Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 11:24:53 -0700
Reply-To: "Gary, San Diego" <gabangs@SAN.RR.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Gary, San Diego" <gabangs@SAN.RR.COM>
Subject: Re: [Audi-VW-Diesels] YIKE! Lost 3 qts oil in 30 sec,
messy eng. compartment...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Large amounts of oil? Concentrated about the oil filter area? If the
filter is intact, and the oil filter gasket is intact, I would look at the
oil filter mounting assy gasket. This would be the next area of high
pressure/high volume.
-Gary, San Diego
1979 Rabbit 1.5L DSL, 180,000mi(sold)
1981 Rabbit 1.6L DSL, 150,000mi(sold)
1985 Quantum 1.6L TD, 150,000mi(current)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tobin Copley" <tobin.copley@ubc.ca>
To: <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
Cc: <Audi-VW-Diesels@egroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2000 10:54 AM
Subject: [Audi-VW-Diesels] YIKE! Lost 3 qts oil in 30 sec, messy eng.
compartment...
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| Hi gang,
|
| Blew something in my diesel vanagon yesterday, and lost nearly all
| our oil in just a few seconds, coating the engine compartment with
| oil spray, and leaving a 200m trail of oil down the road in the
| process.
|
| I'm getting a tow truck over to the island here this afternoon, and
| I'll have my mechanic on the mainland look at it and give me a
| diagnosis. If any of you clever people want to take a stab at
| guessing the problem, I'll post the names of the guessers with the
| follow-up (if you want).
|
| I'll post a follow-up on this when the problem has been identified.
| Hopefully,the following description, when combined with the
| follow-up, may help someone out in the future.
|
| A description of the problem follows. (For the record, I'm hoping
| it's a problem with--or related to--the oil cooler).
|
| Vehicle:
| --------
| 1982 vanagon westy, 1.6l NA DIESEL engine, <10K miles on engine
| rebuild. Castrol GTX 20/50 dino oil, last oil and filter change 500
| miles ago.
|
| The failure:
| ------------
| Following a cold start in 70 degree F ambient air temperature, drove
| up a steep hill at moderate load (2nd gear @ 20 mph). During the
| upshift to 3rd gear at the crest of the hill, oil light blinked on of
| 1/4 second, went out for a little less than 1 second, then came on
| and stayed on. I turned off the engine less than 3 seconds after
| first blink of oil light. No untoward engine noises were heard at
| any point, although valve clatter was *perhaps* a little louder than
| usual while the engine was shutting down. No bangs, clunks,
| hammering, lurches, power loss, or any other "expensive" symptoms.
|
| After rolling to a rest at the side of the road (less than 1/4 mile
| from starting point), I saw the following:
|
| - Dense trail of oil on road heading back over the crest of the hill
| (walking back home later showed oil trail started about 50 yds from
| my driveway, but without a pronounced starting splat or anything.
| Volume of oil loss along trail appeared to start heavy and decrease
| in volume only in last 1/3 of trail--coincides with decreasing
| remaining oil volume just before oil pressure warning triggered?)
|
| - Underside of engine area heavily dripping large volumes of oil.
| Oil dripping from all over right side (FIF) of engine.
|
| - Removing the engine compartment cover, entire right side (FIF) of
| engine compartment heavily coated in oil, with spray concentrated to
| forward portion of engine compartment. Appeared to indicate a high
| pressure, high volume spray of oil.
|
| - Hard to determine the source of oil with the engine not running and
| given the copious oil everywhere, but my guess is oil was coming from
| the oil filter area.
|
| - Oil filter was still threaded firmly to oil cooler. Removing the
| oil filter did not reveal any obvious splits in filter. Filter still
| full of oil. Dipping my finger into filter, the oil did not feel
| gritty or otherwise contaminated. Oil temp at failure could be
| described as luke warm.
|
| - No obvious holes in the case under filter area were visible.
|
| - I did not not check oil level at the dipstick, as I had parked on a
| steep downgrade and the dipstick reading would be wildly inaccurate.
|
| - Left side of the engine compartment, and rear of engine (injection
| pump, timing belt) completely unaffected by oil spray. One modest
| sized drip on the alternator, one small spot on the battery.
|
| History:
| --------
| Less than 10,000 miles on rebuild. Oil and filter changed every 3000
| miles or less. Oil and filter changed less than 500 miles ago.
| Bosch or Mann oil filters and Castrol GTX 20/50 oil used exclusively.
| Engine has run smooth, strong, and cool since purchased last
| February. No noticeable leaks in the filter area previously. Engine
| has consumed little oil since purchase, averaging less than 1 litre
| added between oil changes. Most of between-change oil loss due to
| (likely) rear main seal leak, which lightly spots driveway, dirties
| transmission/motor mating area, and speckles rear hatch with oil
| droplets on highway speed drives. Engine will push bus to over 65
| mph, and can cruise at 65 mph on level ground comfortably. I always
| cruise no faster than 62 mph, usually a little slower. I never push
| the bus up hills, preferring to fall back to either 38 mph in 3rd or
| 22 mph in 2nd to avoid labouring the motor. (Remember, this is a
| diesel transmission, so gearing is lower than in gas-powered
| vanagons).
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
|
| '82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
| '97 son Russell =============
| '99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
| 1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi {. .| clatter!
| 1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT 7,400 km ~-()-==----()-~
| Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
| http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/
|
|
|
|
|