oil leak

[redken]

I have a Vauxhall Corsa LS kreg 1196cc. Its a manual transmittion and petrol. I'm a little concerned about an oil leak I have. My oil light comes on at diffent times...just for a few seconds...then it goes off....the water level inside my water resevoiur has dropped quite a bit in less than a week....I am loseing oil....be dammed if I can acuratley place the source.....the leak is slow but constant. it appears to be coming from below the rocker cover...I know this is ok because I replaced the rocker gasket.Although the power seems to be maintained I think I'm using more petrol than uaual. I'm thinking head gasket ...''maybe''???? Any idea's. Redken

[woodchopper]

First of all check the oil level -if ok then I would suspect the oil pressure sender unit is faulty - is the car burning oil ?
( blue smoke out of exhaust ) The most common places for oil leak on corsa's are rocker gasket, distributor oil seal, sump gasket
- next - water level - there is a level mark on the expansion bottle - don't over fill it or it will appear you are losing water
Barring any obvious leaks in radiator, pipes, water pump
( which is located behind the timing belt cover ) leaks will show up as white crystals left when the water has evaporated off.

Head gasket ? Could be the source of your problems - I've had one Corsa out of 4 that I've owned which blew the head gasket ( a common enough problem with them ) in which case you need to get it sorted sooner rather than later.
Incidentally - the head gasket that went on mine blew at the back of the engine where the inlet manifold bolts on.

Hope this helps.