Strange oil leaks

[dingov70]

Originally Posted by AlexO

That's interesting Dingo. I had a fail this year on an oil leak that was larger than 25mm in 5 minutes. I queried it and got the old shrug and "new rules" chat. Are you quoting the new rules or is this info taken from last year's rules before the change?

I was quoting directly from the manual , at 25mm pass & advise !

8.4 Other environmental items
8.4.1 Fluid leaks

You must check for fluid leaks on all vehicles other than Class 3. You should do this with the engine idling.

A leak of fluids such as engine coolant, screen wash and fluid required for Selective Catalyst Reduction aren't reasons for failure. You should fail a vehicle if a fluid leak creates a pool on the floor within 5 minutes that's more than 75mm in diameter or if there are many leaks which collectively leak fluid at the same rate.

You can refuse to carry out the test if there's an excessive fluid leak. For details see item 4 in the 'Introduction' of this inspection manual.
Defect Category

Fluid:



leaking excessively and likely to harm the environment or to pose a safety risk to other road users

Major

leaking continuously and likely to pose a serious risk to road safety

Dangerous

[dingov70]

[QUOTE=Clifford Pope;2511776]It depends entirely what the surface is it's leaking on to.

Being devils advocate , it is rare you will find a bare concrete floor in an MOT bay ( and here comes the long list of such places in Lower Thrutching on the marsh / Wold / on Sea Etc. ) we are required to maintain clean test bays so sealed surfaces are must , so it is reasonable to based a 75mm spread over 5 minutes is not being absorbed by porous concrete / dry earth or unicorn belly button fluff

[Chainsawdaz]

Update, I got some hylotyte red over the weekend and put a new gasket on the cam cover and sump using liberal amounts of the sealant and also changed all the front seals again and the rear seal again, so far no leaks!

In hindsight I think the rear leak was caused by me changing the sump gasket thus breaking the golden rule of if it ain't broke don't fix it, it's a pig of a job to do in place battling with long chisels and trying to not let bits fall into the sump then somehow applying the sealant with only little finger sized gap lol. I'm still not happy with the finished result so sometime in summer I will pull the engine out and do it properly.

I blame Haynes manual the manual rates removing the oil pan as a 1/5 difficulty job, literally a case of undoing bolts and sliding out, only now do I realise the manual is written for America and the B21 engine so henceforth that manual is now resting in the bin.

Thank you everyone for info and advice.

[Clifford Pope]

Originally Posted by Chainsawdaz

the manual rates removing the oil pan as a 1/5 difficulty job, literally a case of undoing bolts and sliding out, only now do I realise the manual is written for America and the B21 engine

How true! I've done that with a B21 - standard easy job to replace bearing shells.

The problem with the other engines is that the oil pump sits deeper in the sump and when you try to drop the sump it hits the engine crossmember.
So you either have to hoist the engine up a considerable distance, or dismantle everything on the cross member - suspension, brakepipes, steering rack etc and drop that instead, or use a trick which is very fiddly and certainly not a 1/5 job.

Lift the engine from above the most it will go without having to dismantle pipes etc.
Remove the two complete mounting brackets.
Drop the sump about 2".
Using a spanner undo the two nuts holding the oil pump and let it fall into the sump.
Turn the sump through 90" and ease it out.
Refit the oil pump.
Offer up the sump, and take note of where the oil pump clashes with the baffle plate.
Either cut away the plate so that it will clear the pump, or cut out 3 sides of a rectangular hole and bend it upwards. Lift the sump past the pump, (with new gasket) and then wedge a bit of wood between the upturned section of plate and the underside of the crankshaft and force the sump upwards so that the plate is bent back into position. (remove the wood without dropping it into the sump)
Rebolt the sump.

It's a nightmare job, but possible.

If you have very thin hands and very long nimble fingers it might just be possible to rebolt the pump through the small gap after lifting the sump. But you've got to locate and seal the pump properly, and not dislodge the plastic drip pipe from the oil separator.