Corsa-B.uk - Vauxhall, Opel and Holden Corsa B Owners Club

My wife loves her Corsa but it has a persistent oil leak (about a litre a month driving about 10,000 miles a year). It is late 1999 vintage with FSH and in good nick at 96,000 miles. It runs very well and is reasonably economical. There is no oil burning in the exhaust and it has just passed its MOT with no faults or advisories.

Apart from normal servicing the following has been done professionally in the last six months:

Cylinder head gasket
Breather pipes replaced or cleaned
Oil strainer cleaned
Sump gasket
Crank shaft oil seals
Crank shaft bearings
Camshaft oil seals
Oil pressure switch

The oil seems to start leaking after about 10 miles and the situation is made worse as the oil falls onto the hot exhaust and smells pretty strong after a 15-20 mile journey. It is impossible to see where the oil is coming from as the engine bay is very crowded and the oil spreads all over the place after a journey. We are using 10w40 oil as recommended by Vauxhall.

Anybody got any other ideas?

Thanks,

Hugh
h.savell@btopenworld.com

can you see if the oil is high on the engine or is it lower down? i had this problem on mine and it was the cam cover gasket, mine had gone rock hard but i could see oil on the head and the block.

my girlfriend also had a problem with it using oil and her dipstick wasnt sitting in the pipe properly and oil was spraying out of it but oil was everywhere even on the underside of the bonnet lol

dan

A year or two back I had to change the crankshaft oil seal on my daughters 1.4 sport. It was tricky to get the new seal in place without damaging it as the crankshaft has a sharp edged step on it which catches the new seal as you slide it in to place.

It could be that any of the seals you say have been "professionally" changed may have been damaged on installation.

As the other poster says, you need to look and see where the oil is coming from. If the engine/block is already wet with oil you will just have to wipe it down then keep an eye out for the fresh stuff - before it gets splattered evereywhere - else you can't see where it is coming from.. If the car is going through the quantity you say then it should not take long to spot.

Best of luck