Mystery Oil Leak

justin · Post by **justin** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:31 pm

Alrite people! More problems i'm afraid!

The other day I was driving along happily and all of a sudden the, buzzer and oil light came on! I discovered the sensor itself had been leaking at the top and caused the connector to come off with the pressure. Fixed it up n sorted it out and managed to stop it.
A couple of days later on the way to my new job it happens again and now..oil is coming out of the front and back and god knows where on the engine and it is amazingly tappy.
Its hard to discribe what is happening but I really need help because I rely on it to get to work as my only transport and I dont want to drive it with the tappyness and of course the buzzer sounding constantly!
Ideas would be cool!!

Its a mk2 1ltr and I've topped up and checked for oil and again am clueless to the problem!

Cheers!

Justin

ste mk1lx · Post by **ste mk1lx** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:42 pm

first thing that springs to mind is blocked breather system causing the oils seals to go due to the build up of pressure. sorry i can't be of anymore assistance.

justin · Post by **justin** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 12:01 am

I took it to the garage and one bloke said thats what it COULD be.

Any chance of a better explanation of the breather system or how it could have happened. Or how to fix it?!!

Cheers

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 2:32 am

blocked breathers were a common cause of oil consumption and several other related problems on earlier mk2s, was supposed to be fixed on later ones and mk3s through improved design, but hey - worth checking just in case. gets gunged up with oil, sludgy oil, can't equalise or pass oil around any more, things start to go wrong.

i'm not 100% on what its supposed to do, just equalise pressures between crank case and head or something, and vent any excess pressure (and oil) to the inlet (into the filter box, on the engine side of it). one connection on the back of the block, one on the top of the cam cover, and one on the underside of the airbox. Funky three-way rubber pipe thing.

never had a cam cover connection on mine when i bought it and wasnt sure it had any breather at all - first service of it noted "missing breather pipe" but mechanic said it was common and unimportant. never seemed to have any trouble from that... found that it had a partial pipe at least on changing the spark plugs --- airbox has to come off for that, and with it various vacuum hoses and the top breather connection.

Did replace it when i stripped the engine. Fairly easy job and a not too expensive part... just got to try and route it properly (not exactly blessed with excess length!) and connect it to the right places. Clearing them out beforehand (particularly the lower one on the block) with a bit of old coathanger, etc, is worth a quick go - even if just to make sure there's no blockage rather than to clear it.

justin · Post by **justin** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 12:12 am

Cool mate cheers.

I've had another look at it today and thankfully the tapping has gone. I have no doubt that the oil will still be coming out of it but as long as it gets me to work and back thats fine, Ill bring a bottle of oil with me.
Im looking to replace it with an Audi 80 2ltr 16v anyway which is a shame because its a low milage car (54k when i got it, 61k half a year later) and when polished up looks the nuts but its been a good first car and is stupidly nippy for a 1.0 ltr!

I will be getting someone I know to look at it tmoz or something anyway n i'll report back what the problem is!

Wish me luck driving it into the ground!!

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:16 pm

an old 80, nice choice... was looking at one of them or an A4 at one point to replace polo, worked out that i couldnt quite afford it - hope you can!

what i meant by cleaning it out BTW was inside the engine side of the connectors (can't really clean inside the pipe as its so soft and tends to break when you pull the lower end off.. but you could at least squeeze along it to shift any impacted gunk) - these areas are what gunge up rather than the pipe.

just keep checking the oil level so you can be sure its still all ok...

alternative is that you got a blockage somewhere else in a major oil channel that has now cleared itself

birmman · Post by **birmman** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 3:10 pm

For info on blocked breathers see;

http://bangernomics.tripod.com/oilypolo.htm

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:24 pm

thats the exact chestnut i was kicking myself for not having, good save birmman

PS does your name suggest what i think?

birmman · Post by **birmman** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 12:09 pm

Yup - Birmingham-based.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:42 pm

yayz0rz!