Xantia 1.8i 8V Oil leak

[RichardW]

My sister's 93 Xantia 1.8 has got a pretty serious oil leak - it's used 7.5l on a recent trip to France (so that's about 1l/200 miles then...). We thought it was the crank seal so she had this and cam seal changed a few months back, but it doesn't seem to have made much difference. Any thoughts? Do these engines suffer the same HG failure at the cambelt end as the XUDs whereby the oil gallery lets go? Could it be the oil pump relief valve stuck causing it to overpressure and blow the oil out past the crank seal? I guess we need to get the belt covers off and run it to see where it is coming out - trouble is she lives near Aberystwyth, and I live near Glasgow

Unless anyone is near Aber and fancies a challenge....

[howzat]

I had a similar problem on my 1.8 16v Xantia which was a leaking plug at the end of the oil gallery at the cambelt end. It is above the crank level and towards the front of the engine. I fitted a washer under the plug and this cured it.

[RichardW]

Interesting.... but it doesn't look like that plug is fitted on the 8V There is an 'oil deflector' shown in that location on all the 1.8 engines - anybody know what this is for???