New oil leak....

[Greatwhite81]

Anyone else had an oil leak from the intercooler pipe turbo side?

We found one today while getting all the wheels refurbed!

Any reasons for it all of a sudden??

Cheers,

[Horizon]

It sounds like it could be the turbo seals, are you experiencing any blue smoke from the exhausts when accelerating .?
Is it possible to remove the pipe between the turbo and inner cooler to see if the oil is coming from inside the turbo. I've never looked that closely, due to there being very little room to see anything under the bonnet.

[Greatwhite81]

[quote="Horizon"]
It sounds like it could be the turbo seals, are you experiencing any blue smoke from the exhausts when accelerating .?
Is it possible to remove the pipe between the turbo and inner cooler to see if the oil is coming from inside the turbo. I've never looked that closely, due to there being very little room to see anything under the bonnet.
[/quote]

No blue smoke thank god!

I'm told that the oil in the pipe is normal due to how it gets recirculated?? The oil is in the lower part of the pipe where it meets the intercooler.

[Mick.H]

There should be no oil in an intercooler just air

[X5Sport]

+1 for no oil in the air 'in' side - should be clean and dry.  Check you don't have a blocked crankcase breather, and if it's not a vortex type but a foam 'bogroll' then change it to the later type.  If it's a pre-2005 car and has never had a changfe then it will almost certainly be the old type bogroll and if they clog it causes blow-by of oil through the turbo seals.

It will mean taking the covers off the top of the engine, and there are threads on how to do it on here too.  Easy diy but fiddly - and you can change the air filter at the same time.

Richard

[Steve Blackdog]

My intercooler seals have started to weep and I will get them/it replaced soon.  I'm assured that it is a 15 minute job and the seals are cheap as chips.

My tech advised me that I don't want to leave it as sooner or later it will start to leak and if you have an oil leak from the intercooler as it will kill the turbo before too long and cost a good deal to replace.

[X5Sport]

It's a good idea.  Oil vapour can in the worst case also lead to turbo/engine runaway.  That's not a good place to end up......

Richard