i have the 96 millineum s. going on 2 years. love this car but that oil leak coming off the filter is what ive been chasing for about a year.im positive its not the oil filter or sending unit.my oil cooler line started leaking so i thought it was softning up old oil and making it look like oil.i cleaned it all good and still have that annoying little leak.how do you get the oil cooler housing off to change the o ring?that HAS to be it.im new here and this forum has saved me big money.thanks all.hope some of my findings will help someone as well.
remove the oil filter. you will see a large nut. that nut holds the oil cooler on. CAUTION:if you overtorque that nut, you will crush the cooler, and oil and coolant will mix, destroying your engine.
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Thanks for the caution.Any idea what the torque spec is on that nut? Just a nice tight snug on the o ring? Will i need to remove the coolant lines or is there enough clearance to pull it down and change the o ring?
Thanks for the caution.Any idea what the torque spec is on that nut? Just a nice tight snug on the o ring? Will i need to remove the coolant lines or is there enough clearance to pull it down and change the o ring?
fsm says 19-25 ft/lb. i would red loctite it, too. those hoses are pretty stiff, i take them off. actually, i get new ones. if i do this job, i pull the oil filter head, and do it on the bench. but, to do that, i go in from up top, and a lot of stuff then has to come off. plus, you will have to clean the gasket to the block, if you dont get a good seal, it will piss oil all over the place, and you get to do it all over again. even on a lift, and going from below, it is tight.
I rolled her up on ramps...
I could see the top of the oil cooler from looking down but didn't try going at it that way.
I removed the two hoses for coolent...have a bucket ready. Then removed the filter.
Here is where I meesed up but learned from it...I removed the entire unit from the block. There are (3) 10 or 12mm bolts holding it on and you can only really see part of one. You have to feel around for it, and use extentions and a universal joint would have been useful.
Anyway, once that was all removed, I took the nut holding the filter adapter (I think Keninn calls it the oil filter head) off and there was the seal. Had I known what I was doing ahead of time, I would have just removed the filter adapter (head) first but its done now. I can't remember the size of the nut but it was larger than I had...had to borrow from a neighbor.
If you take the whole unit off, it is a pain in the arse moving the gasket. It is very tight up in there and I would guess it took about an hour to take off the small gasket plus it was a special order part. I ended driving to phx from Tucson...well, read the earlier post.
Then it is putting it all back together. I am not going to comment on any leaks now because there isn't any wood handy to knock on, but lets just say I am happy so far.
Thats it...have fun.
Last edited by JJohnsonAZ; 10-28-2009 at 08:40 PM.
