POTENTIAL ISSUE: Oil Cooler line abrasion

Thought I'd post this here for the DIY-ers who change their own oil. I changed the oil today and found that one of the oil cooler lines is being abraded on the front of the oil filter cartridge housing. This is an engine coolant-carrying hose and it has an extra piece of rubber around it (looks like a hose within a hose) to prevent anything bad happening from the hose rubbing on the filter housing. However, on my car this extra rubber does not completely cover the area which contacts the filter cartridge housing. Thus, the coolant hose itself is being abraded. I made an appointment with Mazda to look at it and see what they want to do. It would be simple to fix or otherwise shield the hose from further damage, but I'll let Mazda look at it.

NOTE: The bad thing that will happen once this hose has a hole worn through it is that the engine coolant will be blown all over the underside of the engine, car, and road. Then, the engine will overheat and may well be destroyed. I AM NOT TRYING TO CAUSE A RUCKUS, JUST LET PEOPLE KNOW WHAT I SAW TODAY. Mine may be the only car this is happening on, but the potential for damage is great enough in my estimation that I thought a friendly "heads-up" might be worthwhile for the DIY-ers. Those who have oil changed regularly at the dealer will almost certainly have any trouble found during a regular service before calamity strikes.

interesting... I'll keep a closer eye on this

perhaps its finally time to convert to a spin-on filter as the filter housing itself is smooth? I know my transmission cooler coolant line rests against the oil filter but has no problems because the spin-on filter is smooth (it didn't touch anything before when it had the cartridge s***)

I see a roll of duct tape in your cars future if you let the dealership take care of that.

Keep an eye and I am assured the correct fix will be made (I think they only use duct tape on GM's).

I would love a pic but what you discribed seems good enough. BTW do you have an automatic or a 5 Speed Manual?

Good luck and keep us abreast on what the fix is...

Manual transmission. Car goes in Monday to let Mazda have a look. I'll post the outcome of the visit here.

Had the car in to Mazda yesterday. They were able to move the protective outer shielding that fits around part of the coolant hose so that it is now taking all the abrasion. I was not comfortable doing too much tugging on that hose or shielding for fear of snapping a connection or something. Anyway, all is well and I have a service paper stating what I found, what it was doing, and how they corrected it so that IF there's ever any further trouble this visit will be in Mazda's file.

As an aside, my local dealer here has apparently (hopefully) rid themselves of a distinctly unpleasant service writer. The fellow we dealt with this time is quite young, but very courteous and helpful. The other fellow was nowhere to be seen and the service department is so much the better for it.

bulwnkl said:

As an aside, my local dealer here has apparently (hopefully) rid themselves of a distinctly unpleasant service writer. The fellow we dealt with this time is quite young, but very courteous and helpful. The other fellow was nowhere to be seen and the service department is so much the better for it.

Click to expand...

Its interesting how the service advisor can affect the service department. When we had a Chrysler minivan we used to go to one dealer because the service guy was great. They canned him for whatever reason, we went back once and the service guys sucked and we never went back.

Can we get some pics or a drawing of where I should be looking......

Thanks

I am changing my oil this weekend. Will have to take a look at it. Will post pics if nobody does by then.

Z5Z, you can see the area from above with a flashlight if you don't want to crawl down underneath and remove the bellypan. If you look down between the engine and the radiator more or less centered left to right, you'll see the oil filter cartridge housing (the top part of it, anyway) attached to the forward side of the engine block. You'll also see a hose that comes off the top or head of that housing that goes downward and then curves back up and into the head on the passenger's end of the engine. This is a coolant line for the oil cooler system on these vehicles. There's another line going to the other end of the head, but it does not curve down and back up in front of the oil filter cartridge housing. Anyway, in the hose that goes down and then curves back up, just about where it starts to curve back up, the hose on my car touches the front of the filter cartridge housing. That's where the rubbing has taken place.

I'll try to get a photo of it this evening from above, but a shot from below can't happen for a while (we're moving and prepping the house for departure).

Here are a couple of pictures of the hose that was being abraded from above. You really can't see the filter housing in these pictures, but the hose is clear. Note that Mazda already relocated the piece of shielding in these photos. The offending hose is the one way down there that looks like it's touching the belly pan.

thanks I will have a look at mine I am changing oil Tomorrow