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Oil leak

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I'm completely lost on this one! Had my S2 serviced about one month ago. It seems to have an oil leak as the warning light comes on every couple hundred miles or so. I've had it in 2 garages and they think oil switch may be a bit sensitive. Is this a common problem?
 
god that was quick! sorry its the oil level light. The pressure gauge is fine, no probs.
 
Hi Colin

Do you need to actually put oil in the car when the light comes on. If not then it is probably the sender unit in the sump. I replaced mine recently, easy job but if I remember correctly the unit is about £60. [:-]
 
Ah, given the choice of two answers, one where I could help more, the other where I couldn't , guess which one it was [:eek:] - I don't know exactly how the oil level switch works on an s2

If the problem is the oil level then I would ignore the light and simply take the oil level from the dipstick. If the car has just been serviced then it should be up to the top level. Next time the oil level light comes on (if convenient) stop the car on level ground and give it 15 minutes to allow the oil to drain back into the sump. Then take the level from the dipstick. If the dipstick says full, then alls well. If not, and the oil level is below the lower mark, you have either an oil leak or you are burning oil. (any blue smoke from the exhaust ? ).

I suspect the oiil level warning light should not come on unless the oil level is very low, or its low & you are cornering hard. If it comes on when there's plenty of oil then I would suspect a bad electrical connection on the sender./switch or a duff sender / switch

Difference between max & min is 1 litre
 
It only read the sensor when the ignition is turned on. If it senses low oil then the big warning light stays on until you turn off the ignition again, which is a PITA. Mine used to play up but now it seems OK after using the car regularly for decent period of time.
 
back of the engine is usually the cork cam housing gasket. it's an easy job if the cam housing is off, and (supposedly) a PITA if it's not. Luckily, I did mine when the engine was out, but maybe someone has a few more pointers for you.
 
Mines currently got a very minor leak at the rear crank seal. It's so minor I still have not noticed any drips on my drive or garage floor yet and i've not had to top up the oil level but my specialist noticed it at the last service. So it's another area to check. Having said that just because the oil you can see is at the back of the engine doesn't necessarily mean that it is anywhere near the source of the leak. 944 engine bays are tiny micro universes that seem to obey their own laws of Physics where oil in particular can appear to drip upwards!!

Actually if the leak is coming from the rear cork cam cover seal you might be able to check this by leaving he car ticking over on the drive. I disturbed this seal once when I removed the engine lifting eye to fit my Manual Boost Control and didn't tighten up one of the bolts correctly. I spotted it because the drips of oil fell onto the exhaust manifold causing alot of smoke so that might be an easy one to initially eliminate.
 
First off the leak might not be at the back. Oil has a nasty habit of tracking along the sump pan joint and dripping at the back of the engine when the leak isn't at the back at all. Also, it might not be a leak, it could be residual dribble from a botched top up.

Other than that it could be just about anything. Beaky has been back an forth over oil leaks recently. One was the balance shaft O ring seal - which is at the front but dripped at the back. After that was cured it sees has froth tower was leaking so off came the inlet manifold (kerching £££ [:mad:]). £1.5K later I think the oil leak has gone but I now seem to have a coolant leak.

OK so £1.5K wasn't just on chasing an oil leak but that was the principal job around which several other "while you are there you might as well...." jobs came about.
 
Changed my cam cover rear cork gasket with the engine in the car, wasn't too bad on a turbo which has to be the most crowded engine bay of the range.
Tony
 
cheers guys i will try changing the cork rocker cover gasket and see if that helps.

I will probably change every single gasket in search of a cure haha and it will be the last thing changed that was the problem ALWAYS THE WAY.

is there a better replacement or is the standard cork one good enough?
 
Well technically once you have changed something and fixed the problem then you will stop trying to fix it, so it will always be the last thing you changed, even if it is the first as well. Like you always find something you lost in the last place you look [:D]
 
I had a leak on this part of the engine although on the turbo there is no oil cooler as it has an air/oil cooler behind the bumper. Anyway there are a number of seals behind the cooling matrix and you can buy a kit. They are a bit of a pain to fit apparently as when you remove the housing there is a long cylindrical sender that you have to extract from the side of the engine and as usual access is limited - but it is possible to remove.
 
It's a common area for a car to develop leaks, especially as they get older and the seals dry up a bit. A lot of Indies have it as a menu item on a service schedule or a 'while youre in there' doing a belt change. Hartech list the Front Engine Reseal as crank, cam, balance shaft seals and O-rings for £300 all in.

http://www.hartech.org/docs/Prices_Jan_2007.pdf
 
If it's not too bad, Wynns do a product for stopping leaks through seals. Basically it softens up older seals to make them more pliable and able to seal again. I've used it on a couple of cars and it has cured front crank oil seal leaks. It's not a permanent solution I guess but it's been in one of my cars for 9 months now and is still working.
 
I had mine done as part of a belts, rollers and water pump overhaul. The oil was contaminating the belt, so not to be left unattended!
 
It may not be catastrophic, but you should have your mechanic take a look.

As an example, my S2 with 133K miles has three different oil leaks: (1) oil pan; (2) rear main seal and (3) headgasket at the rear of the engine. The leak rates are low enough that I've decided to simply live with them instead of spending the money to get them repaired.

Back in 2006, I had a leak at the front of the engine and I had that take care of immediately as the oil (in that location) damages belts and bushings. I also had all the belts and rollers redone at the same time. The costs (in US dollars) were:
  • Front engine reseal kit (p/n 944-101-000-00), 1x $116.35
  • Steel bushings (p/n 928-105-139-02), 3x $22.95
  • Brake cleaner, 1x $5.95
  • Timing belt (p/n 944-105-323-02), 1x $123.69
  • Counter balance belt (p/n 944-102-219-02), 1x $68.01
  • Tensioner roller (p/n 944-105-631-10), 1x $99.94
  • Counter balance belt tensioner (p/n 944-102-025-06), 1x $43.48
  • Counter balance belt roller (p/n 944-102-277-04), 1x $60.77
  • Timing belt roller on the water pump (p/n 944-105-241-03), $48.37
  • Labor, 5.5x hours at $128.80/hour ($708.40 total labor)
Karl.
 
The problem with these cars is that due to the under tray it is virtually impossible to trace leaks visually as the oil gets blown all over the place so where it is dripping is likly to be nowhere near where the actual leak is. If you have a couple of hours spare one tip I have used is to remove the bottom under-tray and give the bottom of the engine a bit of a clean up to remove any excess oil. Take the car out for a spin to get everything upto temp then drive it back and place a white clean sheet under the car. Go in and have a cup of tea then come out to see where it is dripping then you can start to try to trace the leak.

In my case the drip appeared to be coming from the lower balance shaft seal. However a bit more investigation found it was actually coming from the oil filter housing gasket, dripping down the side of the block, pooling in a cast recess on top of the lower balance shaft housing, then overflowing and dripping off the lower balance shaft housing making it look like it was the balance shaft seal.

Cost me about £150 for my specialist to fix when it was in for a service. It is one of those jobs that is a PITA so I couldn't be bothered to do it myself.


 
The front drivers side corner of the sump/block joint is a common source of leaks as is the weeping etc of the power steering pipes from the reservoir.
 

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