Oil Cooler - leak from that area......
Discussion
Trying to tackle a problem myself 
and I'm a bit stuck! Any advice/guidance would be appreciated please?
As per the title really - I have the access panel off in the N/S wheel arch and I'm shining a torch in the cavity and there is quite a lot of oil in there.
As it's such a small access area and I don't really know what I'm doing - can anyone suggest the most likely places to check first? I stuck my camera in there and took a photo so that I could see more clearly - it seems that the top pipe is not leaking. Can't see the bottom one clearly yet.
I'm studying the manual as well so I now know how to remove the oil cooler, but would like to know all the things to check as this needs to be a last resort!
Can anyone offer any suggestions/advice on approach? (Please don't say put it back together and take it to a garage - I'm trying to learn
)
and I'm a bit stuck! Any advice/guidance would be appreciated please?As per the title really - I have the access panel off in the N/S wheel arch and I'm shining a torch in the cavity and there is quite a lot of oil in there.
As it's such a small access area and I don't really know what I'm doing - can anyone suggest the most likely places to check first? I stuck my camera in there and took a photo so that I could see more clearly - it seems that the top pipe is not leaking. Can't see the bottom one clearly yet.
I'm studying the manual as well so I now know how to remove the oil cooler, but would like to know all the things to check as this needs to be a last resort!
Can anyone offer any suggestions/advice on approach? (Please don't say put it back together and take it to a garage - I'm trying to learn
)To be honest, Amazon, this one sounds a little tough.
I had a coolant leak recently, and whilst this should be easier to diagnose, I caved and chucked it at a garage to pressure test it to find it (new rad, ouch). It was such a small leak though, it would have been very difficult to find without pressure testing/impossible. £30 well spent IMO.
I've heard in the past that flour/dust can be a good oil tracing trick - slap some around and it should leave a trail up to where the leak is coming from.... that said, if the leak has too much oil around you'll jsut end up with a mess. Normal shout is to clean area thoroughly, run it, then put powder on to try and trace.
May be your best shot? You can't easily pressure test your oil system like a water system, you'll just have to rely on the engine providing the pressure and try wiggling a few of the pipes around and see if you get a face full of silkolene from a pinhole in a pipe. Assuming you cant find it in the pipes/fixings, it would make sense to assume a leak in the oil rad.
I'd be interested in other people's comments on this too, save for cleaning/chucking powder on and wiggling around when the engine was running, I can't think of much else you can do to diagnose this!
Good luck!
I had a coolant leak recently, and whilst this should be easier to diagnose, I caved and chucked it at a garage to pressure test it to find it (new rad, ouch). It was such a small leak though, it would have been very difficult to find without pressure testing/impossible. £30 well spent IMO.
I've heard in the past that flour/dust can be a good oil tracing trick - slap some around and it should leave a trail up to where the leak is coming from.... that said, if the leak has too much oil around you'll jsut end up with a mess. Normal shout is to clean area thoroughly, run it, then put powder on to try and trace.
May be your best shot? You can't easily pressure test your oil system like a water system, you'll just have to rely on the engine providing the pressure and try wiggling a few of the pipes around and see if you get a face full of silkolene from a pinhole in a pipe. Assuming you cant find it in the pipes/fixings, it would make sense to assume a leak in the oil rad.
I'd be interested in other people's comments on this too, save for cleaning/chucking powder on and wiggling around when the engine was running, I can't think of much else you can do to diagnose this!
Good luck!
All you have up there are 2 hoses going to the Oil cooler. Perhaps one of the connections is loose, You'll need a big to tighten them up, I think it's a 28mm spanner, I can check if you need me to. If it's not a loose connection then it's either a perished hose - unlikely - or a cracked oil-coooler.
I think you may find that the hose ends to the oil cooler are almost impossible to crack off. I tried when I was stripping my car, but they were almost welded on, and the hex pattern on the oil cooler body rounded off on both. In the end I had to cut the oil lines to get the cooler out, which wasn't really a problem for me as I knew I was going to replace them anyway. Access is really tight in there and its a realy PITA getting any leverage on the spanners you'll need to use. From the sound of it you definitely have a leak - either from the pipes/connectors or the cooler itself.
Thank you for all your advice. Last night before I stopped - I had mopped out some of the oil working on the logic that I wouldn't find the leak whilst everything was covered in oil. Stuffed more absorbent cloth in last night in readiness for a clear look today!
