Club 80-90 Forums

First family outing and long drive for the newly acquired t25. With a replacement 1.9 diesel engine. Upon arrival at campsite there was oil splattered up the back. Closer inspection seemed to suggest this was coming from dipstick. One of the people there suggested this was probably crankcase compression. Issues due to a blocked filter somewhere take it easy home and service it...... Journey home the fan belt sheared. Probably due to oil on it according to the RAC. Flatbed journey home Currently trying to get the seller to contact us but in the likely event they just fob us off I'm asking here for a shout out as to a few things. How do I find out which fan belt I presume they're different according to year. Can this have done any further damage. Any ideas on why the oil might have been spewing out of dipstick and will a service fix it? Do I have a leg to stand on with regards to the purchase being fit for purpose .... Its a private sale....however the woman selling is married to a mechanic and his name is on the mot docs.
Thanks in advance

All the belts are different depending on what pulleys they changed when replacing the engine, best thing is put a piece of string around and get a measurement from that.

hefti wrote:Do I have a leg to stand on with regards to the purchase being fit for purpose .... Its a private sale...

Not unless you can demonstrate that they misrepresented it during the sale.
Did the advert say anything about mechanical condition? How long have you had it?

Even then, you've got an uphill battle - it'll almost certainly be cheaper and easier to just swallow it.

however the woman selling is married to a mechanic and his name is on the mot docs.

The only aspect of engine health which is checked in the MOT is the emissions.

Did you check over the vehicle yourself before purchase? Did you pay a pro to look over it?

hefti wrote: Any ideas on why the oil might have been spewing out of dipstick and will a service fix it?

A normal service wouldn't involve fixing a leaky oil dipstick, you'll want to get someone to specifically look at the issue. I've stopped mine leaking (hopefully) using self amalgamating rubber tape - just a small amount wrapped round the junction between the plastic end and the metal bit, forms a good plug now.

discipleofsketch wrote:

hefti wrote: Any ideas on why the oil might have been spewing out of dipstick and will a service fix it?

A normal service wouldn't involve fixing a leaky oil dipstick, you'll want to get someone to specifically look at the issue. I've stopped mine leaking (hopefully) using self amalgamating rubber tape - just a small amount wrapped round the junction between the plastic end and the metal bit, forms a good plug now.

There shouldn't be positive pressure in the crankcase, so an oil-tight seal at the top of the dipstick shouldn't be necessary. It should be slight negative pressure - that's what the crankcase breather's one-way valve is for. Even if you did manage to hermetically seal the dipstick, if the breather's fubar then the pressure will just build up and escape from somewhere else. And if you seal that up, it'll find somewhere else...

The effective crankcase volume shouldn't change much, since half the pistons are going out whilst the other half are coming in, so the main reason for a build-up of pressure is worn rings allowing combustion pressure blow-by.

Eekkk. Better get some mechanical skills learnt quickly. Only had it for 13 days. Was advertised as mechanically sound. We had a good friend of ours who has a lot of mechanical knowledge and a t25 (undergoing resto) himself look over it. He seemed to think it was all good but seems it had been sorn for sometime so I think this was its first real.outing in over a year.

AdrianC wrote:
There shouldn't be positive pressure in the crankcase, so an oil-tight seal at the top of the dipstick shouldn't be necessary. It should be slight negative pressure - that's what the crankcase breather's one-way valve is for. Even if you did manage to hermetically seal the dipstick, if the breather's fubar then the pressure will just build up and escape from somewhere else. And if you seal that up, it'll find somewhere else...

The effective crankcase volume shouldn't change much, since half the pistons are going out whilst the other half are coming in, so the main reason for a build-up of pressure is worn rings allowing combustion pressure blow-by.

Interesting - so a healthy engine shouldn't even need that rubber O-ring that the dipsticks come with to form a seal? Ok, get your point though, not much point in treating a symptom...

update....
new fan belt fitted, charged the battery turned her over, started fine and ran ok.....
then the temp started rising and switched her off.
issues with the cooling now. was over flowing out of the res behind the number plate and nothing in the res in the engine
so a new problem to fix....
oh the joys of owning a t25.