Thread: Time to put away the brick and screwdriver?

Originally Posted by whitey56

I have a 2003 also, if your sump isn't leaking oil i wouldn't worrying to much about the OP bolt, I did mine and it was still tight after 270,000ks at least i have a new sump gasket now.
Seeing your wagon has only 150,000 on it not a lot of bits are ready to fail but will need checking like your tailshafts, belt pulleys, engine mounts, radiator, oil and PS hoses and the others you have mentioned.
Start getting or making the special tools needed now before you need them, like the viscous hub spanners, a 3/8th drive metric socket set with long extensions is a must on these TD5's.
And check all the oil levels yourself, mine had documents the showed it was regularly serviced but there was only 1 litre of oil in the transfer box with just the minor oil leaks they get.
Hope this helps.

You have been lucky another forum member recently replaced his engine with less ks than yours in an my04 due to bolt failure and personally the cost of a sump gasket is much cheaper than an engine

In all honesty it takes about an hour to do the oil pump bolt even less if the car is lifted it requires jacking the car up and putting it on stands so the axle can hang then undo the brackets which hold the trans lines to the sump you will then need to undo the rear drag link at one end and swing it out of the way then undo the nuts holding the turbo drain and then undo the sump which also has 4 bellhousing bolts holding it on