Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: Field Marshal Dr. Opti on 15 August 2011, 16:46:10
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Genuine Vauxhall cambelt, tensioners, and water pump now fitted. refilled with anti-freeze all in £330 :y :y :y :y.But :'( :'( :'(........apparently I have oil in the coolant. The Vx mechanic showed me oil sludge in the expansion tank.
They tell me the car needs a new oil cooler (leaking)to sort the problem before it gets worse. They quoted four to five hours labour plus parts £568.44....Shit.
Opinions please gentlemen. :-/ :-/ :-/
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Well the diagnosis is right, sounds like oil cooler.
Parts wise looking at £150 ish, its actually a very straight forward task, even I did one :o :o ;D
5 hours is a bit much for a garage, plenum off & fuel injection manifold off.... 30 mins?
Old cooler out new one in, 1 hour? 30 mins to put back together?
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Are you coming to Newent? If so and if you can limp it there I or someone else could change it out for you.
5 hours is what a complete novice would take to do the job. When I did one and the oil cooler pipes had seized on the union bolts near the oil filter I had to hacksaw them off and use my favourite tool to get them out then find a way to thread the replacement pipes in which was a pig. I think that took a total of 6 hours.
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Is it a total goo or is it just a few spots?
If the latter it may have been a failure in the dim adn distant past and there is still some traces of oil in the system
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Are you coming to Newent? If so and if you can limp it there I or someone else could change it out for you.
5 hours is what a complete novice would take to do the job. When I did one and the oil cooler pipes had seized on the union bolts near the oil filter I had to hacksaw them off and use my favourite tool to get them out then find a way to thread the replacement pipes in which was a pig. I think that took a total of 6 hours.
Thanks for the offer Guffer. :y. I doubt I can make Newent. I really must come to one of these OOF meets sooner or later.
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Is it a total goo or is it just a few spots?
If the latter it may have been a failure in the dim adn distant past and there is still some traces of oil in the system
The expansion tank was empty when he showed me Mark.There appeared to be a build up of sludge/slime on the inside of it.
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Is it a total goo or is it just a few spots?
If the latter it may have been a failure in the dim adn distant past and there is still some traces of oil in the system
The expansion tank was empty when he showed me Mark.There appeared to be a build up of sludge/slime on the inside of it.
Could indicate a previous failure, as its been driven now, take the cap off, see if there is any oil floating on top.
If you can post some photos of what you see :y
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easiest thing to do is remove coolant tank and give it a good clean out and then see what happens,hth :y
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Is it a total goo or is it just a few spots?
If the latter it may have been a failure in the dim adn distant past and there is still some traces of oil in the system
The expansion tank was empty when he showed me Mark.There appeared to be a build up of sludge/slime on the inside of it.
Could indicate a previous failure, as its been driven now, take the cap off, see if there is any oil floating on top.
If you can post some photos of what you see :y
She is still at Vx. I pick her up tomorrow.The job was half finished when I looked. I could clearly see the new belt and it's shiny new tensioner's though.
Seems like a good idea to monitor the situation for a while when I get her back before I part with any money. I check the coolant level regularly and I don't ever recall seeing any oil floating in it.
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Well the diagnosis is right, sounds like oil cooler.
Parts wise looking at £150 ish, its actually a very straight forward task, even I did one :o :o ;D
5 hours is a bit much for a garage, plenum off & fuel injection manifold off.... 30 mins?
Old cooler out new one in, 1 hour? 30 mins to put back together?
You better come and do some for me Tunnie....... What about the time it takes to clear the water system, which is the biggest pain? How long to do that? Or is that in your 1hr 30 minutes? ::)
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I must have flushed Project TB1 about 50 times over 2 weeks after its oil cooler failed.
OK, probably a better job than a dealer or garage would do, but apparently I'm anal ::)
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Well the diagnosis is right, sounds like oil cooler.
Parts wise looking at £150 ish, its actually a very straight forward task, even I did one :o :o ;D
5 hours is a bit much for a garage, plenum off & fuel injection manifold off.... 30 mins?
Old cooler out new one in, 1 hour? 30 mins to put back together?
You better come and do some for me Tunnie....... What about the time it takes to clear the water system, which is the biggest pain? How long to do that? Or is that in your 1hr 30 minutes? ::)
Not quoting for that, just replacement work done ;)
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Well the diagnosis is right, sounds like oil cooler.
Parts wise looking at £150 ish, its actually a very straight forward task, even I did one :o :o ;D
5 hours is a bit much for a garage, plenum off & fuel injection manifold off.... 30 mins?
