I recently started tearing my car apart because I'm going to install a new radiator and remove the a/c. As I was playing around in the engine bay I saw something that bothered me quite a bit. The stock radiator has a lot of oil on it. It looks like it may be coming from the oil cooler lines, but I was wanting to get more opinions before I tear into anything else.

Thanks,
Steve

 

Yikes. It's either oil or power steering fluid. Just check all the lines closely, it should be obvious where it's coming from as it should be wet.

 

Before you panic about your oil lines, if your turbos are blowing a lot of oil, it could be coming from the IC piping as well. My primary is blowing a bit of oil and it has blasted all down the front of the engine and subframe -- that was fun to clean off.

 

Same here. Is that oil underneath the filters, where it could be dripping down?

 

It's pretty far away, so I don't THINK it can be coming from there

Steve

 

You might check your BOV/ABV

 

So it looked into this problem more after the stock radiator was removed and it looks like the oil is for sure coming from the oil cooler lines. There is a buildup on the driver's side radiator support, and it looks like the oil traveled from that corner along the bottom of the radiator, and showhow drafted back up to the front side of the radiator? I can't really test this theory because the car has been down for a couple months and will be down until I finally get my new radiator in...

It does not look to be power steering related.

Any further ideas or suggestions?

If I am to replace my oil cooler lines, what is the best choice? Ray at malloy mazda?