Common leaks oil and coolant-Saturn Astra
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Common leaks oil and coolant-Saturn Astra
The Saturn Astra seems to have some common oil leaks and weeps. Below are a few. Let us know others you have encountered
1- VALVE COVER GASKET
One may see weeping on the edges of the plastic valve cover and/or oil in the spark plug wells. These don't seem to last too long. Change is easy. Clean the aluminum gently and don't get garbage in the engine. Some techs put a very small dab of RTV or similar at the 2 90* steps; I forget if that is in the service manual. Be very careful torquing down the bolts as the aluminum can strip easily.
2- VALVE COVER
This is made of plastic and seems to warp, causing leaks. It also has the integrated PCV flapper which fails pretty quickly; that part is sold separately but install is not that easy due to brittle plastics. There are tests to see if PCV flapper is not working. Regardless, it is not a bad idea to consider changing the valve cover with the valve cover gasket.
3- OIL COOLER
Repair requires removing the exhaust manifold and draining fluids. These don't seem to last more than a decade. Tell tales might be fluids on engine, fluids on driveway, and/or burnt oil smell in cabin as oil hits exhaust manifold.
There are a bunch of rubber gaskets that fail; all of them should be replaced. Some Europeans replace the metal oil cooler too for warpage or clogging.
GM seems to have two part numbers for the huge gasket. The dealer guessed that the more expensive one might be double beaded for longer life but could not confirm.
***** GM seems to have revised one of the oil cooler pipes so the new gaskets might not fit the old OEM pipe!!!! We ran into that problem on our Astra so just purchased 25194218 (which includes 2 gaskets). Here is more information on the Cruze forum
https://www.cruzetalk.com/threads/co...1#post-3260041
The 3 studs on the OEM exhaust manifold flange were rotted on our car. The factory used a friction fit with a tack weld so getting them out was a bear. We took the exhaust manifold down to local exhaust shop to have them remove the rotted studs (they used a torch). We replaced with M8 nuts, bolts, and washers (we used smaller size and a thinner jam nut for one of the studs with less clearance but the better solution might be to cut the sheet metal cover a bit). Some people use copper nuts for easier future removal I suppose. At these temperatures in the rust belt I'm not sure fasterner material matters much.
4- OIL PRESSURE SWITCH
Popular leaking area. Very easy to change with manifold off (e.g. when chaning oil cooler). The insulator is NLA so we used 55576784. I can't remember if we had to replace the connector for a broken tab.
5- OIL PUMP GASKET
Oil in coolant or leaking in the area are tell tales. If one changed the oil cooler and still sees oil in the coolant, this is the next likely candidate. This is a "tougher" repair. Some techs say it should be done when doing the oil cooler (and timing belt) as the car is partially apart. It requires removing the oil pan (therefore some of the exhaust). The oil pump seems quite durable.
6- OIL PAN
Remove oil pan, clean, and reapply the RTV type sealant. One should also clean the strainer/intake.
7- VVT ACTUATOR
There are gaskets that may weep. Also, the cam bridge requires a special sealant as noted in the service manual (anerobic).
8- RADIATOR (AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS ONLY)
For AUTOMATIC transmission cars, GM had some sort of recall on the radiators; they would mix coolant and transmission oil. Tell tale is oil/milky substance in coolant tank. Eventually, this could kill the transmission and require a coolant flush (plus new coolant hoses, thermostat, coolant tank cap, etc.)
IMHO, one should consider proactively installing a separate transmission oil cooler. We had space with the radiator and AC condensor so it looks more or less OEM.
9- ORANGE OIL CHECK VALVE (INTERNAL OIL WEEPING)
There is a small check valve (metal ball with tiny spring) which prevents oil from draining out of the VVT system. Failure is an "internal oil leak" when engine is turned off. Failure is indicated by noisy VVT for a second on first morning start (or longer). The check valve is hidden behind the alternator and a bit challenging to remove but would be less work if already doing the oil pump gasket etc.
If the actuators are noisy, they are in line for replacement. This is easier when doing the timing.
For all these parts, I would only consider OEM from the dealer. Maybe a top brand like Fel-Pro for the gaskets but from a reliable distributor (not Amazon etal).
