ibeatgodzilla

Hello,

I own a 1995 80 cabriolet with the 2.0 ABK engine.

It has been an absolute nightmare from the start, making my 42 year old Italian rubbish look reliable in comparison.

Yet I love the look of it and the way it drives (when it works) and stubbornly persist in trying to fix all of its problems.

It seems to develop an unrelated issue as soon as the previous one gets sorted.

Its latest trick is draining all of its oil, rather rapidly.

I performed an oil change last year (maybe only 400 miles ago), with new filter. Wasn't a problem for those 400 miles so I presume the answer isn't '5W40 is too thin' else it would have leaked out sooner.

Recently all of a sudden the oil light came on and it started bleeping - thankfully only ten seconds from my home so I got back. Once inspected, oil had leaked from around the sump gasket, drain plug... And curiously the bottom of the filter too, which is nowhere near the rest.

I had to change the subframe bushes anyway to pass the MOT so whilst I was at it, put a new rubberised steel sump gasket on, made sure it was all tight, undid and re-tightened the oil filter, put a new coppêr washer - and loctite - on the sump plug.

And yet after the next time I had taken it out for a drive, yep - oil leaking from all three locations again.

It wasn't over-filled with oil, the level was between the two marks. Pressure issue? Is there a crankcase breather on the ABK engine which could potentially be blocked? If so where do I find it?

The oil pressure gauge never did work properly - either reading 0 or 5 bars depending on its mood. Showed 5 bars (max) lately but I have seen on forums that this is one of the most common problems on B4 cabrios and coupés, apparently they all do that and a new sender is over £100. Besides it never leaked before in the 4 or 5 years I've owned it despite the gauge never working.

Anybody have any ideas? I'm a bit miffed that it's still leaking oil after having changed everything - I'm guessing it's a pressure related issue, but don't know what the cause - and solution - could be.

Thanks,
Dan

Rusty Spokes

Very hard to diagnose these kinds of problems..could be too much oil pressure..but that would be hard to explain the sump leaks.

Could be the engine breather is "clogged" and over-pressurizing the crankcase.

If your engine has #11 in the PDF..that flying saucer breather valve is worth inspecting.

I would remove the valve cover and check the screen too (if your engine has one) and see if you have #15..a "flame trap" that is notorious for clogging up on USA cars.

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

what Rusty suggested. check all your breather hoses, valve cover, and all related components of the engine breather system. check some aftermarket sources for you sending units, here they are usually $20 each or less, or even check ebay with the part number. for the oil pan, you need to use a torque wrench when redoing the oil pan gasket, otherwise it will most likely leak. Also, DO NOT PUT LOCKTIGHT ON THE DRAIN BOLT.

ibeatgodzilla

Thank you both for the advice.

I checked the 'flying saucer' and could blow through it quite easily - but did my best to clean out what gunk I could whilst it was off. Likewise no resistance through any of the air pipes I blew through.

I took off the valve cover, again the screen could be blown through easily enough but I cleaned it out anyway with brake cleaner and it's even more free now.

Reassembled the lot, only took the car for a quick spin after letting it idle for a bit at home with no obvious leaks. Not far at all maybe 5-10 minutes drive total, once it's cooled down I'll check for any new leaks (I wiped everything dry again before leaving).

What I did notice is when idling although the engine hadn't been on for long at all, the housing that the oil filter screws in to got hot very quick (where the rest of the engine was still warm, ie not too hot to touch) - I don't know if that's normal or not.

I made a point of studying my gauges - not that they ever worked properly since owning the car.
Oil temperature simply doesn't move.
Oil pressure stays at 0 for a second or two then instantly shoots right up to 5 bar (max). However not exactly maxed out as when I put the pedal down it does move just a tiny fraction further, and back to 5 when I let go. Still doesn't seem right though.

I'm not sure which sensors are for the oil temperature and pressure on the ABK engine (anybody have an exploded diagram of that bit?). Under the oil filter is a wire with a now rather perished rubber seal around it which was covered in oil (from the filter leak presumably). I can't see what's on the end of the wire for the angle, and at that point it was already hot so didn't want too go feeling too much to get an idea of the shape.
There are also two separate wires coming off the top of a little cylinder on the top of the filter housing. Are any of these the suspects?

When I pulled up there was burning oil smoke coming up from the engine bay - most certainly previously (or newly?) leaked oil making contact with something hot. Dipstick level seems the same as before I left but it wasn't a long enough run to properly find out - I didn't want to risk going far in case the leak was very fast.

ibeatgodzilla

P.S. loctite on sump plug: OK, I'll believe you if that's in capitals! Not something I normally do but only because of the previous leak I thought that the combination of a new copper washer and loctite too ought to stop anything getting past. Does oil dissolve it then?

Rusty Spokes

The burning oil smoke in the engine bay is most likely oil from the valve cover gasket draining down on the exhaust manifold. It could be oil that normally would drop and run off your valve cover when you removed it or a new leak.

The valve cover gaskets are fiddly and should be replaced each time you open the valve cover. There is a precise torque on the valve cover holding nuts too. Even with all that..it might leak anyways.

A picture would help.

Drive the car for awhile and see if the oil "burns off" because the VC just dropped oil when you changed it . If not you will need to replace the VC gasket.

I use Loctite 574 on my VC gaskets..a light smear on both sides of the gasket when installing. Not much needed.

Your drain plug should be fine..the copper gasket is all that is needed usually.

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

i don't know if locktight will actually dissolve or not, but there is no reason to use locktight on a drain plug. A new copper crush gasket and once in awhile a new bolt should do the trick. it sounds like you need to become really friendly with a torque wrench and criss-cross torque patterns. Do not reuse old gaskets and seals (obviously unless they are very fresh) old dried out gaskets will leak. One thing i would add to this is pressure washing your motor (and avoid your distributor and other vital electronic components) and going for a drive. This way you can see where your leaks are coming from.