Appreciate your thoughts - it's a huge help cos' it lets me know I'm looking in the right places and if I don't find the source of the leak, the other possibilities!
As it's quite a lot of oil and relatively sudden - I am hoping to find something obvious! But I suppose we call want that when trying to find the cause of a problem!
Question is, do I feel lucky?
More to follow!
(Tell you what though - if I manage to sort this myself, I'll be very pleased!
)
This could be the one that teaches me to know my limits! Although on a positive note - a girls touch will mean that it will be lovely and 'spic and span' in there when I've finished.
Appreciate your thoughts - it's a huge help cos' it lets me know I'm looking in the right places and if I don't find the source of the leak, the other possibilities!
As it's quite a lot of oil and relatively sudden - I am hoping to find something obvious! But I suppose we call want that when trying to find the cause of a problem!
Question is, do I feel lucky?
More to follow!
(Tell you what though - if I manage to sort this myself, I'll be very pleased!
)This could be the one that teaches me to know my limits! Although on a positive note - a girls touch will mean that it will be lovely and 'spic and span' in there when I've finished
.Amazon, I had a busted oil cooler last November leaking merrily away it was. Took it to my local Indy and they said it was a real effort get out. Ended up having to cut off the hoses and have new ones constructed to fit the brand new (slightly bigger) oil cooler. Devil of a job and £££ - sorry.
But on the bright sice I now have a nice cool engine!
But on the bright sice I now have a nice cool engine!
southendpier said:
Amazon, I had a busted oil cooler last November leaking merrily away it was. Took it to my local Indy and they said it was a real effort get out. Ended up having to cut off the hoses and have new ones constructed to fit the brand new (slightly bigger) oil cooler. Devil of a job and £££ - sorry.
Seriously though, thanks for the heads up - this is the other extreme and it's as well for me to prepare myself!
"Hello [insert favoured indie], when can you fit me in"?
Hi Amazon
I too had a burst oil cooler. If you look through the front grille on the passenger side you can see that it's fairly exposed and low down. I think I got a stone into it or something as it was alright before I went on the motorway and there was lots of oil when I left the motorway.
The connecting pipes were stuck on mine too as someone said previously. I would bank on a cooler plus 2 pipes and maybe have an oil cooler thermostat fitted at the same time so aid warming up in cold weather. Straight replacement is probably the quickest option as you (or your garage) can just cut the old one out instead of trying to save the pipes etc.
If your oil cooler pipes were anything like mine they are steel reinforced hyraulic hoses like you get on a JCB and therefore difficult to cut (I did mine with an angle grinder in the end). Rather over-engineered in my opinion.
I considered some kind of mesh for my oil cooler (but never got around to it!!). Has anyone else done anything like this?
Hope you get it sorted.
Ed
I too had a burst oil cooler. If you look through the front grille on the passenger side you can see that it's fairly exposed and low down. I think I got a stone into it or something as it was alright before I went on the motorway and there was lots of oil when I left the motorway.
The connecting pipes were stuck on mine too as someone said previously. I would bank on a cooler plus 2 pipes and maybe have an oil cooler thermostat fitted at the same time so aid warming up in cold weather. Straight replacement is probably the quickest option as you (or your garage) can just cut the old one out instead of trying to save the pipes etc.
If your oil cooler pipes were anything like mine they are steel reinforced hyraulic hoses like you get on a JCB and therefore difficult to cut (I did mine with an angle grinder in the end). Rather over-engineered in my opinion.
I considered some kind of mesh for my oil cooler (but never got around to it!!). Has anyone else done anything like this?
Hope you get it sorted.
Ed
Thank you for the extra help - especially the pictures.
So, after much faffing - I have found 'a' leak. Hopefully it is the only one!
Cleaned up the whole area until dry. Did much searching with a mirror in through the front mouth in order to try and see between the radiator and the oil cooler. Difficult to see clearly unfortunately. Also managed to get camera in there too - but again found it difficult to interpret what I was seeing on the snapshot.
Started the engine and then monitored every area I could see. A slight drip formed on the nut where the top pipe joins the oil cooler.
Just waiting for my next door neighbour to find me a spanner big enough then will try to tighten it. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be at all loose - but will give it a go.
Suppose there is a chance that there is more than one leak?
Back in a mo......
So, after much faffing - I have found 'a' leak. Hopefully it is the only one!
