Big oil leak from oil cooler

[mirams]

No question here, just a report of what happened this week, and how to fix it, which I thought people might find useful.

I had (what was) a very slow oil leak from somewhere unidentified around the bottom of my DJ engine (so slow that oil didn't need topping up between changes).

But on Sunday, driving down the M40, this became a very large oil leak - resulting in the Buzzer of Doom going off, and me pulling off the motorway into a layby. It was obvious there was a large oil leak as it was dripping/gushing onto tarmac, oil all over the back of the van, and it was off the bottom of the dipstick. So got my first ever tow-trunk recovery. Not obvious where the oil was coming from, as it had sprayed all over the place, and most was coming off the big engine support bar. When we got the van back home, I managed to start it and pull it quickly back onto my drive whilst the very nice tow truck man (Powerpark Recovery, Banbury - highly recommended) had a look underneath.

He saw oil squirting out from the top of the oil cooler, and rightly suspected the oil cooler sealing ring (see "Oil Ring" in the attachment and Brickwerks link: http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php/o ... w-use.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

I thought it might be a nightmare of a job, but this video was really useful in persuading me to give it a go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugv7fhOC07U" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are two ways to do it.
1. Disconnect the hoses from the oil cooler and slide it off the big pipe/bolt which it sits on (and the oil filter screws onto).
2. Unscrew the big pipe/bolt (without disconnecting the coolant hoses) to give enough room to replace the seal.

I went for the second option, buying a second retaining bolt from Brickwerks http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php/o ... us-vw.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and 'double-nutting' it (27mm spanner and socket, which was a bit fiddly) gave enough purchase to get it undone.

Then the job was really easy: clean up the surfaces and put a bit of general 'gasket stuff' around the outside of the new oil ring, before reassembling.

Sorted! And a big relief it wasn't more serious.