Oil Cooler Leak - Mk1 Avensis

[Jemmo]

Hi All

My trusty and reliable Avensis Mk1 has an oil leak and my local garage couldn't find it. Took the motor to have the engine cleaned this morning and just got a call saying it was the oil cooler that was leaking. They suggested to bypass the cooler. Is this 'fix' going to cause any problems with the engine?

It's only done 160K.

[Konrad C]

I would get secondhand cooler from a breakers or check on eBay. There is a reason for the oil cooler, probably why the engine is so reliable.

Try the following: http://www.northwestcarparts.co.uk/car-parts-finder-results?field_make_value=TOYOTA&field_model_select_tid=1235&page=9

or similar.

[gazza1286]

Mine failed on the metal intermediate pipe work to the cooler. Probably this. By-passing this assembly with longer length of hose is perfectly reasonable which is what I did.

[TomdeGuerre]

I wouldn’t have thought an oil cooler was necessary for the Avensis 1.8 petrol engine. I remember reading that the oil capacity was insufficient (at 3.something litres?) in the petrol Avensis and they had to increase it to about 4.2 litres(?) Was the cooler something Toyota introduced with the smaller sump/filter oil capacity?

For normal driving there’s more damage can be done with oil that’s too cold because, amongst other things, it won’t be hot enough to evaporate excess fuel and condensation accumulated in it. If I understand it correctly, the VVT-I won’t work either with oil that’s too cold.

Assuming the original oil cooler setup included a thermostat then I don’t suppose the circuit would be open much during our British winters anyway.

[Jemmo]

Cheers guys.
All done and seems ok so far.