mx5cartalk.com

I had a little issue the other night with the oil supply line to the VVT actuator. Can anyone remember if the coper crush washers that fit on the oil line at the fitting at the rear of the valve cover were a tight fit around the bango bolt? Mine are really loose like they are the wrong size.

When I reconnected the fitting one of the crush washers droped down a little to rest on the bango bolt which left a small gap at the fitting. It's amazing how much oil comes out of such a small hole and how far it shoots at 80PSI, even for just a few seconds.

Has someone fitted the wrong size crush washers to my car or do I just need to be really careful and line up the washers next time?

Try a PM to KAM. I assisted him with a cam belt change on VVT and I don't recall any issues at all when we buttoned it back up - especially with regard to the VVT actuator connections.

Garry wrote:Has someone fitted the wrong size crush washers to my car or do I just need to be really careful and line up the washers next time?

From memory I held mine in place whilst I did them up. They were quite loose. Is there also a blnking thick washer typ thing on there? 1 copper one went on each side of that blanking thing... from memory...

Ta Bevan, sounds like mine are the right ones then. I'll be more careful lining them up next time. There were no extra washers, just a copper one on each side of the pipe from the block. I loosened the banjo bolt, moved the washers around and tightened it up a gain. No leaks now. Just gotta clean up the mess in the engine bay now.

A couple of squirts of oil are nothing.

I was waiting on the gate at Garden Island on Sunday for the Concours cars to come through and a member, who shall remain nameless, pulled up, jumped out of his car lifted the bonnet to see oil from one end to the other of the engine.
He did an oil change the day before and forgot to replace the oil filler cap.
He managed to get it cleaned up for the judging but I can't say how he went till after the awards are given out at the Christmas Party.

Back to your problem. When I polished my VVT cover I don't remember the crush washers being too large when I refitted the cover. I had it off a few times and it never leaked a drop.

I can assure you that a couple of splashes out the top of the oil filler cap is nothing compared to oil sprayed at 80PSI. It was all over the engine bay, a big puddle under the car, dripping down the garage wall and making a puddle in next doors garage

The old \"leave the oil filler cap off on the way to concours\" has been done before a few years ago, but not by me.

I don't remember the washers being loose when I reconnected the banjo but I did use new washers.

Dug out the old ones they measure 25.5mm outside dia, 16.2mm inside dia and 1.4m thick.

I once fired up our Telstar with the rocker cover off 12 hydrolic tappets squirting oil at high pressure makes a huge mess in a very short time

Thanks for the measurements KAM. I'll check them out next time it's in pieces.

I measured the crush washers on my car and the internal diameter is around 20mm. Not sure whats happening there. Just something else to make my car \"special\" I guess.