I think I am well and truly bu**ered.

New to me 07 SE. Bought it end of last month. Done about 1200 miles, and a lovely car.

Noticed temp gauge took a while to get up. Some members thought it could be thermostat.

Since towing my caravan, noticed a very small oil leak coming from front off side of engine bay. Running onto sub frame below aux belt, and dripping. As I say, a very small leak. Researched on here possible reasons. Nothing really jumped out. Managed to have a better look tonight, and have seen that there are 2 small puddles of oil quite high up. Started looking around. Haven't bought a Haynes manual yet to know where everything is. Not a big knowledge of engines, but can follow instructions.

Anyway squashed what I thought to be coolant pipe running across behind rad. Sounded strange, with air being heard.

I have opened the coolant tank to find it completely full of what I think is black engine oil. It is very thin, but definitely leaves a oil stain on the skin. Essentially a private sale so no come back.

Am I looking at mega bucks repair, or am I panicking a bit too much.

Please let me down gently.......

Added:

Landyzone mentions failed oil cooler, plus a price. Just picked myself up off the floor to type this...

Sounds like an oil cooler mate, I had this problem a few weeks back, oil in the coolant bottle too. I paid 60 odd squid I think and mate fitted it.

£60 I can cope with. Did you have to take the bumper and everything off?

Whenever you buy a car (especially privately) you have to ask yourself why are they selling it? I can't count the number of times on this forum that I have seen the words "time to move it on". 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

So why should an oil cooler problem put oil in the header tank? Why no mention of head gasket? 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

My initial thought was that some tw*t has put oil in the coolant reservoir.

Then I thought head gasket. Had that before, but tended to have frothy bits in oil or coolant.

So I came here, the fountain of knowledge, that is the freely members club.

I did search oil in coolant tank, and 4 separate results came back as oil cooler.

I am obviously open to suggestions, and ideas on how to rectify.

"Private sale" point taken...

I'm no mechanic, when I called to see my mate who is, he immediately said oil cooler, part fitted, problem sorted!

Rnclayton, no he didn't take bumper off mate, but said it was awkward.

Taking the bumper off is a doddle - awkward but not difficult and only takes about 20 minutes - don't let that put you off No Longer the owner of a 2013MY Fuji White GS

"Fiat Lux" a philosophy not a car

Thanks for the anwers so far. Bad timing having just bought it.

Is the oil cooler the long rad type thing. Various internet searches bring up the long one, and a smallish square one. Not sure if that one is a transmission oil cooler.

Will try and get it into a garage on the weekend.

The long rad thingy is the intercooler which cools tha air to the turbo and definitely not oil - taking your car to a mechanic would be sensible
Here is a pic of the oil cooler on a 2.2

 No Longer the owner of a 2013MY Fuji White GS

"Fiat Lux" a philosophy not a car

Thanks Westville.

Got a bit of a panic on last night. Got a lot of bank holidays and more half terms coming up and need to tow the caravan.

Lots of things going wrong everywhere at the moment.

SWMBO thinks that regardless of whether you pay £500 or £50,000 for a car, it should be faultless for its entire life.

westville wrote:

The long rad thingy is the intercooler which cools tha air to the turbo and definitely not oil - taking your car to a mechanic would be sensible
Here is a pic of the oil cooler on a 2.2

The oil coolers on the vans I used to service had an oil cooler that was water cooled and often leaked between the two parts hence oil in the water!

Every chance then they fail due to oil filters getting tight to remove and the extra swing to do a filter change unseats the seals between the heat exchange area. FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current