[Car_Overhaul] One Thing Leads To Another..

[jackherer 543]

I think because the acceleration is slower in higher gears the flap spends more time at the position it is prone to sticking at. If it is a worn AFM causing it you'd probably do best to replace it rather than repairing it.

[Kane 34]

Is there any way too check to confirm that the afm is the issue?

[jackherer 543]

Try moving the flap by hand to see if you can feel any notchiness, it should move very freely with the only resistance coming from the return spring. There is also some useful info here - http://www.the944.com/afm.htm

[Kane 34]

Perfect, thanks Kieran I'll have a look when I get a minute next week.

[Kane 34]

So yesterday at the mot station didn't exactly go as planned. Car failed on a multitude of items, mainly being electrical which is extremely frustrating as all the points that were picked up were working perfectly fine when I checked over the car prior to putting it in. Looks like a combination of dodgy earths and oxidized terminals causing intermittent issues. I'm going to go over it on Sunday and likely just cut out some plugs and replace them with new (not necessarily similar) connectors so hopefully that shouldn't be too much of a headache to complete.

 

Additionally there were some minor points made about breather location in engine bay and drivers seat adjuster, again both of which should be fairly straight forward.

 

The only real mechanical issue that it failed on was a rough OS front wheel bearing so I'm going to nip out to the local ecp in the morning and hopefully pick one up there and then. What really pissed me off was one of the advisories noted slight play in NS front wheel bearing also which I can't see how is possible as this bearing had been replaced (by the same garage) at the cars last mot and since then the car has only covered 150 miles or so. I'm going to whip the wheel off on the NS as well and double check the hub nut has not loosened itself slightly resulting in an apparent play in the bearing so hopefully that will be fine.

 

The last major thing that needs looking at is the apparent oil leak I have. I had noticed initially a large amount hosing out of the oil pressure sensor and have since fitted fibre washers which I thought cured the issue but I now think that it has just slightly reduced it. The mot man's comments when I collected it were along the lines of "f**k me the oil has been Pishing out the arse of it, you'll have to see to that" so see to it I will. I'm going to pick up a selection of copper washers from plumbline or similar when I go to get a new wheel bearing so fingers crossed I can get it all tomorrow. Main reason for the rush is the free partial retest has only 10 days before it expires and I'm off back to Aberdeen on Sunday night for work again, fun and games eh.

 

That's all for now, wish me luck for the rest of the weekend ha ha.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Had the same oil leak issue on my Mi when I fitted a brass T piece for an external guage. Only found out when I left a trail of oil all the way down the driveway to the MOT garage (and presumably all across North London for the journey there!). As recommended by our ever knowledgeable forum pals, I fixed it with PTFE plumbers tape.

[Kane 34]

Got a load of plumbers tape in the garage actually, never even thought of using that. I'll give it a blast down with the pressure washer, fit some tape and rubber washers on the suspected leaking areas just to be sure. Was ideally wanting to use copper but my local halfords and motor factors don't have any in stock.

[Kane 34]

Heading out to the car tomorrow to tackle the various jobs needing done good the retest. Had my old man on the phone earlier saying he'd made a start and sorted most of the electrical issues so mainly only the wheel bearing to sort, oh and that pesky oil leak.

 

He had mentioned that the sump is definitely leaking, in two places. The first is on the OS front corner where the sealant obviously hasn't done it's job with the second and more worrying of the two located on the opposite side around the flywheel area. I'm praying to God that it is just a poor sealing around the sump here as well as I really don't have time available at the moment to drop the gearbox and check the usual suspect areas.

 

For what it's worth I'm pretty certain I fitted the crank seal correctly, left pretty much flush with crank case. What's worrying me most is the possible leak from the hockey stick seals as that would mean a large strip down. I'm going to start with the sump first tomorrow, here's hoping that it is that that is the culprit and nothing more.

[Kane 34]

Got out to the car today and began by checking the full extent of my oil leak problem. No leak when the car is off but when it runs the pressure causes two streams to form at either side of the sump. I drained the oil and let it sit while I started on the other jobs.

 

Got the hub off without too much drama and to be honest removing the old bearing wasn't that much of an issue either. Hit it with the blow torch and then using a combination of breaker bar, chizels, screwdrivers and various sizes of hammers it came out.

 

As I don't have a press I had to insert the new bearing with a combination of swearing and brute force. It went in ok but then the major cu*t of a job of putting the circlip back in took ages. I tried it for a good while on my own with no avail but with a helping hand from my old man we got it in.

 

Only thing left after that was to throw everything back on, job done!

 

Only other issues that I had to rectify before he retest was a slight leak at the rear NS brake line (solid to flexi join) and to replace a reverse bulb. The brake line was just a matter of tightening it up a little more so was a quick fix. Now the car should be good to go in for its retest

 

I cracked off the sump once all the other jobs were complete and find it extremely easy to remove once the bolts were out. The sealant didn't put up too much of a fight so I'm assuming that it was here that he leak was originating. The join between the spacer and block however was rock solid, so much so I couldn't get it off to try and reseal so I decided to leave this for now.

 

After thoroughly cleaning both surfaces I applied some gasket sealant to the sump and put it back on, I'm really hoping this has solved my problem as I don't fancy having to remove the engine again. I've left the engine to sit over night to allow the sealant to cure so will refill the engine tomorrow and get it sent back to the garage some point Next week.

