

Mark

Mark

The

kinky

Original Poster:

39,554 posts

269 months

Thursday 24th January 2002
quotequote all
Well, I've topped the oil up, started first time, and oil pressure reads as it should.

So, so far so good.

With engine warming up, started checking all leads, seals, links, caps, etc, and found nothing. All looked in full working order.

There's no leaks onto the ground below (except for the small bit spilt when pouring in).

I only left it running for about 10 mins (had to run for meeting), so will do same this evening, let oil warm up fully, and check everything again.

So I'll be limping home tonight, so if you see an red S2 on the A30 tonight ... have pity.

And thank you all for your help so far. I'm going to Fernhursts tomorrow (new exhaust) so they're going to investigate further. Any news as and when.

As a sidenote - also noticed oil heavily spread all over the inside of the bonnet, but could not match that to any possible leaks/cracks (nothing visible anyway).

kinky

Original Poster:

39,554 posts

269 months

Friday 25th January 2002
quotequote all
2nd last response on this .....

Checked oil levels again before I left work, and all aok. Limped home (keeping it under 3k) - pressure ok (between about 30-45) and the only problem to report was when it was idling - it was hunting like it was about to stall. Got home and sure enough found spits of oil all over the top of the bonnet, down the wings, and on the boot.

Topped up the oil to it's absolute max this morning (no leaks overnights) and drove to Fernhursts for new exhaust and full service. Oil pressure ok, but again, it sounded and felt lumpy, and again felt like it was going to stall on idle.

They're going to look for this oil leak. So I'll report what the outcome is - in the hope it might help someone else in future.

matttav

178 posts

267 months

Friday 25th January 2002
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I presume you didn't have to use my fires extinuisher then????

)

Matt Tav

kinky

Original Poster:

39,554 posts

269 months

Friday 25th January 2002
quotequote all
Nope. But I was all prepared (worst case scenario)!