Oil leak on Omega

Did it coincide with a period of hard/fast driving? If so, I'd go for blocked engine breathers - a normal leak doesn't usually cure itself. And when the crankcase gets pressurised, oil can leak from several places at once.

If that is the cheese grater fixed under the rocker cover, It's a very common problem on Cavaliers. Easy to replace if you don't mind getting dirty.

You would have thought so wouldn't you? I went to Vauxhall recently to get a rocker cover gasket & `cheese grater', as I was going for my third gasket change (don't ask!). The geezer at the parts desk said that they don't sell the cheese grater. "you have to clean them out mate". I was amazed. Regards. Stu.

The vacuum cleaner type noise you hear immediately upon starting from cold which lasts for around 1-3 mins is the secondary air pump. It pumps air into the exhaust system ahead of the cat at cold start to help warm up the cat and o2 sensor more quickly, and also when the o2 sensor comes online, to fool the ecu into providing a richer mixture to help drivability immediately after cold start.

Tim..

they sold them a few years ago when i had to change one :)

Its worth checking the breather between the cam cover and crankcase, this was a free retrofit on early models, if this gets blocked it can force oil through front and rear crank shaft seals.

IME, all main dealer part departments (bar one), and one Motor Factor in Wrexham specifically (Mate told me to get something from Motor factors. I told him I wasn't going back to that bunch of s******ds. He quite agreed!) are argumentative, bloshy gobshites, who treat retail customers like crap, and try to put as many obstacles in your way to buy something.

I was after a set of rings and big end shells for my Mk 2 1.6 1981 Cavalier SR.

The dodgy one : Well sir, we'd need to know the chassis and engine number, and even then they come in about 15 different sorts.

Local motorfactors : Here you are, that's x pounds please.

Main dealers I've found to be the same, except recently when I wanted 5 litres of Ford 5/30 and a filter for a 2 litre Zetec. Can't really arse round too much with that one!

Pete.

And you'd have been happy with the wrong parts?

You should always have the chassis number when buying from a main dealer - it's how they identify the parts. Unless you expect the assistant to have them all in their head. Motor factors more usually work by year, but if a change was made within that year will often need the old parts to identify them. And remember it's not unusual for a car to be registered the year after it's built.

And just to add, some will include the purchase of any parts on the car's computerised history.