Oily Leak & Misfire Confusion

George is a bit weepy and it's looking awfully like the rear crank seal. I added some Oil Stop Leak, so will see how that goes.

In the meantime, I have another leak which looks like red oil. It is not (or doesn't seem to be) PAS fluid as the level hasn't dropped since I got her! So the only other red oil would be the gear box! However, the pipes going into the rad are dry at the point where they go into it. Nuts clean as!

Can't find the source as the fan blows it all over, but it seems to come out up front at the bumper and to the left! Can't find anything on the pipes, but as I said, the fan blows it all over. So my question is, is there a usual place where they all go? A generic leak or crack in a pipe or some such? Want to address it before things go boom bang a bang

The other thing is the misfire. As previously stated, only above idle and up to around 1500rpm when pulling away from stop. If pulling away from almost stop, it doesn't do it!?

Checked down pipe joints at test yesterday, not a peep, they tighter than a nuns chuff! All new pipework at back and all exhaust puttied in so no leaks.

It's not the leads leaking as I was out in the dark on a damp night and nothing, no fireworks on either side.

New MAF fitted last week, genuine BOSCH one costing me almost 140 quid

Plugs done 8k so surely not them? They are fine under load (also, car a lot smoother & quicker through the gears now with the new back boxes whereas before, she would go up a gear too soon, drop back down again & so forth, but now it's foot down, hold the gear, then up and smoothly does it).

Hope to get the O2 sensors checked, but she passed the emissions test yesterday, although Lambda seemed high at 999 when the limit is 1030. Co was 0.20 and HC 39.

Seems she's not burning as efficiently as she could be. So, either I have a leak at the inlet manifold or at the exhaust. No leaks at exhaust, but possible at inlet!

The misfire would cause high CO so back to a possible leak or maybe the coils are starting to play up. I don't know enough about the RR coil pack to make a decision

Thoughts?

I'm thinking air leak since I've been plagued with other kinds of air leaks anyway

Red oil up front could be from gearbox cooler to left just in front of wheel arch. Or like mine from box dip stick blowing out of sleeve

Are you sure it's not really Georgina and it's the time of the month.

Tony e said:

Red oil up front could be from gearbox cooler to left just in front of wheel arch. Or like mine from box dip stick blowing out of sleeve

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Gearbox cooler is across front of rad on petrol models.

wammers said:

Gearbox cooler is across front of rad on petrol models.

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Aaah. Mines an oily thing. As you well know

Tony e said:

Red oil up front could be from gearbox cooler to left just in front of wheel arch. Or like mine from box dip stick blowing out of sleeve

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Ahh, that would be the one! That's exactly where it's dripping

I understood it went into the radiator

Ok, wheel arch cover off and let's find if it's loose or more likely, knackered. I have a cooler somewhere. It's a generic 10 row (or was it 6??) Brand new in the box. Need Wife to find it as it is in a "safe" place

Are they screw fitting?

STOP. As Wammers said on the petrol its in front of the main rad. On oilys its in front of wheel arch. No need to remove arch cover just get yer ed under there its a small rad behind the bumper spot light or grill if no spot

The one in the main rad is for the manual box

Doo said:

Ahh, that would be the one! That's exactly where it's dripping

I understood it went into the radiator

Ok, wheel arch cover off and let's find if it's loose or more likely, knackered. I have a cooler somewhere. It's a generic 10 row (or was it 6??) Brand new in the box. Need Wife to find it as it is in a "safe" place

Are they screw fitting?

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gearbox oil on the manual goes through the bottom of the rad. Maybe that's where you got mixed up.

Tony e said:

The one in the main rad is for the manual box

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Whoops. Should have read to the bottom first!

Yep, sounds like the transmission cooler, just under the engine oil cooler in front of the rad. Take off the slam panel, unbolt the aircon condenser & pull forward. You should see red fluid on the cooler - usually around where the channels meet the side sections. Be careful with the connections if removing as they easily strip the threads. You can remove without taking off the engine oil cooler if your careful. The Britpart replacements are actually quite good, think i paid around £100 for mine.

