Oil queries

[ghost123uk]

That is all the symptoms of crank shell bearing wear, I would get a garage to do an oil pressure check with their gauge.

[onegirlandacampervan]

That is all the symptoms of crank shell bearing wear, I would get a garage to do an oil pressure check with their gauge.

Sorry, was that addressed to me or shaka1976 *reads back to make sure I've got the username right this time*

[ghost123uk]

That is all the symptoms of crank shell bearing wear, I would get a garage to do an oil pressure check with their gauge.

Sorry, was that addressed to me or shaka1976 *reads back to make sure I've got the username right this time*

To you Ms "onegirlandacampervan" (what is your first name ? We can't keep calling you that )

[onegirlandacampervan]

That is all the symptoms of crank shell bearing wear, I would get a garage to do an oil pressure check with their gauge.

Sorry, was that addressed to me or shaka1976 *reads back to make sure I've got the username right this time*

To you Ms "onegirlandacampervan" (what is your first name ? We can't keep calling you that )

Thank you it's very useful to have people with actual mechanical knowledge helping me out! All I know is that the light doesn't come on when the engine is cold...or when it's actually revving...so I'm guessing that means that something is very wrong somewhere!! It's definitely running low on oil though. I did 820 miles around England and France and I've had to put around 2.5 ltrs of oil in :-/

I'm Louisa (Lou)...it's very nice to be here!

[ghost123uk]

That is all the symptoms of crank shell bearing wear, I would get a garage to do an oil pressure check with their gauge.

Yep, that is your next move.

[max and caddy]

To use that amount of oil is must be A, smoking like a builders transit, or B, leaking..leave it ticking over for a while on a clean bit of road and see how big a puddle of oil is there after say 20 mins with the engine hot, I bet it's leaking....the oil light issue could be down to electrics but before you go to France pop a new quality filter on and some new oil (4.5 litres, dont believe the dipstick...it might be wrong due to the 1.9 conversion) and get the oil pressure tested, it should be 2.0 bar at 2000 rpm with oil temp at 80 degrees c .

If you find a leak, post up a pic and "we" can advise on its source, urgency of repair, and cost. X

[onegirlandacampervan]

To use that amount of oil is must be A, smoking like a builders transhite, or B, leaking..leave it ticking over for a while on a clean bit of road and see how big a puddle of oil is there after say 20 mins with the engine hot, I bet it's leaking....the oil light issue could be down to electrics but before you go to France pop a new quality filter on and some new oil (4.5 litres, dont believe the dipstick...it might be wrong due to the 1.9 conversion) and get the oil pressure tested, it should be 2.0 bar at 2000 rpm with oil temp at 80 degrees c .

If you find a leak, post up a pic and "we" can advise on its source, urgency of repair, and cost. X

Excellent idea!! It's not smoking so I can only deduce it's leaking too...I think I'm out of light to do it this evening but I'll have a go in the morning. It's a 1.7D engine (I got it wrong...d'oh!) but it has had work recently and I did notice that the oil filter casing is VERY oily so hopefully part of it is as simple as getting that replaced and putting in a clean filter.

There's a little garage just down the road from me (family business, been excellent with all our family cars) but I'm unsure of if it'd be okay to take Red there or if I should take him to a guy who has worked on him before that the rental garage I bought the van from use? He's the one that did the most recent work on it but I know he's REALLY busy...

Thanks so much for your help and advice!

[onegirlandacampervan]

Hey...so this evening I sat out in Red with the engine running for about 15 mins on tick over and not much happened. No oil dripping, no lights flashing. I started revving after a while and after about 5 minutes of this the light started flickering when idling. After a few more minutes the light was steadily flashing whenever I let the revs drop.

There was a bit of smoke coming out when revving, but it wasn't black or thick.

After about 10 mins or more of revving, I turned the engine off and opened it up to look inside.

Looks like I've got a few problem areas...

The dipstick pipe has oil puddling round it:




there's fluid leaking from here...you can see the moisture. I don't know what this part is called...is it the CV joint? the second photo is badly focused, but the near side cv joint(if that's what it is) is dry on the outside, unlike the off side.






There's oil on the engine under the oil filter (and all over what ever that is on the right!)




And this shot was meant to show the dodgy bit of wiring to what I think is the alternator (I'm very unconfident in my engine parts...sorry) but is actually better focused on the puddle of oil near the dipstick pipe




And there's oil all down the inlet pipe...I don't know if this is leaking as the engine is running or as I'm filling it. Either way, it's pretty darn annoying!




Here's a better shot of the dodgy wiring




The wires that go to the battery also seem slightly dodgy to me :-/






When I pulled Red back up the drive, there wasn't any oil leaked onto the ground, so I really don't know what's going on :-/

[ewenmaclean]

Hello,

just to add to your good advice so far, a couple of things to consider to add to Max and Caddy's helpful comments.

Firstly - with regards to the oil light flickering, which can be a multitude of things, electrical and otherwise, is it possible you have the original oil pickup pipe fitted? You need the jx oil pickup pipe - if not then when you brake or go round corners the oil will swill away and starve the engine temporarily and bring the oil light on - especially when the oil's hot and thin.

If that is the case, then if your oil level isn't marked properly and you're overfilling oil then you will use it up fast - not sure having read your posts how sure you are of the dipstick marks, but it may be that it's not correct (as Max and Caddy says). If it were me I'd empty the sump, and take off the oil filler pipe and look in the sump to check the oil filler pipe visually.

Also - if your breather (PCV) system isn't working properly then it will contribute to oil being forced out of place like the dipstick - even more so if you are overfilling.

Hope you sort the problem out

Ewen

[max and caddy]

That is the cv joint, well done! But the oil on that is gear oil not engine oil...not a big issue in itself but be a very good idea to check and ideally change the gear oil...the oil on your engine appears to be quite a bit! the intake tube or filler tube as its known may be cracked near the base....mine have been...I t
Honk your best option maybe to take it a garage and get it hot power washed clean, then have a drive to dry it off, go from there as it all looks far to oily to tell much.

If you have a decent hose pipe then go to halfords and buy some "gunk" degreaser...2 spray cans or a half gallon can and splurge it on a warm, not hot engine, work it in with a paintbrush, and rinse off with water ( not on your block paving etc) and that will make things so much nicer to work on.

[ghost123uk]

your best option maybe to take it a garage and get it hot power washed clean, then have a drive to dry it off, go from there as it all looks far to oily to tell much.

If you have a decent hose pipe then go to halfords and buy some "gunk" degreaser...2 spray cans or a half gallon can and splurge it on a warm, not hot engine, work it in with a paintbrush, and rinse off with water

Slightly off topic here but, I often wondered about how to de-grease a T25 engine without getting all the area above the engine bay covered in oilly muck. If you "power wash" it there will be lots of mucky spray going every where including upwards onto your nice interior at the back, the same with Gunk and a hose pipe

I thought of using black bin bags and masking tape to "mask off" the rest of the inside of the van, just leaving the big square opening for the engine bay, but that is a LOT of faffing about !

Any thoughts ?

[max and caddy]

Just go easy with the hose...a bit of water won't matter but dirty gunk does smell a bit.