Club 80-90 Forums

Hello can any one help? I have a 1982 air cooled 2ltr I,ve only had it 6 wks and seem to use about 1 ltr of oil, in a 160 mile trip there are no visible leaks and it doesn,t seem to throwing out any smoke as i am new to this i would appreciate any feed back or answers to my problem as its causing me sleepless nights.

Hi and welcome to the club!!!

some simple things to check...

have you got oil splat up the back of your hatch? If you are not sure, give the whole hatch a clean, go for a run, and see if you have any "grease marks" on the hatch....sometimes if it is leaking as you are running, the oil gets blown around in the air behind the van and ends up on the hatch.

let it tick over on idle,....have a peer into the engine bay -can you see anything dripping while running (may be hitting exhaust and burning off.)

and finally...get your spark plugs out and have a look at them....are they oily? what colour are the ends of the plugs? Sooty and balck (BAD) or nice light brown (better!)

Have you got the air cooled haynes manual...may be worth getting.

When was the van last serviced? Oil change, leads and plugs always a good starting point.

Good luck and enjoy the van

(oh I would have thought that a ltr of oil in 160 miles is excessive...its going somewhere! Unless of course your dipstick is wrong....are you dipping it cold or hot? Best thing to do is warm, drain completely, and refill with 4.5 lt. Let it settle, then dip. The level on the dip is then your pretty much full mark....but make sure you fill the new filter, and smear some oil around the rubber seal before fitting!)

Em
x

Thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

no probs mate....

I am no expert...just picking up the basics....but I do read lots! And the one thing round here is the more clues you can give the experts, the more they are able to help you.

Just a tip, if you haven't already done it - use the search up there...throw all sorts of buzz words at it....and see what it brings up! Grab a drink of choice, and read. If you find sommat really useful, print it out, and stick it in a file which you keep under the passenger seat of the bus (room for an a4 file under there!)

Unless of course I am teaching you to suck eggs!!

Em
x

Mine of the same ilk uses a lot of oil too - I thought it was just because it's air-cooled because my Beetle always did too...

As ermie as said have a look at plugs but don't confuse rich fuel mix with oily when looking. If in doubt take a picture

Cheers for that. Think i've found problem ? valve stem seals.