04 Zafira diesel, cooling disaster (??) on M5 - engine not dead!!!

[Petemate]

With regard to the pressure differences, you took the words right out of my mouth Will. Oil pressure will win over coolant pressure in the circumstances suspected here. OP I wish you luck, you may be fortunate enough to save yourself a lot of money.
Pete

[sgould]

The more I think about this, the more I come back to a failed oil cooler.

You have a massive amount of oil in the cooling system.  That would happen if the oil cooler failed.

If the head gasket had failed, the pressure would be from the cylinder not the oil system.  The amount of oil being sucked into the cylinder and pushed out into the water ways, or diverting across, would be very small as most would go out of the exhaust.  Pressure would build up and would cause the reservoir to overflow, but it wouldn't blow off a big pipe and fill the system with a lot of oil. 

Think of the common head gasket failure on the Saab 3.0 TiD.  It overpressures the water system and loses coolant.  It doesn't blow the cooling system apart and fill it with oil.

[Audax]

The more I think about this, the more I come back to a failed oil cooler.

You have a massive amount of oil in the cooling system.  That would happen if the oil cooler failed.

What you are saying there is entirely the reasoning behind why I suggested early on that it might be either ATF to coolant or an oil cooler. 

[sgould]

Absolutely!

I was just thinking out aloud....

[Steve McF]

You boys are making me want to dismantle things and clean them up, and then get a new oil cooler......

[Steve McF]

Hello again - time for an update!!!!

Been to ireland in the neighbours Saab 9-3 eatate, but back now and took today off to try to dismantle the oil cooler. Things got off to a bad start when I could not jack the car up high enough on our sloping and uneven drive to either get the front wheels on my ramps or put axles stands under

So I concentrated on looking from above......and it looks like I can't get to the oil cooler unless I:
a) take the undertay off and go from underneath,
b) take the front bumper off and remove radiator and cooling fan (and maybe intercooler).

At this point I gave up, carried on cleaning as best I could, and then re-assembled the hoses etc.

A neighbour has just given me the card of a local mobile mechanic, and I have just called him. Hopefully he can come and tell us once and for all what exactly is wrong, and give me a price on fixing it. Then we'll take it from there, because I don't appear to have the tools, time or facilities to sort this myself

[sgould]

Glad you had a good holiday!

Getting a man with tools to look at it is probably a good idea. 

All the unused tools in my garage were bought when I decided that a special tool was cheaper than the labour cost a garage would charge.  An alternative to consider.

[Steve McF]

Will,

that's not an offer to have a look at the car with your array of special tools, is it?? ha ha

[sgould]

Sadly not!  I'm off to Italy on Thursday morning and not back until later in the month.

I was up in Southam with my son and daughter in law at the weekend, I could have dropped off my 2 tonne jack, if it lifted high enough.

[Steve McF]

Time for an update - finally managed to get a local mobile mechanic to look at the car- he has confirmed it is the oil cooler which is "split". He said if I order the part, he will fit it for about 100 quid Then we'll flush the system through and see how she goes

That's more like it - rather than VX dealer response of "it is 100% your headgasket, £1800 to repair" (without even looking at the car :eek: )

Part now ordered online - 135 quid delivered....watch this (now more positive) space

[sgould]

That's (almost) good news!!

[Audax]

That's more like it - rather than VX dealer response of "it is 100% your headgasket, £1800 to repair" (without even looking at the car :eek: )

Even more alarming is that we diagnosed it over the Internet without knowing anything in particular about the car or engine! 

[sgould]

Yep! Logic rules!

It still rooles even after a nice bottle of Pinot Nero!! :hick:

[Steve McF]

Yes but I trust you guys

Got the oil cooler, but now can't get hold of the bloke who said he could do it to organise

If he dosen't get back to me by Monday, I'm calling another local guy who has been on holiday but is now back..........

Once the cooler is on, I guess we will need a load of this stuff:
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Vauxhall_Zafira_2.0_2004/p/car-accessories/engine-oils-and-car-fluids/car-additives/cooling-system-treatment/?555770200&0&cc5_171

Do we have to drain as much of the sludgy coolant out first, put this stuff in with some new coolant, and then drive the car for a bit to get it warm, before draining out and repeating? And how many times would we need to repeat?

And will I need to look at replacing cooling system hoses that have been contaminated with oil for the last few weeks whilst the car has been standing?

[Steve McF]

Just got an interesting reply on the Vauxhall Owners Network to my queries on this:

Hi the same thing happened to my brothers car and he said it was the oil cooler he ended up with oil in the expansion tank and radiator.
Hope that helps.

and this:

this is common on any of the 2.0 and 2.2dti engines

so here is the list

astra, omega vectra zafira, frontera, saab 9-3 saab 9-5

not as popular on the 1.7 diesels

but also on some of the v6 engines

the reason for it is the coolant not at right strength

the coolant acts as inhibitor as the block is steel and other parts are alloy

there is a service bulletin for both vx and saab that defines the above

So if you have the Saab 2.2 diesel and this happens to you, it is likely to be oil cooler as well