[Kane 34]

Just a quick question regarding sump bolts. I've been having a think with regards to my oil leak problem so had a search and found a couple of sources say that there should be a few shorter sump bolts located near the flywheel end of the sump, mine however are all the same length.

 

Upon removing the sump yesterday and replacing with a new seal I found one was slightly difficult to go in so I hunted for a shorter bolt in my box of bits and replaced it no bother.

 

Does anyone have a photo or info detailing exactly where the shorter bolts should go, how many of them are they and also if normal length bolts were used is there any chance of damaging the block (please don't say this!!)

 

Thanks

[Anthony 1,003]

The shorter bolts should go into the main bearing cap at the flywheel end.

 

I can't remember if all XU's have the shorter bolts, but certainly if you use too long a bolt in the bearing cap you can end up damaging / deforming the surface for the crank seal and it'll leak oil. Had to fix an Mi16 earlier this year where someone had done just that.

[Kane 34]

Thanks Anthony so just to clarify both the centre bolts on the main bearing cap should be shorter?

 

Yet another blow to my mental state! I guess I'll have to drop the gearbox to access the crank seal if it has damaged it. Hmmm has anyone got a Jerry can and box of matches..

[Anthony 1,003]

Possibly.

 

From memory early tin sumps (like most 8v's) do use a shorter bolt on the bearing cap, but I can't remember if early alloy sumps (like most Mi's) do or not - Servicebox is suggesting not, but that's not always the most reliable source for this kind of info.

 

Later alloy sumps (like GTi-6's) don't use a shorter bolt.

[Kane 34]

Fingers crossed I haven't damaged anything. I know for certain that poor sealing on the sump was causing some of the leak but couldn't see further up towards the crank seal while everything was still on.

 

I'll find out tonight I guess when we fill her back up. Keep your fingers crossed folks.

[Kane 34]

So unfortunately lady luck is still not on my side. After resealing the sump I got the engine filled up and fired her up, still bloody leaking!

 

From the looks of it the leak was originating from the between the sump spacer and the block after all, probably should have just taken that off and resealed in the first place Oh well onwards and upwards. We set about taking off the sump again with the spacer this time and by the looks of it I had been slightly reserved with the level of sealant I used, yet another stupid mistake

 

After a quick inspection it looks as though that there hasn't been leaking occurring above the level of the join between the spacer and block so I think I may have dodged a bullet on the crank seal (touch wood). Now to put it all back together with a more generous amount of sealant which should hopefully solve my problem.

 

I definitely think I'll send my next engine rebuild to be run in on a dyno as opposed to in the car. Means any mishaps brought about by my own stupidity would be slightly easier to fix

[mrfirepro 127 1 Cars]

Kane,

 

Nice work, I feel your pain, same is happening to me, might have the matches and petrol can when your finished with them...

[Kane 34]

It's a bloody nightmare isn't it Paul! Not only is the leak a problem but now it's covered my nice clean engine and engine bay in oil.

 

I'll be sure sure leave some in the Jerry can just in case

[Kane 34]

So today confirmed my original fears. My attempt to reseal the sump has had no effect as the source is higher up I.e the mains caps on both the flywheel and cambelt ends haven't been sealed properly and are Pishing out oil. Only thing to do now is take the engine out.

 

This has left me some what annoyed! As all the other jobs that were required for the mot have been done I'm going to drop the car off with the mot station so it can go through its partial retest. The oil leak was listed as an advisory so I'm assuming it should pass, can anyone confirm this?

 

Hopefully going to get time next weekend to lift the engine out, remove the gearbox and sump with the two end caps, reseal, give the whole engine a quick hose down and refit. I think a day at it should be enough time, well I hope so

[Anthony 1,003]

An oil leak won't fail, but if bad enough could be listed as "dangerous"

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

What is leaking? The main cap to block joint? If so can those not be done with the engine and box in situ?

Personally it seems a lot of work pulling the engine and box if you don't have to.

[Kane 34]

Hmm hopefully the guy will take pity on me and let me away with it. Should find out tomorrow, will update when I hear back.

[Kane 34]

Is it easy enough to do it in situ Tom? I just thought that removing the end caps might make it difficult to keep the crank seals in place when refitting. If it is possible I'll definitely have a go doing it that way first

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

I have never tried but if I were you I would attempt it. The cambelt end seal is easy enough to get to whatever happens. The flywheel end obviously needs the box off if it goes skew so you will need to be careful but I'd say there's a good chance it is do-able, by carefully pulling the bearing cap up into place evenly with it's bolts. If it leaks you have lost a couple of hours compared to a marathon shift pulling the engine and box.

[Kane 34]

Removing the engine is the last thing I fancy doing at this moment in time so I'll give it a go in situ and let you know how I get on. I'm going to try and get the sump off for a few days and allow all the remaining oil to drain from the inside of the block. This should hopefully give the sealant the best chance of doing it's job.

 

Thanks for the advice Tom

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Leaving the sump off for a few days is a good idea, also get some spray brake cleaner and wash down the inside walls of the crank case which will help get the sealing surface clean and oil free to allow the silicone to work.