XSeries-forum

Going through all the little jobs on the car and remembered another one - the random oil leak.

This was a pain to track down but manged to get it up on a ramp in a hire a ramp and bay place in Acton, very useful.

Turns out there's a slow but constant drip of oil coming from the lower part of the intercooler pipe at the very front of the car. Turbos are a bit of an unknown quantity to me but I've done some research on this and I'd be keen to know people's thoughts.

As I understaond it, this can only be caused by oil seeping past the turbo and ending up in the intercooler, this would then settle to the lowest point then seep out, causing the leak thats been discovered. Oil passing the turbo is likely to be caused by excessive pressure and thus the likely culprit would be the crankcase breather valve (Pcv?). Given this appears to be a common part to need replacing regularly but as I understand it, not on the routine dealer maintenance schedule, it seems likely this needs replacing.

Obviously, I could be completely wrong as most of this is supposition but I thought it a worthy starting point. The last thing I want is to be the victim of the infamous YouTube video of when turbos turn evil and destroy the engine.

Not a routine service part and with you having an '04 you will almost certainly have the foam 'bog roll' (coz that's what it looks like) type. £40 for a new Vortex type system from a dealer and some DIY time and sorted. A few of us have done it and there's a thread with pics to help if you're stuck. You might as well do the air filter at the same time as you'll have half the same covers and parts off already. Once replaced with a vortex type, you will probably never need to change it again.

I assume you're going to drain the inter cooler at the same time too?

I read an excellent post with pics about replacing this part and it appears the air filter has to come off to replace it. Given the car is due for insp 2 shortly I thought i'd request it done during this and hopefully negate the additional labour charges.

I'll be doing the clean out job myself, load of blue roll and degreaser should sort it - made easier if i go posh and hire a ramp again.

Do you think this is the likely cause of the leak?

I would think it's highly likely. You don't need the air filter itself off, but the cover is right next to it so for the sake of an extra 10 mins, well worth changing.

Jizer and some 'elephant bog roll' as we used to call the blue wipes should do the trick. Handy having a ramp hire facility close by. Saves mucking about under the car getting all kinds of unmentionables in your eyes... I miss having access to the Surrey Police HQ garage for working on my cars......:sigh: