Oil in expansion tank, lots of it.......

[vw oldie]

I have Touran 05 1,9TDi on 130000 miles. Usual oil cooler problem, Happened about 3 years ago and oil cooler and all hoses were changed. Now it happened again but much worse. Started 2 days ago with a small amount of oil in the in coolant expansion tank so I topped up engine oil and drained off the small amount of oil in the coolant tank and drove to work. Arrived with STOP engine warning and found ALL the oil was gone and it had leaked out of the expansion tank and covered the engine bay and all under the car and wheels. AA tow home and now fitted a new oil cooler, fresh filter and oil but issue is the same, Started OK and was on tick over for 30 mins with no issues. Clear water in the tank and took for a quick drive. No heat from the heater for ages then it came on slightly warm and 2 mins later the STOP coolant popped up. Came home and the expansion tank was full of oil?? Oil level seemed normal so flushed through again and tried another test drive and now the oil level is dropping and tons of oil in the expansion tank again. Where is this from?? No water in the oil and it runs smoothly and no obvious signs of head gasket failure so is there any other way so much oil can enter the coolant side. Not impressed with VW anymore, cr@p quality. My 23 year old mk2 GTi 16V Golf is miles better...

Any help much appreciated.....

[towcestervag]

i would suspect the oil cooler
i have changed several for this fault
on the early cars they did suffer from cylinder heads but that has been covered and there is a list on here somewhere

[vw oldie]

Would a brand new one leak straight away? These are German and Swedish parts so not the best in the world I suspect. I saw someone suggest testing it by directly connecting the two coolant pipes together with a pipe and running it without water going through the cooler. I guess if it then leaks oil directly out of the cooler housing then that has to be the cause. So expensive with oil being wasted and a messy oily drive where all the muck has been leaking out.....more crawling about under the car covered in oil and water.

[Doctle Odd]

Remove the thermostat and drain the coolant. Dissolve a cup of Daz in a quart of boiling water and put it into the expansion tank. Fill to the normal level with warm water and drive it fairly sharpish for about 10 miles. You'll have 6 liters of oily water to drain. Do it again with just water before refitting the thermostat and filling with coolant

[vw oldie]

Many thanks for the info. I cross connected the two coolant pipes with 15mm copper pipe and so bypassed the cooler. No oil dripping out of the unit other than a tiny bit which was leftovers from the oily water I guess the new unit must be OK. Oil level seems to have held so hopefully this is all about old muck still in the system. Have run it and drained it a few times but the coolant tank is still filling up with heavy sludge. Tried to syphon out of the expansion tank directly many times but it keeps on coming back. It runs OK and the heater works now so I guess the gunk is slowly moving about. I'll try the Daz trick and see how it goes. One messed up drive and oil all over the place now...

[Doctle Odd]

Jizer for the drive, it will clean it up perfectly. You can buy propriety cleaners to flush your engine but Daz or whatever Mrs Oldie buys is free!

[vw oldie]

Well, another 30,000 miles on and it has gone again, now for the 3rd or 4th time, can't quite remember now. Oil overflow in the cooler tank in the middle of London so AA tow home, again. Bought a VW one this time for £164 and will change it yet again. Is this not clearly a fault or issue as it is not a service item to be replacing oil coolers all the time?? Such a PIA to clear all the oil out of the cooling system again and engine bay and drive covered in sludge. So this car has now had: 3/4 oil coolers, one alternator, one inter cooler hose, one ESP control unit and a few other sundries.

Any one else up to that number? Its an 05 1.9 TDi with 160,000 well cared for miles from new. Just getting boring now when the oil light comes on....low oil or NO oil?