Updated - Pg 3 - Massive oil dump - any ideas?

Hallo chaps

My car emptied the sump on Huntingdon ring road this morning, but I'm not sure what could have gone kaputt in such spectacular fashion, I had thought it was the sump gasket?

Most of the oil is over the offside wishbone and driveshaft (like, dripping in the stuff), but there's a fair bit up the water pump, and the drive belt and pulleys are well coated. Sump plug is in place and the gearbox end of the engine seems relatively dry.

There's no sign of any leak from the head gasket, and the water temp was normal before the buzzer went off.

Suppose the best thing to do is just to get stuck in and see what's what, but as always any suggestions or advice are most definitely welcomed!

Cheers
Mat

what buzzer?

never knew it had one

lol yeh my wire came off my spade terminal to my oil pressure switch when i was on my way home from work the other week so i was sat there with the dam buzzer going untill i got home  

did my tits in, i just turned the radio up more lol

There's a buzzer in the dash that goes off when the oil pressure drops below a certain level, presumably to encourage you to stop driving so you don't cook your engine.

First time I've ever heard it and didn't realise what it was for a couple of seconds, at first thought it was the stereo, then I pooped myself when I realised.

Was probably driving for a max of about 30-40 seconds with the buzzer on so hopefully haven't cooked anything  :?

wouldn't have cooked anything at all, (wouldn't have thought)
still be loads of oil floating about to keep it lubed for 3o secs.

when are you picking up?

I'm not sure yet, hopefully tomorrow, got a mate with a van so might ask him for a favour, but I think he might still be on holiday.

I'm not with the AA or anything you see uch:

would offer a tow, but i have only been driving for 3 days.

Ha ha yeah maybe not the best idea! Cheers loads for the offer though  8)

Could be that you've hit some debris on the road, and cracked the sump. Can't think of anything else which would fail so quickly to dump ALL the contents in one go. Unless its something like a bog end, or a rod. I've had that happen before (on a non-VW) and there was a big cloud of smoke in the rear view mirror, complete loss of power and a sharp pull onto the hard shoulder. There was so much smoke I thought there was an engine fire!

cam seal,crank seal or distributor shaft seal  :wink:  all behind timing belt
Bert

Paul and Bert, thanks for the replies!

There wasn't any smoke (as far as I noticed) and from what I could see the sump looked intact so I suppose at this point I'll lean towards Bert's idea.

Now then, how tough are those seals to replace without removing the engine?

Cheers
Mat

theres loads of room in these engine bays. would have thought you could do most things quite easily without removing engine.

what engine is it?

order a cam and crank seal,cam belt,tensioner,you could do the dizzy shaft seal whilst your there,easy jobs,hardest thing is undoing the main crank bolt,if thats done,the seals are easy,basically just prise out the old seal (GENTLY not to scratch any metal surfaces) and tap the new seal in gently with a socket or something like that  :wink: may as well change the oil anf filtro whilst your there  :roll:
Bert

yeah, change the oil, the dirty bit has already been done for you. :wink:

Cool, as long as any shafts don't have to come out, it sounds OK  :wink:

You're right though, at least the dirty bit has been done for me though

Though I'm not looking forward to cleaning all that oil off the underside of the car

tyeness said

Cool, as long as any shafts don't have to come out, it sounds OK  :wink:

You're right though, at least the dirty bit has been done for me though

Though I'm not looking forward to cleaning all that oil off the underside of the car

Get a compressor and a degreaser gun, and its a 5 minute job!

and a shed load of washing up liquid to clean your drive with afterwards.

washing up liquid and a paintbrush (and water) should get most of it off.

or maybe a drive through a field of tall grass would is in order  (just enough to knock off ant drips.

Good plan, all I have to do now is decode GSF's product despcriptions  

Maybe I'll ring them on Monday rather than play the lottery on their website. Better yet I might even try VW  8O

The book of lies says I need to take the rocker cover off to hold the cam sprocket steady while I undo the bolt, is this necessary??

presume you have to remove the cam to get to seal, and it would be a good idea to hold it still or it will turn around