Club 80-90 Forums

I was on here a few weeks back with temperature then oil in coolant issues. Reasons for the latter would either be head gasket problems or oil cooler corrosion. Been to a new garage who suggested trying to eliminate the source of the problem, so for starters have bypassed the oil cooler to see if that stops it. So far (a few test miles) the coolant's now staying clean.

So...bypassed oil cooler - how temporary / long term a fix might this be? I'd rather get the original replaced and everything as it should be, but I've already spent far far too much on the van this year. Also, it's virtually August now and we've had no time out in the van, just want to squeeze the least few weeks out of the summer without the van back in the garage!

The oil coolers are fitted above the oil filter on 1.6TD & 2.1 petrol engined models, about £65 from memory. In theory you could run without it but your engine particularly is known to run the oil hot so if your out and about I see no issues, if you plan on driving up lots of mountain passes then I would bite the bullet and get one fitted. It really is just a 25 minute job, removing the oil filter (without damaging it) then one large banjo bolt and two hoses..

Martin

cheap as chips, surprised they bothered removing it would take longer than replacing it
https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/oil-cooler ... w-use.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well he didn't say they actually removed it. The trick is to bypass the coolant flow by joining the hoses, then do a few miles. If you start to get oil coming out the coolant spigots on the interwarmer, you've found your problem. If you just fitted a new one straight away, there'd be that niggling doubt in your mind that you never actually proved the fault, until you'd done far more miles with no recurrence to eventually ease your anxiety.
Spookily, just had a guy in this morning (from Gibraltar, touring around the UK for a few months) with the same symptoms, and had a virtually identical conversation!

ajsimmo wrote:Well he didn't say they actually removed it. The trick is to bypass the coolant flow by joining the hoses, then do a few miles. If you start to get oil coming out the coolant spigots on the interwarmer, you've found your problem. If you just fitted a new one straight away, there'd be that niggling doubt in your mind that you never actually proved the fault, until you'd done far more miles with no recurrence to eventually ease your anxiety.
Spookily, just had a guy in this morning (from Gibraltar, touring around the UK for a few months) with the same symptoms, and had a virtually identical conversation!

yes great but I read it as they gave the van back like that, they should have warmed it up and driven it then replaced it.

ajsimmo wrote: Spookily, just had a guy in this morning (from Gibraltar, touring around the UK for a few months) with the same symptoms, and had a virtually identical conversation!

Did you get any idea of what smoke he is getting from the engine? That was his initial worry and then the oil raised its ugly head which pointed more to head gasket. ( Doubtless he ran you through the whole story)

Wasn't smoking at all when I saw it, and it ran very smoothly and sounded great. I suspect the cooler before the head gasket, and maybe one injector with a less than perfect spray pattern causing incomplete burn when cold, but it sorts itself when warm. Hard to diagnose a fault you haven't seen, though. There are very few diesels (especially twenty years old with a mechanical pump) that don't smoke a little from cold!

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Cheers all.

ajsimmo wrote:The trick is to bypass the coolant flow by joining the hoses, then do a few miles.

That's what he's done. It's been run for a few miles by the garage and the coolant is clean, but also there's no sign of any oil coming out of the disconnected cooler either which the garage were thinking they might see Wasn't reporting any smoke either when they were running it. Will just have to keep an eye on things over the next few weeks to see if the problem recurs.

The priority at the moment is getting some use out of the van while it's still summer ( ) - we're not planning on a major tour of the lake district, so it doesn't sound like it's going to cause us any major problems in the short term. Can look at getting it done in September.

itchyfeet wrote:cheap as chips, surprised they bothered removing it would take longer than replacing it
https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/oil-cooler ... w-use.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

£25 - fair enough. Seems a no brainer I suppose, just need to try and conjour up the time.