Scratched crankshaft
While replacing the crankshaft front oil seal on my 2000 Vauxhall Vectra with the Z16XE engine, I marked the nose of the crankshaft with the self-tapping screw I used to extract the old oil seal. On local journeys around town there is no oil loss, but on long high-speed motorway journeys there is a noticeable oil leak.
On a recent round trip of approximately 230 miles, the engine lost about a half-a-pint of oil. Apart from having the crankshaft machined – which is not feasible on a car of this age and value – is there anything that can be done? Is there room within the oil pump housing to fit two oil seals? Do you think this would make any difference? If not, would using a thicker oil than the standard 10W-40 help?
The car has done around 172,000 miles.
Michael Fleming
The crankshaft is extremely hard and I would be very surprised if a selftapping screw would make a scratch deep enough to allow the oil to leak out. If the crankshaft were that badly scratched, there would also be continual damage to the face of the oil seal. The oil seal is fitted into the oil pump and, from the dimensions I have, I do not believe a second seal would fit into the recess.
It is possible that the seal was damaged during installation and the fault is not with the scratch on the crankshaft. If this is the case, it may be possible to fill the scratch using a liquid metal – Loctite EA 3471 would be suitable and is available here: https://bit.ly/2wltt9g. Once hardened, the repair can be smoothed off with a wet-and-dry abrasive to achieve a perfectly smooth surface for the oil seal to run on. I would not attempt to use a different oil from the recommended grade as this will certainly be detrimental to the running gear in the engine.