2.0hdi Oil cooler replacement

[Luke G]

The oil cooler on my 2011 308 hdi looks like it has died. For ages I've had very small amounts of oil dumped into the coolant reservoir but this week it must have finally let go and dumped a heap in giving me the low oil warning light. There is no water in the sump oil hence why I'm leaning towards the oil cooler being the culprit.
I'm tossing up if to replace the whole oil filter housing and the cooler as one unit or if to just do the cooler which sits on the front of the oil filter housing (cheaper...). Anyone got any experience replacing either? Any recommendations on where to source the unit(s) from locally or overseas. It's the rhh motor but has the same unit as the rhr motor (407, c4 etc). Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[gwest]

Luke, I'm surprised that you did not get any replies to this, one of the most common problems I have had with my two (petrol) Citroens. I have found that European car parts suppliers in Vic have been very helpful, but if you can stand the month or more delay they are commonly available in China. The problems I had with my C4 was that the leak was initially from the filter housing to block junction, but then later the oil cooler seals started leaking. It is not obvious that there are gaskets there. So I should have had both sets replaced at the same time. Currently with my THP155 1.6 turbo petrol engine in my DS5 I can source the block seals locally but not the outer set of 4 seals. And I'm getting conflicting advice from the dealer (to get the cooler seals you have to buy the entire oil filter housing- ~$600) versus PCA who advise that part no 1613571980

includes all 6 seals (which I have yet to confirm). Again they are commonly available from China but take a long time to get here. Part nos for my car:

11427557009,11428643747

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[Luke G]

Many thanks for the reply gwest. I can’t believe that was almost 12 months ago. I ended up finding a genuine oil cooler/filter housing on eBay for around $300 from a crowd in Germany and it was quickly dispatched. Removing the old one and installing the new one was a bit of a job due to it being located in a fairly tight location and a hose which runs from the back of the housing into the block which was really hard to remove (I ended up cutting and replacing it). At the time when I searched this forum (and other ones) I found it hard to find many people who had the same problem, but that said that seems to be my luck with my cars! I’m interested that you have had it happen a number of times.

 

[gwest]

I understand that the percentage of people who work on their cars is very small, so most owners probably just take their leaking cars in to get fixed and have little idea that the expensive problem was simply caused by rubber seals deteriorating. In time their model gains a bad reputation for oil leaks, as with Peugeot, Citroen and Minis.
I discovered that the local BMW dealer had the four outer seals (part no

11428643747) for $61. They have about 4 Minis a year needing these replaced. Interestingly, they thought the two inner seals were less of a problem, which I'm not sure about. Mind you, it might be simpler just to replace the heat exchanger seals than the entire unit, like you and I have had to do. The DS5 was a real pain, but then I also have a MGF so it's likely I suffer a personality disorder. ​