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[amba]

Thought I had the job sorted.Armed with a 19mm crows foot wrench ,short extension and 450mm breaker bar attempted to undo the 2 oil cooler feed pipes from the n/s of the engine block.

Would they budge ..not a prayer..ended up dropping the crows foot wrench down iside the hollow of the engine mount never to be seen again.Now am forced with only option of bending the pipes out of the way with extreme care to get at the cooler plate which is leaking like a seive.

Any tips as to how to get on them ?

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

Thought I had the job sorted.Armed with a 19mm crows foot wrench ,short extension and 450mm breaker bar...

  I did mine with a standard 3/8th ratchet. Have you tried using Plusgas or similar to try to loosen their grip?

I must admit there is a knack to using the crowsfoot to make sure you're putting the maximum effort into turning the fitting...

[amba]

Well the 19mm crows foot socket is now lost inside the hollow of the engine mount so short of removing the mount and recovering it I have resorted to very gently teasing the pipes clear of the unions.

You can get plenty of movement on the longest pipe which is on the front union but the shortest one is not playing ball.Might resort to supporting the engine in the morning on a trolley and seeing if I can find the crows foot although worried it might just drop of again .

Assume you would have more room with the engine mount removed anyway so that might be my plan...think I will just try and undo the pipe that is the shortest as that way I think it would be enough to get the plate/cooler out and back.

[Colin G]

Been there done that  I couldn't work out how to get the engine mount off - managed to undo 3 of the bolts holding the mount to the engine but couldn't get to the 4th so crowsfoot socket is still in mount, luckily it doesn't rattle  Did manage to get one of the oil pipe unions undone with an open ended spanner.  Good luck with yours

[amba]

Thats encouraging to hear,Colin G. as I was thinking it must have just been me .

I have managed to get a 19mm flarred ring spanner onto the joint nearest front of engine and try as I might the bugger wouldn,t budge.I was planning on trying the same with the other pipe which I am hoping will move and is the shorter of the 2 as really dont want to apply too much pressure on the pipe by the cooler as it does look it needs to move a fair bit to get a 30mm socket on the nut.

The haynes book of words doesnt give much referrence to removing/refitting an engine mount so might just cut my losses and say goodbye to the crows foot wrench unless anybody has any further advise or especially a picture ..calling RobG.

[Darth Loo-knee]

I find it far easier to remove the oil filter. I have then done them with a normal opened spanner.
Hope that helps

[amba]

Hi Daz.

Oil filter and crank sensor both removed.Tried with a crows foot wrench but managed to loose that down the back of the hollow of the engine mount so don,t think I will be seeing that again any time quickly unless the mount is easy to remove.

I do have a 19mm flarred spanner which I have tried but the bugger are so tight even that is not moving them.Will give them both a bath in plus gas in the morning and after a few weetabix have another go.

Might have done the cardinal sin and bent them a little at the top end as wanted to get them off the cooler.

When removed found some monkey in cars previous life had fitted dowty washer either side of the oil cooler banjo bolts along with the ali 0 rings and one bolt was no more than finger tight.

[Darth Loo-knee]

I have bent the oil cooler pipes a few times myself (going to get stoned to death in a min  ) as long as you dont go mad you should not have any problems. Make sure you pull them back before putting the banjo bolts back in as you dont want them under pressure if that makes sense.
It still suprises me how so people bodge cars up.....

Your getting their with it though mate, well done

[Andy B]

I have bent the oil cooler pipes a few times myself (going to get stoned to death in a min  )  .....

I hope you've got your hair shirt out of the laundry ready to wear for the rest of eternity! 

[albitz]

Ive done a few oil coolers now and have yet to undo them at the bottom end tbh. It will probably bite me on the arse one of these days,but Ive found if you bend them gently out of the way they are fine.The difficult bit can be bending them back to the correct position so the bolts go back in correctly.

[amba]

Will have 1 more try first thing after giving them a good soak in plus gas.

More annoyed about loosing the crows foot wrench down the back of the engine mount but suppose for the couple of £££,s they are ,will leave it be, as imagine engine mount removal throws up further complications.

Looks like I could be joining you guys in " hell and damnation later " if it don,t budge  

[Kevin Wood]

I have bent the oil cooler pipes a few times myself (going to get stoned to death in a min  )  .....

I hope you've got your hair shirt out of the laundry ready to wear for the rest of eternity! 

A clean hair shirt? Make him wear a dirty one for that one, I say.

[kcl]

I've found that the opening "force" has to be applied in very correct angle and direction to this kind of joints. I mean that compared to "normal" bolt or nut you have to have the wrench in "right" position and not to "bend" the joint. The thread is conical so it should not be too tight to open once you bring the force to it in correct angle.

[Marks DTM Calib]

If the pipe fixings are very tight, try tightening slightly first 

[amba]

 Well I tried every possible means to loosen off those nuts and they wouldn,t budge.Trouble was limited access and only tool available was a 19mm Flarred spanner which,whilst it would sit on the nut ,every time I applied pressuer either way it started slipping and I had visions of either the nut completly rounding or worse,snapping.

Have managed to remove cooler and plate.Found it easier to resit new plate liberally coated in grey sealant with thermostat housing removed as it gave a flatter run to get the plate under the shorter of the 2 pipes which I didn,t want to bend out too far.All back in place including new thermostat/transfer pipe.Will be leaving the banjo bolts out until I have removed coolant transfer pipe as want to replace the o/s exhaust manifold gasket whilst the "decks are stripped".

Cuppa then back out to remove coolant pipe/exhaust downpipe /manifold /and get that all renewed.Hopefully all will be back by tea time then can leave it over night ,and fingers crossed for a quiter engine and no more coolant leaks.

Oh I do hope those oil pipes are ok