I decided to remove the front bumper and address the crooked vent opening and replace the smile. Easy enough to do btw if a little awkward. While there I noticed oil on the side of the oil cooler radiator and collected inside the bumper. Once the area was cleaned up with gunk I let the car idle to open the thermostat (disconnected the fan as a precaution!). I was expecting the leak to be the oil pipe or even the rad itself....it was actually the temp sender alluminium washer leaking due to age/corrosion. A simple fix.
The leak was only really apparent when the car was very hot but the amount of oil lost would have been quite large over prolonged hot running e.g an hour stuck in traffic. As the car is never hot when I arrive home the leak was not apparent, the oil had dispersed or was left inside the bottom of the bumper.
There is no need to remove the bumper to do this, it is easily accessible with the inner wheel liner removed although having light to spot the leak was a plus.
The leak was only really apparent when the car was very hot but the amount of oil lost would have been quite large over prolonged hot running e.g an hour stuck in traffic. As the car is never hot when I arrive home the leak was not apparent, the oil had dispersed or was left inside the bottom of the bumper.
There is no need to remove the bumper to do this, it is easily accessible with the inner wheel liner removed although having light to spot the leak was a plus.