Old cooler out new one in, 1 hour? 30 mins to put back together?
You better come and do some for me Tunnie....... What about the time it takes to clear the water system, which is the biggest pain? How long to do that? Or is that in your 1hr 30 minutes? ::)
Not quoting for that, just replacement work done ;)
Also 30 mins, plus 1 hour, plus 30 mins = 2 hours.
But then again, Stoke is on a different time zone ;D ;D
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To be honest I think 2 hours is a bit of a push (unless you bend the pipes)
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To be honest I think 2 hours is a bit of a push (unless you bend the pipes)
But 5 hours is rather excessive if not including flushing...certainly something on the list of things I can do and for well under £550 notes even including the cost of a set of crowsfoot spanners!! :y
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IME it is quite time consuming. You will be taking apart the whole intake, 30-60 mins, oil filter housing + pipes (which can be a pain) 15-60 mins, cooler itself is easy as is coolant bridge. Cleaning the sealant remainings must take some time also. What will take time is to clean up: dunno if I did something wrong but I ended up with coolant and oil simply EVERYWHERE. Putting back together is quite quick so I think that 3 hrs is minimum. I spent several days doing mine, most of it was however spent figuring out how to replace spoilt thread on old cooler... :y
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Also the fact that it is benfical to leave it over night to let the sealer go off before starting too.
Vauxhall are always going to be more expensive. I think they are recouprating some of the money they lost on your cambelt.
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I'd probably take 4 to 5 hours, yet, I know the job inside out and have done many of them.
Is this because I'm rubbish or incompetent?
No, it's because I take my time, cleaning stuff as I go, ensuring everything is as it should be, and then the system is flushed properly.
Quality over speed every time.
If parts are provided, this is a job I'd charge around £150 + expenses for, on a mobile basis.
I'd imagine the parts come to around £150 as well, so ballpark for the job would be around £300 for an enthuisiast doing it.
Not sure where £550 comes from? I think you need to change your parts supplier Mutantcav ;D :y
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I changed mine for piece of mind when I did the valve seals
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I'd probably take 4 to 5 hours, yet, I know the job inside out and have done many of them.
Is this because I'm rubbish or incompetent?
No, it's because I take my time, cleaning stuff as I go, ensuring everything is as it should be, and then the system is flushed properly.
Quality over speed every time.
If parts are provided, this is a job I'd charge around £150 + expenses for, on a mobile basis.
I'd imagine the parts come to around £150 as well, so ballpark for the job would be around £300 for an enthuisiast doing it.
Not sure where £550 comes from? I think you need to change your parts supplier Mutantcav ;D :y
£550 (or in fact £568) was the price originally quoted to the OP by Vauxhall to do the job...
I could do it for the cost of parts on my own car lol Would agree that £150 on top in labour would be reasonable charge by a competent enthusiast :y
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I'd probably take 4 to 5 hours, yet, I know the job inside out and have done many of them.
Is this because I'm rubbish or incompetent?
No, it's because I take my time, cleaning stuff as I go, ensuring everything is as it should be, and then the system is flushed properly.
Quality over speed every time.
If parts are provided, this is a job I'd charge around £150 + expenses for, on a mobile basis.
I'd imagine the parts come to around £150 as well, so ballpark for the job would be around £300 for an enthuisiast doing it.
Not sure where £550 comes from? I think you need to change your parts supplier Mutantcav ;D :y
£550 (or in fact £568) was the price originally quoted to the OP by Vauxhall to do the job...
I could do it for the cost of parts on my own car lol Would agree that £150 on top in labour would be reasonable charge by a competent enthusiast :y
I hear good things about you James, as I do about Elite Pete and Mr Darth and others. The service manager has just phoned letting me know she is ready for collection.
Over the next couple of days I will see if any (any more?) oil appears in the coolant. Photographic evidence will be posted here at OOF as Mr Tunnie has suggested.
If it is a faulty oil cooler as the garage maintains (let's hope not) then I may send you a PM, James. I trust this is O.K with you... :y :y
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I would be happy to assist, as long as that doesn't tread on anyone's toes :)
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If you are treading on anyone's toes then you are doing it wrong! :) I would be happy to do it normally but with baby number 4 due in 9 days time I'm best to steer well clear of car work at the moment lol :y
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Thanks James and MC.
I've not approached anyone yet. At times like these I wish I lived a little closer to the OOF mechanics. :y :y
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Not sure where in South Lincs you are mate but cant imagine you are too far from myself...or Mr DTM in Nottingham :y