So I got a pretty bad driver side oil leak. When I park the car it pisses all over the floor by the morning. Quite a bit too and I can’t figure out where the oil is coming from exactly.

so to my knowledge a few things carry oil driver side. Let’s go through them one by one.

first is the oil filter and it’s pedestal. Neither of these are leaking. That side of the motor is dry.

next is the oil pressure sending unit. It’s not leaking and dry as well.

the next thing is the oil fill neck where it connects to the metal neck, that too is dry.

now I’ve noticed the top spark plug wire plug on the front housing (closest to the front bumper) had some oil on it dripping down.


so I’m thinking could the oil that goes from the bottom nipple on the oil fill neck to the hard line on top of the motor that goes to the turbos be leaking?

can I simply route this line to a catch can instead or block it off? Af least to test if it’s leaking that is because from my understanding this bottom nipple is just used to redirect extra overfilled oil to the turbos to be burned off.

I can’t think of anything else that could be causing this oil leak. Also, my car isn’t overfilled on oil so why would so much oil be coming out of the second nipple if that’s the case? Bad PCV valve maybe? The PCV is pretty new though (less than 5000 miles on it)

nothing else is on the driver side that carries oil right?

 

Lots of things leak there. When I had a leak in that area, I added UV dye to my oil and quickly found the problem. Give it a try.

 

I would also consider the turbo oil feed. It screws in with a banjo bolt to the front driver's corner of the engine on top.

Dale

 

good idea, I’ve used it before in the past guess it won’t hurt to do again

 

hey dale,

I thought the oil feed for turbos was on the passenger side? I have a LHD. Could you send a pic or diagram of where the feed bolts into the front driver side? Thanks

 

Oh wait I see it now. I’ve never seen it on my car maybe it’s covered by a bunch of stuff? Does anyone here have a pic of where it actually attaches to the engine?

 

also the power steering is over there, oil cooler hose, ac all of that can leak

 

it definitely doesn’t seem like red fluid (power steering). The oil cooler from the front isn’t leaking bc the block is wet on the side. I don’t think ac is leaking either

 

Ok guys I see the oil feed banjo bolt on the driver side and it’s wet. It’s covered by so much though I’m trying to figure out what I have to remove to access it.

also, why would it leak? Should I just tighten it more or get new crush washers and retighten? Is the line that goes to it a hard line?

 

1st thing - clean it off with Brakleen or similar and confirm that is the issue. As you said, since this is sealed with crush washers, and vibration, etc., could have caused the bolt to loosen, my 1st plan of attack if it's the cause of the leak would be to tighten it 1/8 turn or so and see if that stops the leak. Then see what happens and tighten a bit more if it's still leaking a bit. Don't go crazy, though. You certainly don't want to strip it.

 

this is my plan, I just want to make sure I bullet proof it before I put everything back together because to reach that bolt, I had to take off the alternator because of this useless? Bracket next to it that I want to delete


can someone confirm if I can delete this bracket? Circled in red below

 

That bracket is a lift point for the engine. It, IIRC, does nothing useful unless you want to lift the engine.

 

ok thank you, I’ll remove it so there will be easier access to that banjo next time in case it doesn’t get fixed by a 1/8th turn

 

I think you may need to remove the oil fill neck to really see in there. It is down in there a bit.

Clean and see if you can start/run the car while looking at it to see if it's leaking out just to know for sure. May be worth replacing the copper crush washers with new ones.

The worst case scenario is if someone overtightened that bolt or the like - if you do it wrong you can crack the front iron around the hole it screws into. If so you're gonna not have a good time. Hopefully it's something simple.

Dale

 

I think it's odd that the turbo feed would leak significant oil sitting since it's at the top of the motor.

Mentioned earlier but the oil cooler hoses connect to the oil coolers on the drivers side of the car,

In addition one of the oil coolers has a banjo connection on the front cover

Both can be seen by removing the IC, or by sliding under the car.




Re: getting to the turbo oil banjo on the top of the engine, from my notes the only things are the engine hook, oil neck, and maybe you have to slide the vacuum chamber over a little.




There's a hose on the oil filler that goes to a pipe into the turbo inlet for PCV I think - if yours is as old and crusty and as stiff as mine was it will be a royal pain in the *** to reinstall, so probably prepare a new length of hose to replace it. In this pic it's the one with the visible zip tie on it.

Jason