Hi was driving my omega mv6 this morning and the oil level warning light came on. I pulled over and notice the water bottle full of oil then the rad pipe blew off and oily water went everywhere such a mess. Do you think this would be the oil cooler? Was alot of oil in the water must of block the rad?

Yes oil cooler has failed, do not drive it like this, it creates massive cooling problems if driven.

Looking at £160 for parts, easy job to DIY  :y

If you update your profile with your location there may be a member nearby that could help :y

I'm in northern ireland. Will i have to go to vauxhall for the oil cooler or will a motor factor be able to get them. can get a good second hand engine running perfect but maybe its oil cooler would be no better. What is it that goes in them?

What age is your car? Later ones were stainless steel, but the metal corrodes in them, its a radiator sitting in water basically, if poor coolant maintenance is done, it will start to let oil escape into the coolant.

Vx is best place for parts, replacement engine will have unknown history, the oil cooler can just as easily fail.

tunnie wrote on 20. Aug 2011 at 15:17:

What age is your car? Later ones were stainless steel, but the metal corrodes in them, its a radiator sitting in water basically, if poor coolant maintenance is done, it will start to let oil escape into the coolant. Vx is best place for parts, replacement engine will have unknown history, the oil cooler can just as easily fail.

Have this exact same problem myself. Soon to be sorted by an OOF forum member...

When my cooler went it took the radiator with it
get the replacement from dealers
if you are handy with a tool box and follow the excellent guide on the forum then no problems to do yourself

plenty of flushing afterwards with a bottle of forte bio degreaser :y :y

My car is 01. I'm not sure now i put water in the expansion bottle and it keeps rising and running out could it be a head gasket?

stevi1 wrote on 20. Aug 2011 at 15:59:

My car is 01. I'm not sure now i put water in the expansion bottle and it keeps rising and running out could it be a head gasket?

Oil in water is oil cooler failure, you said "rad pipe blew off" - Is that not the source of the leak?

tunnie wrote on 20. Aug 2011 at 16:34:

stevi1 wrote on 20. Aug 2011 at 15:59: My car is 01. I'm not sure now i put water in the expansion bottle and it keeps rising and running out could it be a head gasket? Oil in water is oil cooler failure, you said "rad pipe blew off" - Is that not the source of the leak?

the pipe was refitted before i put the water in but then maybe the rad and stuff is blocked with oil so cant circulate.

stevi1 wrote on 20. Aug 2011 at 19:26:

tunnie wrote on 20. Aug 2011 at 16:34: stevi1 wrote on 20. Aug 2011 at 15:59: My car is 01. I'm not sure now i put water in the expansion bottle and it keeps rising and running out could it be a head gasket? Oil in water is oil cooler failure, you said "rad pipe blew off" - Is that not the source of the leak? the pipe was refitted before i put the water in but then maybe the rad and stuff is blocked with oil so cant circulate.

Without oil in the water I would say maybe but I doubt that the HG would cause the pipe to blow off.  With oil in the water defo oil cooler as the coolant and oil passages are set in a way that HG failure would not cause oil in the water.

i drove my car a week or more with oil in system , til i could get part and get it done... then oil flushed out ok, ok it did take a few flushes, but no long term problems...got oil cooler on ebay, genuine part etc..

Cheers people oil cooler it is will make a start on it tomorrow. I just fitter an lsd yesterday and haven't had any fun yet. Will be a good chance to change the cam belt too.

Got the radiator out today there's more oil than water in it. The heater matrix will be in similar I guess. Is there any sort of product to disperse the oil and break it down?

a cap full of bleach will help, but don't run it with that full long. Don't be tempted to put too much in, a cupful is plenty!

WINDOWMAN wrote on 20. Aug 2011 at 20:00:

i drove my car a week or more with oil in system , til i could get part and get it done... then oil flushed out ok, ok it did take a few flushes, but no long term problems...got oil cooler on ebay, genuine part etc..

I suspect this one has been running like this for weeks ;)

stevi1 wrote on 21. Aug 2011 at 18:54:

Got the radiator out today there's more oil than water in it. The heater matrix will be in similar I guess. Is there any sort of product to disperse the oil and break it down?

Forte do a special one for cleaning out cooling systems post oil cooler failures. It is called something like Forte Coolant Flush for Oil Cooler failures :y

Forte do indeed do a product called Cooling System Flush, but it will not remove oil sludge - it is a de-scaler. 

The oil removing stuff TB is talking about is Forte Bio Degreaser