1- VALVE COVER GASKET
One may see weeping on the edges of the plastic valve cover and/or oil in the spark plug wells. These don't seem to last too long. Change is easy. Clean the aluminum gently and don't get garbage in the engine. Some techs put a very small dab of RTV or similar at the 2 90* steps; I forget if that is in the service manual. Be very careful torquing down the bolts as the aluminum can strip easily.
2- VALVE COVER
This is made of plastic and seems to warp, causing leaks. It also has the integrated PCV flapper which fails pretty quickly; that part is sold separately but install is not that easy due to brittle plastics. There are tests to see if PCV flapper is not working. Regardless, it is not a bad idea to consider changing the valve cover with the valve cover gasket.
3- OIL COOLER
Repair requires removing the exhaust manifold and draining fluids. These don't seem to last more than a decade. Tell tales might be fluids on engine, fluids on driveway, and/or burnt oil smell in cabin as oil hits exhaust manifold.
There are a bunch of rubber gaskets that fail; all of them should be replaced. Some Europeans replace the metal oil cooler too for warpage or clogging.
GM seems to have two part numbers for the huge gasket. The dealer guessed that the more expensive one might be double beaded for longer life but could not confirm.
***** GM seems to have revised one of the oil cooler pipes so the new gaskets might not fit the old OEM pipe!!!! We ran into that problem on our Astra so just purchased 25194218 (which includes 2 gaskets). Here is more information on the Cruze forum
https://www.cruzetalk.com/threads/co...1#post-3260041
The 3 studs on the OEM exhaust manifold flange were rotted on our car. The factory used a friction fit with a tack weld so getting them out was a bear. We took the exhaust manifold down to local exhaust shop to have them remove the rotted studs (they used a torch). We replaced with M8 nuts, bolts, and washers (we used smaller size and a thinner jam nut for one of the studs with less clearance but the better solution might be to cut the sheet metal cover a bit). Some people use copper nuts for easier future removal I suppose. At these temperatures in the rust belt I'm not sure fasterner material matters much.
4- OIL PRESSURE SWITCH
Popular leaking area. Very easy to change with manifold off (e.g. when chaning oil cooler). The insulator is NLA so we used 55576784. I can't remember if we had to replace the connector for a broken tab.
5- OIL PUMP GASKET
Oil in coolant or leaking in the area are tell tales. If one changed the oil cooler and still sees oil in the coolant, this is the next likely candidate. This is a "tougher" repair. Some techs say it should be done when doing the oil cooler (and timing belt) as the car is partially apart. It requires removing the oil pan (therefore some of the exhaust). The oil pump seems quite durable.
6- OIL PAN
Remove oil pan, clean, and reapply the RTV type sealant. One should also clean the strainer/intake.
7- VVT ACTUATOR
There are gaskets that may weep. Also, the cam bridge requires a special sealant as noted in the service manual (anerobic).
8- RADIATOR (AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS ONLY)
For AUTOMATIC transmission cars, GM had some sort of recall on the radiators; they would mix coolant and transmission oil. Tell tale is oil/milky substance in coolant tank. Eventually, this could kill the transmission and require a coolant flush (plus new coolant hoses, thermostat, coolant tank cap, etc.)
IMHO, one should consider proactively installing a separate transmission oil cooler. We had space with the radiator and AC condensor so it looks more or less OEM.
9- ORANGE OIL CHECK VALVE (INTERNAL OIL WEEPING)
There is a small check valve (metal ball with tiny spring) which prevents oil from draining out of the VVT system. Failure is an "internal oil leak" when engine is turned off. Failure is indicated by noisy VVT for a second on first morning start (or longer). The check valve is hidden behind the alternator and a bit challenging to remove but would be less work if already doing the oil pump gasket etc.
If the actuators are noisy, they are in line for replacement. This is easier when doing the timing.
For all these parts, I would only consider OEM from the dealer. Maybe a top brand like Fel-Pro for the gaskets but from a reliable distributor (not Amazon etal).
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Howard_Woodard
Saturn S Series Sedan
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Jan 5, 2014 02:58 PM