I've come to the conclusion that Vauxhall forums are useless unless you want to bling up your car with flashing lights and shiny bits of metal. Therefore I thought I'd pick the minds of the Briskodians.

My other half has just bought a 1.4 16v Corsa with 80k miles and a full Vauxhall service history, however, I think we may have been "done" :(

When I viewed the car I checked all over the place and the engine seemed ver clean, the plugs looked good, the oil looked oggd and the coolant header tank contained nothing but coolant.

This morning I've come to change the plugs as part of a general service and found that all of the plugs have oil around them :thumbdwn: - This is on the top side of the plug without removing it from the engine.

Head gasket failure? Or something a little less serious like the cam-cover gasket ?

Usually, the answer is "muppet spilled the oil when filling it". I can't see that it'd be the h/g. Other option is a minor leak from the oil filler or camcover which is getting blown back over into the plug recesses.

Second thought... Maybe it's just crap from when they valetted the engine bay, got stuck in there and they didn't think to clean it out...

i expect the rocker cover gasket is leaking a bit, it's quite normal for those 1.4/1.6 ecotec engines... dont worry about it too much unless it's ****ing out, in fact a little oil round them goes a long way to stop them buggers siezing in there

Usually, the answer is "muppet spilled the oil when filling it"

I'd say that as well

I'd say rocker cover gasket or spilled oil seen it many times myself on smaller petrol engines.

Only piece of advice i have is pay the extra few pence and get the real rocker cover gasket as the knock off ones only 'almost' fit right, and to do it up then check it every few days for a week or two just to make sure it is done up right.

Possibly spilt oil, but if the engine's the X14XE it will have the oil filler cap at the front of the engine cover.

Then with the cover off, the plug holes have a slight lip on, so any oil wouldn't be able to splash over into the plug holes...

And to top it all, the ignition leads are normally (if they're standard Vaux / Beru) a lovely snug fit over the end of the plugs and have a number of fins which stop leaves and biscuits and so forth getting into the hole.

Thanks gentlemen - I shall change the rocker cover gasket.

In 2 days no one on a corsa website has had anything useful to say

there may be a reason why the rocket cover gasket is weeping tho, becuase normally there should be no oil pressure in the part of the engine, so it may be caused by a blocked up breather

In 2 days no one on a corsa website has had anything useful to say

Make sure you've got a calibrated torque wrench for when you refit the gasket (you'll need some star sockets too) and find out what order the bolts need to be tightened up in.

Thanks for the tip on the star sockets - I'd not looked at those yet. Best get down to Halfords.

I cleaned up all around the gasket earlier and went for a 10 miles drive. Below is now covered in oil.

Might be worth getting a new breather. b

Had this prob on an old Cav - some pillock had overtightened the rocker cover ., and i got a rocker gasket as part of a head set.- told same story that Vauxhall rocker gasket better -but mine turned out to be excess force - cured with heavier gasket and blue Hermitite.Oil seen coming out at slightly over idle revs.

It'll be a leak from the rocker cover gasket. It's rubber and will have gone hard, therefore losing it's sealing qualities. It's a common fault on Vauxhall 16 valve engines. I know the 2 litre Vauxhall 16 valve engines have little O ring seals round the bolt holes on the underside of the rocker cover as well as the main gasket. I can't remember if the 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 16 valve engines have them.

the 1.8 and the 2.0 and the 2.2 early ecotec engines all have the same cylinder head

iirc there is no o-rings fitted on the 1.4/1.6 models

i had another thought or this today, i cant remember wether they have them fitted or not in this engine but somtimes they have an oil deflection shield fitted over the hydraulic lifters, some people dont bother fitting them back in after removeing the cylinder head..... could be another possible cause of the leakage