08 Opel Corsa - water in oil

Izzy1994

My mother has an 08 Corsa that she bought from new. She doesn't do huge mileage, and has got it serviced each year a little before Christmas (by an independent guy whom she's found to be very reliable over the years).

This year he found that there was water in the oil I think - the oil was whitish-grey and foamy. He told her to bring it straight to the main dealer, and they're telling her they can't find out where the water is coming from, and are asking whether anyone else has tried to "take apart the engine" (not sure if those were the exact words!)

Anyway, the independent guy says he's seen the same thing happening on a number of cars of the same type since the engine was changed from a four to three cylinder model (sorry, no knowledge of cars beyond the basics!)

Here are the details:

Make OPEL
Model CORSA
Description LIFE 1.0I 12V 5DR
Fuel Type PETROL

Anyone come across this before? What are the prospects for getting it fixed? Is she looking at a very expensive repair involving, I dunno, a new engine or a complete overhaul? Or is it "dekcuf"?

Silvera

If a car is doing low mileage and the oil isnt really getting warmed up fully, condensation can form in the oil. This might be the problem.

Having said that, my girlfriend has a '08 Astra and the oil has being showing a 'tint' of water in it since she bought it two years ago (even after regular oil changes/normal mileage). I read somewhere that this is apparently 'normal' for these engines.

It all depends on how much water is in the Corsa's engine of course - worse case scenario it could be a blown head gasket. Has it ever overheated?

colm_mcm

Unless she's actually losing coolant then I wouldn't panic about a new engine.

Obviously if there's sludge in there that's a problem

enumbers

You need to find out if its losing coolant or not. If not the whitish build up is nothing to worry about unless it is building up very quickly, if it is building up quickly with no sign of coolant leak then there could be a possible breather system problem which would need to be investigated.

If the car is losing coolant into the oil there is a really common fault on the timing change gasket which causes water oil mixing

Izzy1994

Silvera wrote: »

If a car is doing low mileage and the oil isnt really getting warmed up fully, condensation can form in the oil. This might be the problem.

She does one run of about 10 miles out and back every week. I don't know whether that would be sufficient to warm the oil up.

Silvera wrote: »

Has it ever overheated?

No, definitely not.

enumbers wrote: »

You need to find out if its losing coolant or not.

It doesn't seem to be. The main dealer reckon that water is getting in there, but so far they haven't figured from where. So I assume they've ruled out the possibility of it coming from the coolant.

Nissan doctor

Izzy1994 wrote: »

She does one run of about 10 miles out and back every week. I don't know whether that would be sufficient to warm the oil up.

10 miles a week??:eek:

A couple a test done by a garage with proper equipment will tell if there is any issue and what it is, however , its almost certain to just due to the oil never getting up to temperature properly.

How often is she having it serviced?

Holsten

Dunno how a main dealer cannot figure out the problem.

Possible gasket seal problem. It should really be figured out as it could end up costing a lot in the future.

I know it's common in Astras, dunno if it's the same with the Corsa.

colm_mcm

Nissan doctor wrote: »

How often is she having it serviced?

Every Christmas it says

Nissan doctor

colm_mcm wrote: »

Every Christmas it says

Doh.

That should rule out long term oil contamination so.

Izzy1994

Nissan doctor wrote: »

10 miles a week??:eek:

LOL, sorry... she drives it around town every day (forgot to mention that important detail ), with that one longer run once a week.

Leonard Hofstadter

The oil probably hasn't had a chance to warm up properly with that kind of driving. I'd take it for a good run and see what it's looking like at that stage. Pretty poor for a mechanic not to know this tbh. Those three cylinder Corsa engines can give trouble alright, but usually not that soon!

Izzy1994

captainspeed wrote: »

Pretty poor for a mechanic not to know this tbh.

I wonder if it's that simple though - surely out of the independent guy and the mechanics at the main dealer's, one of them would have copped what you're saying?

From what I gather, the main dealer's have acknowledged that there's water getting in "through a crack" somehow, though they don't know where. I'm getting this all second-hand from my Mam though, so I don't know how reliable it is!

Gaothdobhair

Any luck with this? My sister in laws corsa, 08, broke down yesterday, overheating, water in oil, 50m on the clock. Engine is kaput? common problem she is finding out? Garage man says opel should be sued with the amount going?

Nissan doctor

I've never seen an Opel headgasket fail where there was no other associated cooling system problem(leak etc) that had gone unnoticed by the driver/owner.