Cleaned up the whole area until dry. Did much searching with a mirror in through the front mouth in order to try and see between the radiator and the oil cooler. Difficult to see clearly unfortunately. Also managed to get camera in there too - but again found it difficult to interpret what I was seeing on the snapshot.
Started the engine and then monitored every area I could see. A slight drip formed on the nut where the top pipe joins the oil cooler
.Just waiting for my next door neighbour to find me a spanner big enough then will try to tighten it. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be at all loose - but will give it a go.
Suppose there is a chance that there is more than one leak?
Back in a mo......
Nicky, I'd rule out (b) straight away - botch jobs like that almost never work, at least not for any length of time.
If I were you I would remove the cooler and oil lines as a starting point. As has been suggested, you will need to cut them in order to pull them through the holes in the body - angle grinder would be best as they are reinforced. Then undo the hex screw that secure the cooler in place. That will allow you to get it out (although from memory you may need to remove the radiator first as I think the oil cooler sits in front of it. This means draining and refilling coolant too :-( ).
Then lay all the parts on a bench, size up a replacement cooler (Mocal do an exact replacement - got mine from Demon Tweeks) and then spec up some replacement oil lines - you'll need to ensure the end connectors to match. Again, DT can supply custom oil hoses, but you can get them done much cheaper from a specialist hose supplier. Since you'll be doing this I would also recommend, as has been mentioned, fitting a thermostat across the oil cooler lines. This will prevent the very low oil temp condition that standard Cerbs can experience in cold weather due to overcooling. To do this you will have to go 'custom' as standard replacement lines (if you can still buy them?) won't be suitable.
If you need more details on anything above, just drop me an email. A Cerb rebuild is always going to be a can of worms, but everything is doable by the home enthusiast - you just need time and LOTs of patience!!
If I were you I would remove the cooler and oil lines as a starting point. As has been suggested, you will need to cut them in order to pull them through the holes in the body - angle grinder would be best as they are reinforced. Then undo the hex screw that secure the cooler in place. That will allow you to get it out (although from memory you may need to remove the radiator first as I think the oil cooler sits in front of it. This means draining and refilling coolant too :-( ).
Then lay all the parts on a bench, size up a replacement cooler (Mocal do an exact replacement - got mine from Demon Tweeks) and then spec up some replacement oil lines - you'll need to ensure the end connectors to match. Again, DT can supply custom oil hoses, but you can get them done much cheaper from a specialist hose supplier. Since you'll be doing this I would also recommend, as has been mentioned, fitting a thermostat across the oil cooler lines. This will prevent the very low oil temp condition that standard Cerbs can experience in cold weather due to overcooling. To do this you will have to go 'custom' as standard replacement lines (if you can still buy them?) won't be suitable.
If you need more details on anything above, just drop me an email. A Cerb rebuild is always going to be a can of worms, but everything is doable by the home enthusiast - you just need time and LOTs of patience!!
Oil coolers and hoses my favourite subject...
You could well have a pin hole in the cooler next to the threaded fitting like I had or one of the crap quality TVR hoses is leaking around the crimp like nearly all my hoses had.
You need a 19 row 256mm oil cooler with two 5/8 bsp male ends. Think Automotive can supply these mail order.
Hose wise, one you can replace, one you can't as it is attached to the engine out hard pipe. You only option with this is to take the hard pipe off and ask Pirtek or a similar hose supplier to attach a new hose and 5/8 fitting to the end of it as Think Auto won't modify your supplied pipes.
Getting the cooler out is a complete git of a job and you need to remove the mounting bracket from it to get it out of the front mouth (saves removing the rad) Parts and time at a garage I reckon you'll be looking at at least a £300+ bill.
You could well have a pin hole in the cooler next to the threaded fitting like I had or one of the crap quality TVR hoses is leaking around the crimp like nearly all my hoses had.
You need a 19 row 256mm oil cooler with two 5/8 bsp male ends. Think Automotive can supply these mail order.
Hose wise, one you can replace, one you can't as it is attached to the engine out hard pipe. You only option with this is to take the hard pipe off and ask Pirtek or a similar hose supplier to attach a new hose and 5/8 fitting to the end of it as Think Auto won't modify your supplied pipes.
Getting the cooler out is a complete git of a job and you need to remove the mounting bracket from it to get it out of the front mouth (saves removing the rad) Parts and time at a garage I reckon you'll be looking at at least a £300+ bill.
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