Problem of my own doing

[baronvontinkle]

This is related to the VDO gauges but put it in a seperate thread to get noticed because I'm stumped.

Thought i'd change round the senders to see if that was affecting the pressure reading and this involved putting the t piece in the far hole on the oil filter housing as shown.



The t piece however decided to rip some of the threads out of the hole and now nothing is going in. You can kinda see some of the threads missing in the pic. The old sensor bites but it is at a silly angle and obviously i don't want to keep doing that if i'm going to make it worse.

What are my options? Keep going with the old sensor and see if it tightens? Anyway to plug the hole differently? Or have i broke it and will require a new oil filter housing?

I've got work at two and obviously without that hole plugged i cant drive the car teach me to mess with things at least.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Daston]

Personally I would get the oil filter off and remove the oil cooler. Then there is 3 hex bolts holding the bracket to the block. Undo these and re-thread the hole.

[baronvontinkle]

I'll get my hands on a tap then and give that a go i reckon. Looks pretty simple to get off.

Do i need to drain my engine oil to take the bracket off? Or will there just be minimal oil spillage?

[rubjonny]

you'll loose whatever is left in the head, so a bit will come out but not loads. get the oil filter off first and most of it will drai. what i do is hang a plastic bag under the filter once you crack it loose, then spin it off and let it drop into the bag. helps catch the worst of the oil, remember make sure the bag doesnt have holes in the bottom 

[Ben Lessani]

When you installed the twin pole sender - did you check the spanner flats to see what pressure sender it was (0.3bar / 1.8bar) before install?

As above, you can re-tap it, but that looks like aluminium to me, so the threads are going to be weak. I'd see how much room you've got to move up a size - so at least you can get fresh threads on fresh metal.

[baronvontinkle]

Yeah it was the 0.3 bar sender. Why?

I've got two plans now to fix this. Gonna tap it with M10x1.0 and see if that works but if the hole was similar size to that before then i'm thinking it wont thread (if i remember to thread M10 the hole has to be like 8.5mm). The hole looks to be 10mm so should be alright to tap to M12 so failing M10 will do that and plug it up with something.

Then failing all that my dad is bring home some titanium paste. The old pressure sender will go in but isnt secure really and thats where the oil is coming from. Cover that in titanium paste and sieze the thing in there. At least that will get my car running until i buy a new bracket.

[Ben Lessani]

The 0.3 bar sender goes in the head - not the oil cooler

[baronvontinkle]

I might give that a go then! Sure i read it the other way round somewhere. I'll double check and if it is i'll try it there. Probably why i'm not getting accurate pressure readings aswell.

Also i ended up titanium pasting that hole in the oil bracket. Just had a big run and it holds so as a temp measure its good.

[baronvontinkle]

Right, sorry to keep going on.

Pressure sensor is in the right place but still isnt reading right. Reads 4.5 bar all the time, even when i take the oil cap off the top of the engine. I'm no mechanic but i'm sure that would affect pressure. The only thing that does affect it is turning the heater up to full. That makes it go down to about 4 bar.

Any ideas what this could be?

[danny_p]

if the fan is affecting it it sounds like you have poor earth conductivity back to the sensor