[Jeeper6]

Well, my WK2 VM Diesel oil cooler called it a day and decided to leak oil in to the coolant.

A well documented failure on these things, and if caught early will not cause massive damage fortunately. The oil seems to readily find it's way in to the coolant under pressure, but generally not the other way around.

The engine gave me no clue of the disaster unfolding. I have engine oil temp, coolant temp and exhaust temp constant displays.

I had been offroading on the weekend and had thumped the front end rather heavily, and wonder if this is what contributed to the oil cooler demise in fact? It was 2 days later on Tuesday morning after being parked overnight I noticed a rather large oily stain on the driveway near the front right tyre.

Lifting the bonnet and looking around underneath it became obvious that oil had sprayed out of the radiator expansion tank overflow hose. Oil everywhere, and black oily residue inside the expansion tank.

When I'd got home from a local trip on the Monday, being I always check the gauges for temps before shutting down...I saw oil temp was at 104c, water temp I think was around 101c, not overly hot being it was a warm day anyway, and no reason to be overly concerned after local traffic stop start driving, so had idled for a minute or so until the temps started to drop. It was running fine...

My Diesel had done 172,000kms when this occurred. (I actually had oil cooler replacement on the radar being I had read many tails of woe already...it just got in first.)

There is no reason to suggest ALL oil coolers will fail, but as a precaution I'd suggest anybody with a WK2 VM diesel with over 100,000 kms on it think seriously about replacing the oil cooler.
The replacement oil cooler came complete with oil filter housing and even includes a filter cartridge - costing me $1609.00 from a dealer. (They can be bought a little cheaper but I have been burned too many times fitting non genuine parts and their subsequent failing adding additional pain and expense. At least i get a 12 month warranty on the part.)

I should add that the one I got was one of only 2 available locally in Brisbane, and the supply of these things may become really bad given the global supply crises taking place now. maybe back order one if there are none around to save your Jeep being off the road for an indefinite time?

Labour was around a grand to remove the old cooler setup, flush the cooling system a few times to remove as much oil as possible, and refill with coolant. It then should be flushed again a 1,000 or so K's later. I supplied the oil for the oil change as I use Nulon 10w 40 in my diesel.

The shop that did the work for me, Seven Slot, said that they have done quite a number of these, with another one just a couple of days prior...