It was only as I was going to sons school (the leavers are having a disco so I loaned them lights) that I thought about it. DubbleRR has an oil burner (as opposed to an oil leaker ) and he pointed out the absurdity of the grille for the oil cooler and a blank plate at the other side!

Here's me looking in from the left you can see the air dryer canister bottom right of picture and the chassis leg is never going to rust



And here are the pipes in question, dry as a Scotsmans sense of humour



Little out of focus, but you can see they are leak free!

Still trying to locate my source of misfire but can see no obvious leakage. What about the LPG system? I've disconnected the main tanks under the car (when I replaced the fuel tank) and also disconnected the pipes to the one in the spare wheel well. Could it be something to with that? The drawing air or maybe the LPG ECU is not happy

While I'm at it, where does the Cruise pipe go once inside the car?

Thank you gents...

martynv8 said:

Yep, sounds like the transmission cooler, just under the engine oil cooler in front of the rad. Take off the slam panel, unbolt the aircon condenser & pull forward. You should see red fluid on the cooler - usually around where the channels meet the side sections. Be careful with the connections if removing as they easily strip the threads. You can remove without taking off the engine oil cooler if your careful. The Britpart replacements are actually quite good, think i paid around £100 for mine.

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I have a generic cooler in the cupboard. Brand new it is. Wife looking it out later.

I guess the constant flow of salty shit off the roads in winter time kills the ally on them!?!?

I'm sure I'll find out. It was fine when I replaced the condenser, no oil or anything.

Anyway, I posted couple of pics, see what you think. It clearly being blown sideways by the cooling fan and stopping on the chassis leg....

Yep, mine started leaking suddenly. Would be dripping from the bottom of the lower rad guard & sprayed all over the place by the fan even covering the EAS receiver / dryer. Bought a second had cooler that also leaked from the same place so bit the bullet & got a new one. Those connections look well rusted so i'd soak them with some penetrating oil before trying to undo.

Cruise pipe goes to brake switch once through the bulkhead

martynv8 said:

Yep, mine started leaking suddenly. Would be dripping from the bottom of the lower rad guard & sprayed all over the place by the fan even covering the EAS receiver / dryer. Bought a second had cooler that also leaked from the same place so bit the bullet & got a new one. Those connections look well rusted so i'd soak them with some penetrating oil before trying to undo.

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On second thoughts, would those be engine oil cooler pipes at the top? I always soak rusty stuff in WD or similar before attempting to remove. Sometimes a bit of heat can help too....

Wazzajnr, thanks, I knew it went somewhere but for the life of me I couldn't remember. There's so much plastic to remove I think I'll do a woman and have a headache

Three more things to fix but cooler most important.

Am buying a Citroen Berlingo car for couple of hundred quid. I will use it for all the short journeys and use George for the longer ones. Less miles stacking up and last longer so worth more money in the long run

Doo said:

On second thoughts, would those be engine oil cooler pipes at the top? I always soak rusty stuff in WD or similar before attempting to remove. Sometimes a bit of heat can help too....

Wazzajnr, thanks, I knew it went somewhere but for the life of me I couldn't remember. There's so much plastic to remove I think I'll do a woman and have a headache

Three more things to fix but cooler most important.

Am buying a Citroen Berlingo car for couple of hundred quid. I will use it for all the short journeys and use George for the longer ones. Less miles stacking up and last longer so worth more money in the long run

Click to expand...

The top pipe is to the engine oil cooler. Just below that is your transmission cooler (the bottom pipe in the second image). I'd use a proper penetrating oil rather than WD40 (Its a water displacent). Otherwise they have a tendency to strip the thread off the aluminium cooler & you get aluminium galling the threads on the connector. Heat should help

There's only 4 screws to take out to get to the brake switch that has the vac pipe on it.

Found the generic cooler.

Does this look like it will do the job??



Slightly off topic, although not entirely.... I had this Halfords box ratchet for years, but it died a while back. So today, I took it in and took it apart and found the problem was rust had seized the moving parts. I took the sandpaper and ripped the rust clean off. Seeing as how I was in the kitchen, I may have borrowed some olive oil and lubed up the now moving parts. I am chuffed to bits to report that I got that old thing working beautifully again





Just don't tell her I used her clean kitchen

Bit small?