oil leak, coolant leak, fuel leak. where do i start?

[eglin89 0]

Good afternoon everybody,

 

As you can probably tell I could do with some help. A bit of background information to get you started. I've a '94 vr6 which I bought a few months ago. It's been running great other than using a bit of oil up until yesterday.

 

With regards to the oil use, the sump has a bit of damage to it where the car used to be lower and it seems to have a coating of oil on one side, however it seems to use more oil some days then others which is the part that's puzzling me.

 

The coolant and petrol leak are more pressing however as the car is used daily. Driving home yesterday the coolant light started flashing so I pulled over and checked and it seemed a little low. I drove carefully to somewhere I could get some coolant keeping my eye on the temperatures the whole way and it got up to 110C and when I parked up the coolant started gushing out of the bottom of the engine bay. Would I need a new thermostat or is it something more serious?

 

I tried looking into it today and this is when I noticed the petrol leak. It seemed to be dripping, relatively quickly, from underneath the drivers seat area and only when the engine was running. There were a couple of thin pipes there which it seemed to be leaking from. Am I right in thinking these are the fuel lines and would there be any reason for it only start leaking today/yesterday? Perhaps tied in to the coolant leak?

 

Any help is much much appreciated as i've a 40 mile round trip to and from work everyday and I don't want to risk driving it until I at least know what's wrong.

 

Thanks,

 

James

[colinstubbs 0]

The thin pipes are the fuel lines they'll be pressurised by the fuel pump when the car is running/ignition is on hence they don't leak all the time - get them fixed ASAP!! If the car was previously lowered the pipes may have been crushed at some time it's probably a coincedence they've failed along with the other stuff.

 

Was the rad fan going when you stopped for the coolant leak? Has it boiled out from under the expansion tank cap? You may just need a new cap. Could be the thermostat, is your bottom rad hose getting hot? If not the thermostat could have failed shut, cheap enough to replace. The fan switch could have failed if the fan wasn't going, check fuses first of course, could also be the fan itself.

 

Only have an early valver myself so someone else will be better informed about your oil issues.

 

Welcome to the forum ;)

[eglin89 0]

Hi yeah thanks. I've not had a chance to get underneath the car to have a proper look at the fuel lines but reading into it, it could just be the fuel lines chaffed through slightly which can be fixed easily enough. I presume it's just where I don't tend to look under the car with the engine running where I didn't initially notice as it's been smelling a bit rich recently and the mfa is about 10% down on actual fuel useage.

 

With regards to the coolant leak the fan had kicked in i'm sure as it was running up to 104C on the oil temp. It looked like it was coming from a pipe low in the engine bay behind the radiator and something just above that. Not sure if that's the thermostat housing at all?

[tony_ack 0]

The coolant leak sounds like it is coming from the pipe between the oil cooler and the crack pipe. Access down there is incredibly tight due to the front engine mount and the radiator getting in the way. You can try to replace the pipe by getting under the car, but it won't be easy.

 

I replaced the crack pipe on mine a couple of months ago, and took off the whole front end off to do it, which gives all the access you need, but there are other problems associated with this (e.g. possible seized bumper bolts). I ended up replacing the crack pipe, thermostat housing and thermostat on mine, but then the water pump started leaking a week later and the radiator too, so I had to replace those as well. Because I had fixed one leak, the system was up to pressure, and the next weakest component failed.

 

If you opt to take off the front end for better acces, I would definitely do the thermostat housing, thermostat and crack pipe at the same time.

[fendervg 30]

Sounds like a crack pipe or thermostat housing leak for the coolant, and the oil could be the camshaft seal or more likely the oil cooler seals.