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Oil in expansion and coolant reservoir..

Posted: 16 Mar 2009, 20:17
by vanmendroid
Hi,

I checked my reservoirs today and found a layer of dirt in both. I can only assume it's some kind of oil. This doesn't strike me as particularly good, I'm sure they should be clean.

Any folk got any suggestions?

1.6td van.

Re: Oil in expansion and coolant reservoir..

Posted: 16 Mar 2009, 20:26
by ginge
check further but norm a sign of head gasket

Re: Oil in expansion and coolant reservoir..

Posted: 16 Mar 2009, 23:23
by Fritz
Before getting involved in anything expensive remove your oil filter, then take the centre bolt out of the oil cooler and check the condition of the rubber seals (should be 2 of the buggers) . Replace these seals before re fitting ,These are still available from VW commercial....

Regards


Fritz,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Re: Oil in expansion and coolant reservoir..

Posted: 17 Mar 2009, 08:59
by philippacman
oil cooler , if your not having any other problems

Re: Oil in expansion and coolant reservoir..

Posted: 17 Mar 2009, 13:53
by vanmendroid
I checked the oil cooler and could only find one rubber seal, between the bracket and the cooler. This looks ok. Can you tell me where the other should be? Is it a smaller one that fits around the lip inside the big one? It looks like something may have been fitted there before.

The big one looks like it would only stop oil getting out into the engine bay and on the engine block. The only other one I can see is actually fitted to the filter, sealing between that and the cooler, again preventing oil loss into the engine bay I am guessing.

thanks

Re: Oil in expansion and coolant reservoir..

Posted: 18 Mar 2009, 18:32
by oldiguana
ah think the oil seal is only about a quid from gsf....

Re: Oil in expansion and coolant reservoir..

Posted: 18 Mar 2009, 18:52
by ridders
Nad same problem on my old 2.1 last year. Now you've got the old cooler off i'd replce it anyway. To test the cooler I filled it with white spirit then plugged one of the hose connection points and adapted a rubber bung to fit the other connection. I then used my foot pump to pressurise the contents (white spitit) and sure enough with enough pressure you could see the white spirit leaking out where it shouldn't.

If oil and water/coolant have mixed i'd be draining and flushing the cooling system and refilling with fresh followed by the obvious 20 air bleeds!!

To sum up replace the whole thing. I used gsf and paid around £20 from memory.

Good luck

Re: Oil in expansion and coolant reservoir..

Posted: 19 Mar 2009, 06:39
by oldiguana
Nad same problem on my old 2.1 last year. Now you've got the old cooler off i'd replce it anyway. To test the cooler I filled it with white spirit then plugged one of the hose connection points and adapted a rubber bung to fit the other connection. I then used my foot pump to pressurise the contents (white spitit) and sure enough with enough pressure you could see the white spirit leaking out where it shouldn't.

what a fantastic way of testing the oil cooler.....might give it a go myself...as oil still appearing in the reservoir....and cant really afford to just replace it on the off chance as gsf want £35+VAT for an oil cooler....JESUS!!!