Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Varche]

Checked the water and oil level on my Vitara diesel this morning. Water level OK except the water was oily sludge (like the stuff you see being cleaned off seabirds after an Exxon Valdez. Checked the oil level and it was half way down the dipstick.

I am hoping it is something easy like a "blocked EGR" or "ICV needs cleaning" but in my heart I suspect it is the head gasket.

Feeling a bit lot disheartened. It is our only vehicle.

I suppose there is an easy way of verifying the problem?

[Martian]

I suppose there is an easy way of verifying the problem?

Stick a pressure tester on it.

[Entwood]

Does it have a water/oil oil cooler If so, that's a possible source of cross contamination  

[Varche]

Oil cooler . Found something that is a cooler of some description but probably just the turbo. Have taken a photo and posted on a Peugeot forum. Here it is

Pressure tester? What is it and where do you put it please? Is this the spare water expansion cap adapted and pressurise with a foot pump? 

[henryd]

Its not unknown for that cooler under the oil filter to fail on the pug engine so its quite possible yours is gone

[Omegatoy]

Its not unknown for that cooler under the oil filter to fail on the pug engine so its quite possible yours is gone

agree with this!!

[allen25]

Mine is a different model/engine but the oil cooler was at fault, not the head gaskets. The best description I can find for the coolant mess is brown emulsion! best of luck

[Varche]

How can you tell that the oil cooler is at fault when you remove it? Any problems with gaskets when you come to rebuild?

[allen25]

When I removed the oil cooler from my V6, as you can imagine, I was very keen to make sure it was the cooler and nothing else. The cooler cleaned up and looked like new, but it was leaking. I checked it by refitting one of the hollow bolts, sealed with ptfe, to one end and hooked up to an air compressor at the other union (industrial size compressor but maybe most air pumps might provide enough pressure). Place the o/c in a bucket of water (as per looking for a puncture when you were a kid!) and blast the air through and hopefully the air bubbles will appear. They did from mine so I was extremely confident the cooler was at fault. Could be something else as well though, coincidences do happen! For the record, I replaced the cooler and all is fine now. Takes loads of flushing though to get rid of the emulsion, be patient!

[Marks DTM Calib]

I am still interested to hear how oil can get into a pressurised coolant system when a head gasket fails particularly given that there is very little in the way of pressurised oil feeds passing via a headgasket 

Put simply, its a common and very miss diagnosed (sadly also by the trade) cause. 

Oil cooler is the likely cause