That's all fine and dandy, but doesn't have anything to do with your coolant and oil mixing. That seal has nothing to do with keeping coolant out of the oil, all it does it prevent oil from leaking out of the cooler. IF the oil cooler has failed, it has failed internally.

 

I bought a Passat a couple years ago. His mechanic told him the head gasket was bad because oil and coolant had mixed. Took the cooler out, put it under water and put some air pressure through the coolant side. Bubbles.

Never say never, but the 1.8 and the 2.8 don't have a lot of head gasket problems.

 

I personally am saying its not one or either as I really don't know much about this. At first when he saw the mixture, he said most likely gasket. He ran a quick test on the oil cooler by taking the two hoses of and running the car a little, no signs of oil seem to be leaving the cooler.

Edit: some great news, after further testing, I got a call by the mechanic stating that it is the oil cooler is at fault. I have bought oil and a filter, need to order a cooler from ecs and I should be set.

 

Glad to hear that. Make sure to replace the o-ring while you're in there.

 

Update: we couldn't find an oil cooler near by and didn't really have the time to wait a few days for one to come in if ordered. The mechanic by passed thecooler, said that the oil cooler barely does anything and car can run just fine without one.

Is this correct?

 

I have never heard of someone not running an oil cooler..our cars come with them for a reason. I would assume that reason is that the oil will get too hot without an oil cooler, excessively hot oil cannot do its job lubricating the components. No lube, no motor in due time.

That said, oil takes awhile to warm up. If you only plan on taking very short trips and you watch the oil temp gauge like a hawk you might be able to scrape by. I wouldn't chance it though.

 

The oil cooler also does double duty of heating the oil up faster. The key to oil is to have it at operating temp. Too hot or too cold is bad. You want it *just right* Same as Goldilocks does.

If you are just letting it slide for a couple days, just keep an eye on the oil temp gauge. Keep it below 250F, and if it gets over 275 or 300F, shut it off immediately and cool everything down. Shouldn't be a huge issue unless it is very warm there and you are driving under sustained high speeds/revs.

 

Probably okay temporarily but I wouldn't go more than a week without an oil cooler. Like others said its there to serve a purpose and should probably be kept working properly.

 

I have driven the car to work, takes 30 min to get there, oil heated up as fast as it would with a cooler, it remained about 95 degrees Celsius whole way through which is where it has always sat roughly. I'm not worried about my oil temp, it has always sat where it is and has never even being close to 250F even here in Aus where its very hot through the summer.

 

Update: Been driving the car as is for several days now, all seems good. Oil temp is fine and stays around 95 degrees Celsius even after some hard driving.