awdinut

And by that I mean the 2" long plastic oil cooler tube that cracks leaking coolant and necessitating engine/trans R&R.

GradecEngineering

Are you specifically referring to the BVJ motor (V8 4.2) available in North America for model years '07-'10?

The last time I heard of crack pipes was on VW VR6's.

Junius

Not that I know of. I believe that it is mainly a problem on older 4.2s up until 2006. Also, from my experience, the engine and transmission do not need to be removed at all. My mechanic somehow removed the exhaust manifold to get to it. It was done the next day.

awdinut

As it was explained to me by my indie tech, the whole front of the car has to be removed, and the sub-frame dropped, in order to remove the manifold and do the oil cooler R&R. That would still be very expensive wouldnt it ?

Junius

Well my mechanic did the job for right under $1,800. It would of been cheaper but I decided to just replace the entire oil cooler assembly. Most dealerships charge in the 3-4K range, so I got a real good bargain. From what I do know, the front of the car does have to be removed but I'm not sure about removing the sub frame on the later direct injected 4.2s, atleast on my '05 you didn't. He just removed the exhaust manifold assembly from what I remember. Are you currently having an oil cooler leak? Seems less common in the '07 and above 4.2s......

nathanwind

Crikey, so the '06s are prone to this? Is there anything that exacerbates this issue that can be avoided/etc? Or anything once can do to "check" and see if their motor is developing any symptoms?

Junius

I never said only 06's were prone, but as far as the D3 generation goes (and 4.2 for that matter), the earlier timing belt-driven 4.2 v8 engines from the 2004 to 2006 model year were known to have this problem. Again, I'm not too sure about the 2007 to 2010 D3 models with the updated 4.2 v8. The only symptoms I would know about would be slight to severe leaking of coolant from the front passenger side of the vehicle right above the water-cooled alternator. You would know this by either seeing pink coolant on the ground or seeing a noticeable decrease of coolant from the overflow tank. There really isn't any performance problems. Some people notice leaking over a period of time, usually when the car is parked and it's cold, or it just leaks suddenly, like what happened to me.

Shark_V8

I just replaced a plastic coolant pipe on my TT Roadster. It was cracked alright.

Solid part new, but plastic doesn't like to be cycled. By cycling I mean hot/cold/hot or by mechanical stress, such as vibration.

So there is nothing you can really do except not use it for short trips (buy a bike) - which is a good practice for any car.