I wouldn't worry about replacing this item with an aftermarket part on a daily driver or even a race car for that matter.....Since '02 and probably well over several thousand of these worked on. I have only encountered 1 single car. Sure you get the masses on here and the number of individual cases increases, but so does the total amount of cars...JM2cents

 

If you have an "S" with a cooler, you have 3 bolts on the cooler and 3 bolts on the housing. Engine does not have to come out....1 hr job at most.

 

Thank you Chad. To be sure I understand, is what you describe the removal of the oil cooler or the oil filter housing?

 

That would be the oem oil cooler.

If this is a potential problem, then an aftermarket oil cooler installed would at least offer some insurance against this type of repair. It would be up to the owner to decide if the cost was warranted or not.

 

Thanks Bigshot, I thought so...

I agree that an aftermkt oil cooler has the additional appeal of avoiding a situation like this, albeit somewhat rare. As someone said earlier, it seems that none of the aftermkt options have a t-stat. One would seem to be easy to install though...

The oil filter housing was mentioned earlier and I've long thought about removing it, blocking it off, running a line elsewhere, and have a more traditional oil filter in a more desirable location, making oil changes faster, easier, cheaper and less problematic (x-thread concerns). If I were to do so, I'd want to incorporate an oil cooler into the plan, ditching the stocker. Having a couple tap points to measure pressure and temp would be prudent...

After glancing at the oil filter housing a few times, it would seem to be not easy to remove.

 

The housing is tough but the cooler is easier.

I would like to see an adapter available myself. But there are a couple of the aftermarket coolers that do have some tap points for some gauges.

I wonder if you could fab up a bracket to install a t-stat?

 

That's why there is a JM2cents at the end, LOL

 

?

 

Me too!
But, thanks for the pics. Wow!

 

If you still have this broken cooler, or if anybody else has one, I'd like to use it to make a new oil cooler adapter plate. Hopefully a cheaper alternative to the Mini Madness one.

 

last year i sent my oem to a guy in thailand .same issue . just another reason to spring for an aftermarket cooler .

 

Interesting I should just happen to see this thread as going through process of having the car inspected for an upcoming DE to find a pretty large oil leak on the exchanger. Dealer identified bad gasket on this part as the leak, ordering new part for replacement asap.... Mine is '04 MCS with 47K miles bought new.

 

Just replace with an aftermarket cooler. If you are doing DEs then you want to keep the oil as cool as possible anyway.

 

recommendations on an aftermarket cooler? how much effort is it to replace?

 

Some recent discussion on this topic.........
http://www.motoringalliance.com/foru...r-options.html

I would plan on 4 hrs for the install for a first time adventure doing this. Some of the instructions from the various vendors will give an idea of the time involved.

 

I picked a 2002 S with the exact same symptoms 98k miles. I picked it up for dirt thinking it needed a head gasket but after getting it home realized the compression was good. your post really helped me figure out what was going on, thank you, i opted to not use a pump to flush it, but instead used the existing hose clamp and my garden hose in the upper and let the lower flow into the bucket, using the vent cap to add dish soap. Luckily using the same hose clamp idea i was able to blast the clog out of the rad and save it.

 

Welcome to NAM.

There is an immense amount of information here on your car between the threads, the members and the vendors. This place saved my butt numerous times as well. If you have not already done so may I suggest you review more of the threads here on some other common maintenance items such as; crank sensor o-ring, water pump, belt tensioner, crank pulley/harmonic balancer, power steering hoses and the supercharger. Have you run a Vin check to make sure all your recalls were performed?

There are people here with over 200,000 miles on the Gen1 engine. Good luck.