Was under my vRS at the weekend and noticed a sort of small radiator type thing about halfway along on the right hand side of the car. Anyone tell me what this is.

Cheers

You mean this thing

That's the fuel cooler

Thats the one. Thanks for the help.

Another question. I noticed yesterday that the brake lines which are exactly at the opposite side of the car to the fuel cooler seemed to have some sort of oily liquid on them right where they pass under the cross member type thing (this also had an oily substance on it dripping from the nuts) you can see in the pic, immediateley I thought they were split so I cleaned them up but cant find any leak, so I am trying to work out what it is. I didnt pay particular attention to the cooler but it seemed dry. If there was a fuel leak would it be possible for it to find its way to the other side of the car?

Fuel would smell of fuel, petrol and diesel smell quite different to oil. If you had a split brake pipe you'd certainly know about it pretty quickly, the volume of fluid in the brake system is very minimal so any loss would quickly result in little/no pressure and the level dropping noticeably in the res. (oh and you'd have issues stopping!). Rather than play guess the fluid follow the fluid upwards to it's source. The one that springs to mind is oil and a messy fill/top up though it could also be a drive shaft seal (easy to spot as the DS would look rusty and wet where it meets the gearbox). Of course several other options exist but check the easy ones first. Whatever it is it's better to find out sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the reply. It really is driving me crazy as the oily substance on the brake lines was isolated to the one area of the car, further forward or to the rear were completely dry which is why I thought the lines had split. The only thing I can think of is something is leaking onto the exhaust heatshield and travelling down the car and it just happens to exit from the heatshield at this point. Now as per my other thread I think I isolated my water leak (no loss of coolant today so far) which was dripping onto the heatshield area but surely that would evaporate.

I noticed there is another shielded pipe that runs above the exhaust heatshield from the engine bay, can anyone tell me what this pipe is, I have arrowed it in the attached pic (sorry for poor quility).

Sounds like they have been coated with greese to stop them corroding.

Sounds like they have been coated with greese to stop them corroding.

Definateley not grease, its far to runny, its almost exactly like brake fluid but it isnt brake fluid. Its driving me

The other part you have labeled is a gearshift cable.

Are you sure the dripping isn't from the AC drain?

Now to bring a smile to Tech1e 's face . The one time I took mine into a well known fast fit place for an oil change ( in desperation, as I needed to make a long trip ,and oil was well overdue a change) ,I spotted it .According to them it was ...........................

OIL COOLER

aT THAT STAGE I should have cut my losses and got out .

Edited 27 March, 201214 yr by VWD

Are you sure the dripping isn't from the AC drain?

It could be I guess, it just so happens that I fixed the AC a few days ago as a wire had broken near where the alternator sense wire is located, the only thing is that would be water and this definateley has an oily feel to it. Wherabouts does the AC drain come out on the car as its something I should check just to be sure.

Now to bring a smile to Tech1e 's face . The one time I took mine into a well known fast fit place for an oil change ( in desperation, as I needed to make a long trip ,and oil was well overdue a change) ,I spotted it .According to them it was ...........................

OIL COOLER

aT THAT STAGE I should have cut my losses and got out .

To be fair diesel is a heavy oil.......

Failed to mention that the person uttering those imortal words was the manager

At first glance, without tracing the pipework, you could think it was an oil cooler either for engine or Gearbox oil, although I've only seen them on gearboxes/diffs on competition cars. The car does have an oil cooler, it is water cooled and is under the oil filter.

I believe this fuel cooler is connected in the return pipework, that goes back to the tank.

On mine, the oil filter sits under the front bumper and gets cooled by convection /cold air from the front . Last time I saw one as nasty to get to ,it was on a H plate minivan . ( on cars you could remove the gril to get to filter.On vans, it was a juggling act ,with the filter in a metal casing.,to get it out under the front bumper .