if so, there should be oil in the coolant. pop the reservoir, see if theres an oilfilm on top there. bot unlikely, radiators are subject to alot of wear and tear, especially in the plastic/aluminium joints.

 

No oil in coolant...don't know what else to look at.

 

Turbo charged? I'm in over my head here, but I seem to remember reading about a turbo passing oil into the intercooler which is in that same area.

 

its not unlikely, either. if your car is turbocharged, and the internal oil seals are broken, oil will/can leak into the IC piping, and become part of the combustionprocess, and so "magically" dissapearing. should produce either blue exhaust smoke if the leak is small, or massive, thick black smoke, if the leak is severe (and Im talking MASSIVE leak, like dropping an ounce right into the combustion chamber, so not very likely).

 

Yes, sorry, car is turbo charged T-5 but no smoke and the inter cooler drain hole is clean and dry. seems to be a lot of oil over the front bottom of the a/c condenser but not sure if that's just blown over from the air scoop while driving. Gonna have to clean everything again see what else is new and report back.

 

IIRC, the condenser is behind the radiator, right? could be the actual oil cooler is leaking, not into the coolant (o atleast not exclusively into coolant),, but out on the outside, and through the AC condenser.

 

This is what I thought might be the cause.

Everything is clean again now and the air scoop is off so oil doesn't run from side to side, Might have a leak from the oil cooler line where it goes back into the block but I don't think that would drip anywhere near the plastic under tray / air scoop?

Would a compression test show up a leak in the rad?

 

It is not uncommon that the hoses to the radcooler leaks where they go from rubber to metal . Have a look from under the car whilst idle. I was not able to see the leak from above, thought it could be where the hoses connect to rad. It wasnt. Just had one of my hoses changed, leaked where stated above.

 

check engine compression.

 

a pressure test of the coolant system will tell you if there is a leak, yes. a sylinder compression test will tell you that oil MIGHT be leaking into coolant, if headgasket is blown (sylinder pressure is always higher than coolant pressure, so coolant rarely run into sylinder and out throughr exhaust while engine is running, oil usually goes out into the lower pressurized coolant system). so no test will tell you where the leak is, something you will have to discover on your own

 

So... after cleaning everything up and taking the car out on a short run, the engine oil is leaking from the left hand side of the car,which is where the A/T cooler lines are?
It seems like on my car I have, going from nearest the engine out to the front, Radiator-inter cooler-A/C condenser- then on the front of that there is a 6" high cooler/radiator thing, I think that might be where oil is coming from but I don't know what it is!

I thought the oil cooler went from top to bottom though, why would I be getting a leak from the A/T side?

 

that would be an aftermarket or OEM dedicated oil cooler, often installed on auto cars used for pulling trailers and such, a nice addition to any auto 850. IF it is, and Im not saying it is, you should be loosing transfluid instead. hows the trans fluid level?

in any case, try following the lines from the 6" cooler, see where they go.

 

After cleaning the engine oil dip stick and cleaning the trans dip stick both oil look identical on a white cloth!
So- checked A/T oil level on the cold mark, switched through gears, waited 2 mins took out stick, cleaned, put stick back in, pulled out and oh S**T! well bellow MIN
So following the lines from that small cooler right up front it is indeed an A/T oil cooler and from the looks of it a dead one!

McShake you may just have saved my gear box from a nasty death!!

 

dont mention it, Ive been pulling 850s apart for too long not to share what I kow. and just to rub it in: here in Norway, we are blessed with manual gearboxes

get a good flushing of the tranny, takes a bit of oip, but fresh oil in a clean autotranny changes the feel of the car completely. but before that, get a new oilcooler off IPD, pretty easy fix.

however, we are still at a loss regarding your engine oil level. how much has it been using?

 

Was thinking of by passing the extra oil cooler as I do no towing at all, surely then all I'd have to do is connect a standard hose from the lower rad port to the trans? May replace it tho, not sure how important it is. Keeping an eye on engine oil too It's going somewhere but possibly not as much as I thought.

 

the extra oil cooler is important, in the sense that it rather dramatically increases the longevity of your transmission. worth it, by far, in my opinion. and you can see it liie this: if the oilcooler in question wasnt working, a new and functioning one wont do any damage, on the contrary.

and if you're not sure the engine is using alot of oil, Id let the issue rest until it changes, just keep a close eye on the levels. with a pressurized oilsystem like on our cars (and most others), the engine WILL use oil. people talking about how much their engine dont use oil at all, are either ignorant or full of bullshlt. the PCVsystemt is an open breathing one, allowing any overpressure in the form of oilgas and steam to escape through the combustionchamber, and as so, oillevels will decrease. the dipstick may show the same level, doesnt mean all of the "oil" is actually oil.

filling up a quart every few thousand miles aint unusual at all. it is why manufacturers reccommend checking levels every three fillup or whatnot. good luck man, glad to be of help.