Richard Clements 1990 Mk1 827 Vitesse

[Richard Clements]

As today's weather was quite nice, I decided to take a closer look at the pipe which run along the front of the car, I started by taking the slam panel off along with the bonnet catch and the headlights with the intention of taking out the rads. I came across a rather rusty screw as you would expect and whilst I was thinking of how I was going to budge it I noticed that there was more light in the part i was interested in.
I ended up removing the air box and battery and tray (which was still solid!! a bit of KU rust and paint and it will be good as new)
I was then able to see the gearbox properly and all the various piping, I could see the pipes from the gearbox to the side of the rad (OIl cooler pipes) were indeed grotty but were still solid and more importantly dry as a bone, the coolant pipe was the same all will need to be treated but are solid and not leaking. I could however see where the leak was coming from and it's no wonder why the solenoids were not working properly, they were covered in oil!!




The coolant pipe that runs along the crossmember as you can see it's rusty but not leaking, but will be required to be replaced sooner rather than later.



Various cruddy pipes, but savable.




The area under the battery tray wasn't too bad a bit of rust treatment and some paint and that will be ok for years to come



So where is the oil coming from?? it looks to me to be were the box and the engine meet.

[Richard Clements]

I have been told it's possibly the torque converter having sprung a leak, which having looked at the workshop manual diagram it's possibly the oil seal.

[achandler]

Great to read about your new aquisition, especially since I have recently purchased a 1991 827 Vitesse out here in NZ.
I have found it fascinating to compare the two cars, mine has the half-leather Recarro type seats, no puddle lamps and the earlier type trip computer, though it has the "backward" style 5 spoke alloy wheels, the later 4 instrument panel, and the S4 switch on the autogearlever shift surround rather than on the gearlever itself.
Fortunately, living in New Zealand, rust is not a major problem, as the climate in the Nelson area is very kind to cars, but I do have a little around the inside of the sunroof, but that is the only bit I have found so far. Regarding oil leaks I too have a slight leak from somewhere up behind the engine, not bad enough to cause puddles yet, but when I gave it an oil change I found that there was quite a lot around the bottom of the engine, and quite a "fumey" smell when the car is hot, as if oil may be getting onto the exhaust pipe somewhere. I will let you know if I find out where it is coming from, and hopefully you will put it on the forum as well, if you find yours before I find mine, so to speak.
Our biggest problem out here is that the climate is not kind to rubber or some metal colour schemes. The ultra-violet spectrum in the sunshine dries rubber so that it becomes fragile and non-flexible after a few years, and any metallic dark colour paint under a coat of laquer, burns white, and the only cure is to strip it all off and re-paint. It is not a problem on cars built for the NZ market as they must have used a specially formulated paint to counteract this problem, but any car imported from the Northern Hemisphere will suffer badly after a few seasons of NZ sun. Fortunately my Vitesse is coloured solid white so I dont have a problem, in fact it polishes up well. When I looked up the colour code I was amused to see that its official name was just "White".
Will look forward to hearing more about your fleet.
regards