After many years of trouble free Coupe ownership, it's finally caught up with me.

My first proper Coupe disaster.

All spruced up (car not me) and off on the motorway for a trip up to Shropshire and a nice weeks holiday ........

Sudden loss of oil pressure ( which I spotted immediately), along with that feeling in the pit of your stomach! Thankfully pulled over immediately and coasted to a halt on hard shoulder - quick inspection to front off-side confirmed my worst fears - oil cooler pipe.

So, froze for an hour waiting for AA man (and that was a priority callout) before being towed back home.

No idea if the engine has suffered, but it can't have done it much good.

So, still mobile, at least for 4 days as I get a free courtesy car from the AA, but big problem now is to get the car somewhere for repair . Normally I would got to Motormech, but any of you Bristol guys know of anyone closer that you would trust??

Annoying really, as along with the belts, I was going to have the oil cooler pipes checked, or replaced early next year when Paul has it for it's service and check-over.

Makes a mess of the car when it goes .... drivers side had black oily streaks all down it. Washed it off now to stop it turning in to a sticky mess, but bet the underside does't look good either!

fingers cross Paul that you caught it in time .

Give Country cruising a bell. 01885 400740.
He is a Coupe wizard and not to far from you.

Paul,

I can recommend Lui in Somerton, so only 20 miles from Taunton. He is an Italian car specialist and looked after my Coupe for me.

His contact details are;
Address: Unit 3, Camelot Court, Somerton Business Park
Bancombe Road, Somerton, Somerset, TA11 6SB
Telephone: 01458 274 499

regards

Tony

Countrycruising or senny dave here as hes a mobile mech..fingers crossed

Gutted for you Paul and hope there's no serious damage

Same here, i know that gut-wrenching feeling oh so well.

If the engine is ok the oil underneath may actually protect your car to an extent

Give senny dave a call he is in bristol and will come to you
fingers crossed!

How bad do the pipes have to be before the let go guys, This is a very sad time for him, and I would like to learn from it! Mine 'looked' pretty tired last week when I was examining uder the car..

Sounds as if you managed to stop in time! Fingers crossed. After my CHOD blew on the M25 and toasted my turbo I now spend almost as much time watching the gauges as the road.

Any lingering doubts regarding hoses/pipes, change them.... a stitch in time and all that.

Good luck, Tim

Can you all stop distracting him, it's his shot at snooker this eve.

Saying that, it's the longest he's ever made me sit down in a frame before

LOL

C' mon dan your shot at last

Didn't have you down as a sportsman Dave, despite your "unique" figure

Back on topic please proccy this isn't helping paul out

So you're going to sort him out via snooker commentary eh?

No although I am willing to help as always

I had the oil cooler flexi pipe burst on a customers car not long back (X19pilots car)
Oil pressure dropped and after i had repaired the pipe at the side of the road using a hacksaw and a piece of flexi pipe i had to top it up with 4 1/4 litres of oil.
Disconnected injectors and spun it over on the key for around a minute until the oil pressure rose whilst cranking only.
Started it up after that and other than a few noisy lifters for about 20 seconds it was all well.
I think it all depends on how good the oil is that was in there prior to the failure which buys you that extra few seconds.

Does make a mess though.Oil was even on the rear number plate.

( SennyDave )

Thanks guys for your support - I'm hoping that I was quick enough, but we'll see. Nothing sounded bad and the temperature was still low, suggesting I think that I might have caught it quick enough.

Thanks for the details, I think my best choice is probably Senny Dave!

He may be handy with the spanners, but despite the similarities between his and Bill Werberniuk's figure, that's where the similarities end, as I currently lead 8-0

Chrissy,

I think the problem is that from the outside the pipes can look just fine.

Mine have been inspected every year, just like the belts, but I think I'm not the only one to have had them go in the last few months. It's more to do with the age of the car.

Mine has only done 39k, but it's still a 12 year old car, so I guess that's the problem.

Paranoia now, Belts definitely being changed next year, even though they look fine and the mileage is low - they have been there more than 4 years!

Oh, it just does ... lovely slick all down the side of the car and yes, even on the back. Interesting from the point of noting the aerodynamics of the car - can see the air-flow pattern

We all know your a little to in to me perhaps its my strawberry blodne locks but it just won't happen JBT sorry.

as for you Mr HOMODAN 9-8 to you was not to bad a result considering i had a drink which i dont normally do and cant see straight

You're kidding me - your eyes must be great to see through glasses that thick

Lol

Back onto the OP - just like to say that Dave sorted things out for me and I now have a nice shiny new oil cooler and pipes fitted!

Dave managed to source the cooler and have the pipes made up specially and a very good job it was too.

Thanks everyone - especially Dave.

Of course, anyone who hasn't thought about it before now, might want to consider a pre-emptive replacement. Mine wasn't a split in the pipe in the end, but a leaking joint to the cooler rad.

As the cars are all now 10 -12 years old, with an expected lifetime for the parts of about the same, surely worth considering?

Mine failed on the joint too back in the summer, fortunately it was sat in a workshop idling so was spotted pretty quickly. Paul at Motormech had checked it for me only a few months before that, so it's not always obvious when they're about to fail - get it changed if you haven't already!