What would a garage usually charge to check an engine for oil leaks ?

I used to get my oil changes done at Kwikfit (it used to be really really cheap - cheaper than I could do it myself) and they never had a problem allowing me to walk under the ramp and have a look around.

That said, most engine bays are now covered but inspecting for oil leaks is usually pretty simple. You could probably do it yourself. The symptoms are usually a slick of black oil running from the engine to the back of the car.

At most you would be charged one unit / hour of labour so £35 - £80 depending on where you went. Some oil leaks are acceptable. Others are easy to fix and some are a nightmare.

Good luck!

I think I used to have this car (until the turbo went!) and if I recall correctly, there is a cover protecting the bottom of the engine. That would be where any oil is pooling and you won't really see much on the ground.

Is it due a service any time soon? If so, ask them to look but failing that, it wouldn't take much to find the leak once you have removed the cover from under the engine. You might even be able to ignore it. I had a sump leak on an old Astra. Never got it sorted in the 10 years I had the car and was never a big deal. It made a mess but you couldn't really notice the oil going down.

When you say '' a cover thing '' at the bottom of the engine , do you refer to the engine oil sump ?

No. Back in the good old days, the sump was exposed to all and sundry and an oil change was as simple as half parking on the pavement and crawling under with a spanner and a washing up bowl.

However with fuel economy being all the rage, most manufacturers have added a plastic cover that makes the under side of the car a bit more aerodynamic. On the plus side, it keeps you engine bay nice and clean but on the downside, inspecting the engine has become an involved job as the cover is usually secured with 6 - 12 screws usually of the rarer star fitting variety that requires a trip to Halfords when you discover you don't have any.

A new sump gasket isn't a particularly big job but it is a very messy one.

Have fun!

Without getting underneath and having a look there is no way to tell. I think you need to perform an inspection or get someone else to do it.

Mate, just scrap the car and call it a loss. Maybe stay away from driving for a few years. You seem to have taken this car from a serviceable, decent car to a pile of scrap metal in a matter of months.

Mate, just scrap the car and call it a loss. Maybe stay away from driving for a few years. You seem to have taken this car from a serviceable, decent car to a pile of scrap metal in a matter of months.

?????????????????????????

Mate maybe shut your mouth, seriously. oh, and maybe you should scrap your own car and refrain from driving for a few years yourself.

Bought the car without knowing it had a bad waterpump problem ( though garage lied and charged for head gasket ) , bought the car without knowing the gearbox was faulty ( transmission light came on day after buying it), week after buying had to replace both suspension arms as were faulty before bought the car , egr was very almost blocked when bought car, had to replace that costing £300, turbo bearing was bad when bought car, had to replace that, shock absorbers, discs, pads, steering arms, track rod ends, andm ore were bad too.


none of those were my fault whatsoever so shut your stupid mouth you idiot. And why should I scrap my £2,000 car (of which I have spent a further £1,000 on repairs) just because I am asking about what may be causing a drop in oil and because I need wiring sorted out.


Just, get lost

Mate, I didn't buy a car that breaks down (apparently) at least once a week! I spent less than you did in my car and put 5000 trouble-free miles on it so far, including a 2000 mile trip across france. If I bought as big of a heap as you did it would have been gone already! In fact I already did, but I ditched it after the second fairly major problem in a matter of months.

You should research the "Sunk Cost Fallacy".

Stop calling me mate, I really do not like you and I have not met you.

My car has not broken down on me once, I have encounter several disrepair problems during driving but it has never actually broken down on me while driving. Much of the car is running great now , suspension great, timing belt good, engine good apart from an oil leak that has not been found yet and maf wiring that needs fixing.



Please do not write to me again, I do not want to hear from you again

Plus that engine mount in that other thread. And isn't it losing coolant too? I've tried several times to give you decent information and help you out, but you aren't helping yourself out really. Buy a Haynes manual for your car, a tool set from Halfords, and start repairing it yourself rather than taking it to dodgy mates. Or scrap it and get a car that's not falling apart.

Have you looked up the Sunk Cost Fallacy yet? Considering how much you actually bought this car for, plus how much you've spent on it trying to get it fixed, I'd wager you've spent considerably more than it's worth and it's still not running right.

Hi

Look, sorry if I may seem to not be very nice toward you, but you first replied by, get rid, scrap it, before knowing all of the details, and it's easier said than done, the car before this cost me £800 and only had that for 1 month and got rid and got basically nothing for it (because it didn't start ( found out later was fuel pump )
Got my current car and didn't fancy doing same with this.



No, car was leaking from expansion tank so replaced the tank ( myself ) and luckily caught it before it began overheating, But when I filled it to max line with new tank on (well, replacement form salvage car ) it would drop to min line, so topped it back to maximum only for it to fall to minimum but it stayed steady on minimum for about 1 week, I checked coolant again from cold before and it somehow has risen near max line , somebody said it is normal for it to have done this.

Hopefully it stays at max line now. will check again tomorrow.

I need a different mechanic to look at the problem that is possibly from motor mount, there is no play when you rock the engine but still think it could be the mount.

Maybe I will get a manual and some tools and learn myself, but I do have Dyspraxia so learning can be difficult for me sometimes.



I hope you understand why you upset me, and no bad feelings.

You can't just tell people to scrap their car and to call their car ( which many including myself take great pride in it ) just because it has 1 or 2 no so major problems. If like me you buy car after car and seem to invest a lot of money into them and rebuilding parts that will last for years, it offends me. I do not want to get rid , again, and have the same problems with another car to which you will again say get rid and so on

The problem is you keep posting dozens of threads about your car, asking for advice, and then simply ignore it. People like myself, JC, Nuffles and others can probably help you get your car sorted, but I don't think you've done anything that's been suggested. You started posting about your MAF issues over 6 months ago, but you still haven't sorted it out, and it is probably impacting on some of the other issues you have. Instead, you just keep taking your car back to the incompetent tool who butchered it in the first place, and then starting a new thread.

If you want help, ask for it politely, answer the questions people ask to get a better understanding of the issue, then act on the advice (and keep to one thread). If you just keep asking questions without listening to the answers people aren't going to bother trying to help for long.

No.
I ask for advice and I don't always get any or get silly answers or worst and most annoying of all, my thread may go unanswered.
I don't disregard answers, maybe sometimes if they don't make any sense to me at all I might or if I feel the poster has not read my thread properly I might disregard it.

I did have car booked in with auto electrician but Brian told me to cancel and said he knew how to fix it, but seems he was lying.
I need to get hold of a plug to take off the 4 pin sensor that Brian put on my car and put the original 6 pin sensor back on. I would then like to find the correct wiring harness and then take it to an auto elecricna