thanks ants oz, will check again in a weeks time for leaks, but there was no leak after a good long drive yesterday so engine went from stone cold to operating temp and no leak, compared to the tiny leak prior to the 'operation' mentioned earlier in my post....must have been the o - ring not adequately oiled....also the cv boot tactic worked...new clamp tight as a drum even more so after driving car seemed to have tightened it further,

thanks again

Well checked lip around oil filter cap after a week of driving and refitting and all clear, checked it today ie 2 weeks after and i could see on the curved side of the oil filter cap what I could only descibe as circular area 1cm in diameter of very thin film oil:dunno: beats me, like someone sprayed it on, could it be slow leaking out and heating up and somehow rising up the side of the oil filter cap and forming this little circle? weird...i cleaned cap dabbed some talculm powder over the cap and housing and will be going for a loooong drive tuesday to see if it leaks, should show with streaks in the talk where it has leaked.....it is real odd

Oil is "creepy" stuff. The smallest drop will spread out over time, defy gravity and creep uphill....the spot will spread out massively.

I wouldn't worry too much about the size mark you are talking about mate. Just keep an eye on it over time as you have said - make sure nothing terrible happens.

Thanks for the reply….Its driving me nuts , yesterday I tightened oil filter cap again just a notch went for 2 mile drive stopped checked if there was any sign of oil and there wasn’t…got back home 2miles the other way and there was a slight leak ….SO tightened it a tad further with engine still hot and running, further drove about 7 miles and NO leak….

I start her up from cold today and it leaked (I am not talking major leak but a leak as described in start of post) after it reached op temp I could see the oil film has spread out as the talcum powder I sprinkled on oil filter cap was disturbed….. tomorrow I am off on a long drive and will see how it behaves….could this sort of leak be an issue? Air get into oil as such or is that a stupid question?

Also I am actually thinking of getting perhaps 0.5 litres of oil sucked out of the car, as until last oil change my oil level was when cold at level shown in the pic…(when warm it was between the 2 levels so fine)

However after recent oil/filter change and putting in the 7.5 litres recommended this level is higher(but again within 2 bands when warm), dunno perhaps it doesn’t like this volume of oil…got nothing too lose I guess...

IF i get a new filter in case the o ring on the existing one is gone, do I oil the o ring and all all the threads on the oil filter cap?

that oil level looks low to me mate.

Ok well I chickened out of removing oil so oil level is fine, instead I removed the oil filter n cap and o-ring for the second time, cleaned it all, and the inside of the housing.

o –ring looked fine and still retained its shape, but if you look at the oil filter cap in pics you can see a slight imperfection where the garage guy must have scored the surface slightly with his screwdriver when taking off the old o-ring of the cap….I made a mistake of not rubbing this down with some fine sandpaper, but I just re-installed after well lubricating the o ring and all the threads of cap. So not sure if the o-ring will mate well enough over this imperfection to stop the leak….

Sitting in idle for 10mins I got no leak, main test is to test see what happens when the engine cools and I start from cold and then do some day to day driving…..kicking myself for not rubbing down that needle width scratch on the oil filter cap

O ring will seal over that mate, don't worry about it.

The best thing you can do at this point in time is drive the car. Forget about the spot mate, just keep an eye on it over time and see what happens.

thanks antz oz, will keep an eye on oil level it....with the amount that was 'lost' prior to all my intervening was like 2 drops of oil i guess in 2 weeks driving...I need to get a a life I reckon, I am pretty damn pedantic over these things, always have been regardless of what car I had.....