Hiya folks,
I was hoping my first post would be positive instead it has started off as a total nightmare (unless you convince me otherwise).
around 5 hours ago bought a '04 vectra elite 3.2 v6 with 74,000 on the clock and mot'd today, private sale off ebay, nice part of carlisle form a fairly decent chap, with full service history, checked the engine and electrics as you do and the oil cap and dipstick, water levels, no problems to report, other than the oil level on the dipstick was at the maximum, the car drives like a dream and had no problem getting me up the motorway back to edinburgh.........
.......until i got on the biggar road, now a lovely stretch with no cars on it and the temptation to see what the car can do, gave the car a little kick and it flew like the clappers, once i got back to normal speed i noticed the faint smell of oil (sunny day and window open) so i took it very easy for the reminder of my journey (15 miles) and kept one eye on the temperature guage which remained constant at 90*.
on parking the car i pooped the bonnet and noticed that there was oil leakage around oil cap area and there must have been a minor explaosion because there were signs on the underside of the bonnet above the oil cap area, i waited a couple of hours for the car to cool down and went back to inspect.
after cleaning up the oil spillage (not a lot by the way, 2 pieces of good quality kitchen rolls worth) i inspected the water tank, no oil mix or decrease/increase in levels(phew i hope)
however the oil cap came off in my hand and the yellow cap was fine from the top but the threads had melted away and signs of it were leading down the oil funnel, thankfully not into the engine(i hope) as i noticed this from the residue gone down about half way down the funnel.
the funnel top to which the melted cap was attached to had melted also.
with the car on flat surface and a good time for the oil level to settle, i rechecked the dipstick and noticed that it was a tiny bit below the maximum, leading me to beleive that maybe it was caused due to too much oil?
i tried to search for any help and apologies if this has been answered before but as a newbie, i thought lets see if anyone else has experienced this, i'd imagine getting a replacement funnel and oil cap will be easy and draining the excess oil and replacing it will be fairly straightforward, however will that be the end of my worries or is there something else i should be investigating, any help will be appreciated.
thanks in advance
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