L322 4.4tdv8 change oil cooler

Well I finally took the plunge and got a "bargain basement" 60 reg TDV8 Vogue. I took it to my local indie garage in Bexhill for a check-over and they found the brakes worn as are a number of suspension bushes, not surprising really, I'd expected to find that with the car having done 138000 miles. There's a coolant leak and oil in the coolant meaning the oil cooler needs changing. Any ideas what's involved, is it a relatively easy DIY job, what parts would I need and how long would it take? I've seen a couple of videos on here but neither are of any help showing how to even remove the engine cover! I'm going to a local "normal" car garage on Monday to see how much they'll charge to do the job; also what's the best cooler to buy? The OE seems to be around £500, there's a Nissan alternative at a very good price and cheap Chinese knock-offs. Is it essentil to change the water bottle/header tank or flush the cooling system through? Any other parts to replace while that lot is being done?

Luckily there's no faults shown up on autologic, the car drives nicely with no apparent rattles, and does about 28mpg on my motorway commute to and from work. It's done just over 500 miles this week, no problems except topping up the water every 2 days.

Our oil cooler was changed a few years ago. it was an external leak, (oil leaking out) so no contamination.
We went for LR OEM cooler. But Nissan do do good replacement stuff (no experience).

I would think a good detergent flush and refill with new coolant would be fine.

As for what else to do.
I would say all the gaskets would come with, but a new filter and oil change would probably be on the list. As you have to remove the filter anyway, and as you have a coolant loss it could be going to the oil.

We have had the suspension bushes and the brakes done in our ownership, they are a heavy car so its to be expected.

Bedtime reading attached .

I thought this was sellers problem to fix?

J

marjon said:

Our oil cooler was changed a few years ago. it was an external leak, (oil leaking out) so no contamination.
We went for LR OEM cooler. But Nissan do do good replacement stuff (no experience).

I would think a good detergent flush and refill with new coolant would be fine.

As for what else to do.
I would say all the gaskets would come with, but a new filter and oil change would probably be on the list. As you have to remove the filter anyway, and as you have a coolant loss it could be going to the oil.

We have had the suspension bushes and the brakes done in our ownership, they are a heavy car so its to be expected.

Bedtime reading attached .

I thought this was sellers problem to fix?

J

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I have Nissens coolant RAD's in the P38's and I'm happy with the quality.

I have Nissens heater matrix and very happy with it

Yes it ought to be the seller's problem to fix, but sadly he's another one who fails to respond to emails. I need the car for work (I drive rail replacement buses at night), the depot is a 35 mile drive each way. The car seller is only 25 miles away as the crow flies but the Thames Estuary gets in the way and it's a 2 hour drive each way. I'll try him again tomorrow once I've got a better idea of price. The apparent condition of the rest of the car makes it seem worthwhile for the price I paid.

What is the engine in this car, Ford or Nissan, other??

As for water in the oil, there's no real way of seeing that apart from draining it out, no dip stick to look at! As oil pressure should always be a lot higher than water pressure, I'd doubt any water entered there, but you never know.

Nissens (Not Nissan) are the OEM so will be fine, it comes with oil filter & filter housing but you'll need the base seal, but not the intermediate one. You'll also need the 'O' ring for the turbo oil feed, 9.5 litres of the correct specification engine oil, coolant reservoir (the level float doesn't respond well to being coated in oil) about 6 litres of the correct coolant (Should be non-silicate OAT), water soluble degreaser for flushing and about six hours to do it all in. As above, if you bought from a trader, this should be their problem.

Thanks again on that, very helpful.

roythebus said:

As for water in the oil, there's no real way of seeing that apart from draining it out, no dip stick to look at! As oil pressure should always be a lot higher than water pressure, I'd doubt any water entered there, but you never know.

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Oil pressure maybe greater while running.
Pressure in the coolant side remains for quite a while after engine is stopped, oil pressure doesn’t.

Where’s the coolant going?

J

The coolant I'm told is dripping down the bell housing. I'm not fit enough these days to crawl underneath as I fractured 2 ribs a few weeks ago! Water pressure is usually about 1 bar when running on the old stuff I work on, not sure what the running pressure is on the LR products. Oil pressure on my old bus engines is usually 45 psi/3 bar, no oil coolers involved, so any water in the oil is usually cracked head or blown head gasket.

I note Rimmer Bros offer few variants of oil cooler for this car.