Thread: Fast oil leak: hydraulic fittings?

Hi all,

I was out on a school camp this last week (I am a teacher) and while setting up a car shuttle, by oil light came on. The pipe on top of the filter had slipped off, for the second time this year, and dumped all the oil.

Luckily, some local guys helped me out and had it going again ready to drive back to Brisbane, but on the return journey I noticed the engine running a little hot, checked the oil and it was low. So I topped it up. This became a pattern and I ended up putting through over 5L of oil, which has nicely coated the trailer I was coating. Clearly, this is a faster leak than is normal for a Disco!

On one of my many oil refuels a guy wandered up and offered some help, he too was a Land Rover driver and commented that every Disco he knew had this same problem, of the pipe slipping off. I asked his suggestion and his advice was to take the car to a hydraulic specialist and get them to make a proper hydraulic line for the oil pipes.

So, my questions are:
1. Is this good advice? If so, are there any recommendations of a hydraulic specialist in Brisbane, preferably Southside that would do this sort of work.
2. Would you take the car straight there and get the job done that way or should I go via the local mechanic and tell them I want a proper hydraulic line fitted?
3. Is there likely to be a more sinister oil leak than simply the pipe? I degreased this afternoon, but am yet top up to oil and run it for a bit to see what is happening. Not that it will be obvious given the amount of oil still in there!

Thanks for any suggestions, I'll confess that I haven't done a forum search yet as "oil leak" is going to give nearly half the threads on this forum, so if this has been already covered and you know the thread, I am happy to have it pointed out to me.

Thanks,

Fermion

'94 300TDi

I had mine modified early on - pirtek or enzed can do it.. they cut the metal ends near the crimp section and braze on new fittings and replace the rubber hose section.. My modified hoses lasted around 10 years and I recently replaced them with locally sourced "genuine" replacements as one appeared to be weeping.. I will get hose sections replaced on my modified lines down the track

One thing to note is to not overtighten the nuts when you re-attach the hoses to the filter head assembly.. I found this out the hard way when I sheared off the aluminium casting - the red mist descended There are "o" rings that do the sealing so don't need to be done very tightly at all - resist the temptation to just tighten it a little more.. I sourced a second hand assembly for $100 (around $300 new) and am now battling a mystery oil leak around the top of the filter which is worse that the oil leak from the hoses

cheers,
Chookie
'98 300Tdi Disco