Club 80-90 Forums

I'm in Reykjavik in my syncro 2.1 petrol.

I was pretty lucky to make it here and after a lot of searching I've found a garage that is able to take a look at my van as soon as next Tuesday.

I've had an oil leak that has progressively worsened throughout my trip. It started off as a few drips and a thin film of oil on the back of the van, needing a top-up every couple of thousand Km. Yesterday things became much worse and I got through about 15 litres of oil in approx 500km of driving (maybe fewer km). I had no choice but to press on to Reykjavik and the engine is still going. This morning I checked and topped-up the oil again, but rather than leaking out slowly it simply poured out of the engine onto the tarmac beneath.

There's oil pretty much everywhere, but I think it's safe to say it is leaking from the right hand side of the engine (as you look at the back of the van). Any advice as to what the leak might be would be greatly appreciated so that the mechanics here don't try anything funny.

For further information, power has been largely unaffected, there are no unusual noises and no smoke from the exhaust.

If you want to text me on +447808400784 (UK mobile) I can also send a picture of the offending area of the engine. Please, no phone calls as I won't answer - it's too expensive.

Thanks for your help,

Ed

sounds like a push rod tube seal

you could try taking the P/R cover off and look

or its the sump plug

at a wild wild stab id say pushrod tube seal like mark says.

jed

i've sent a couple of texts ,
Ed's going to have a look and get back

Thanks for the replies and texts. I'm a little uneasy about dismantling the engine in case I can't get it back together again - at the very least I can drive the van at the moment and I'd like it to be that way on Tuesday so I can go to the garage.

I had presumed it would be some kind of seal and knowing what kind of work might be involved is very helpful. I hope they can get me back on the road soon as buses here are very expensive (petrol at around 120-125 IKr is somewhere around £1/litre).

I have a partial solution to my problem after a trip to the garage. They showed me a photo of the problem area, which I think (I've never dismantled an engine) was the pushrods as expected. They said that the relevant parts were difficult to get and, more importantly I expect, it was a job that would take a long time to do (and so they probably don't want to bother). At Icelandic prices the local solution would probably be to buy a new car.

They've performed some sort of temporary resealing of the area which is doing a reasonable job for the moment. I hope it will hold for the rest of my stay here and for the journey back.

The Bentley manual states that there is a pushrod tube available as a replacement which can be installed easily from underneath without removing the cylinder heads.
There must be a syncro friendly garage available on Iceland, I would have thought that there were loads of them up there.
I will e-mail Mike Plompen from Busman.be and ask for him to ask the Syncro Low Lands forum for a syncro garage known to the Netherlanders. They all seem to go out there on a regular basis.

simon.

Its certainly not a difficult part to get and as far as repairs go, its not one of the most difficult, especially if you use the telescopic pushrods that are available. It takes about an hour to do, max!

Expanding push rod tubes are available but I have had some on back order for over 12 months!

try CSP in Germany, thay have some aftermarket ones but as for VW ones you'll be lucky.

i fitted a cps one to my van. it took less than an hour to do icluedind cups of tea

jed

syncrosimon wrote: There must be a syncro friendly garage available on Iceland, I would have thought that there were loads of them up there.

The only other syncros I have seen have all been driven by Germans. Icelanders seem to drive mostly Japanese or American 4x4s.

Having dealt with garages in Reykjavik, I know that my chances of finding a garage that will have both the time and the desire to do any work for me before the end of September are fairly close to nil. I'm not that keen to carry on paying £60/hr for labour either. I'll just have to take my chances on it all hanging together until I get home.