JFB

I noticed a strange smell coming from the car yesterday (MY00) and discovered that there is oil leaking from the pipe connecting to the underside of the intercooler as you look from the driver's side. It's abouy 1.5 inches in diameter. Does anyone know if this is serious or does the pipe simply need tightening? Performance does not seem to have been affected.

Thanks

Jerome

dowser

How much oil? This is one of 2 entry points to the i/c from your turbo - some oil mist is expected if you're running higher boost than normal and no catch tank. If the car's fairly standard, you've probably overfilled the oil - you'll need to drain excess out and clean everything (boost solenoid pipework, boost solenoid and intercooler).

However, oild shouldn't be leaking from this point - if oil is, so will air....meaning you're losing boost...

Richard

JFB

Thanks for that Richard. It's more than mist. the oil has travelled about 2 inches up along the metal pipe part of the intercooler but not enough so that it's leaking onto the ground yet.

I had a TEK 2.5 fitted a couple of months ago so she is running a higher boost - 1.3 at peak. I'm just concerned that something maybe broken.....turbo etc?

Thanks again

Jerome

john banks

A lot of cars get enough oil in the intercooler pipework that you can really mop a fair bit up. The more boost you run, the more blowby you are likely to get. Is the car using oil on the dipstick?

There always used to be a little puddle in my throttle body when the car just had a PPP, but it never seemed to use oil and is still OK 20000 miles later. The intercooler pipes looked like someone had taken a oil spray and deliberately put it there. Oddly fitting a catch can and cleaning the pipes a few months back has kept all the pipes dry, still not using oil, but none going in the catch tank either. Maybe the mist is ventilating out the other side of the tank. If there is more than I am talking about you need to watch the oil level and look at the breather system, turbo etc.

JFB

Thanks John,

It's actually your ECU via Babber! I have also had a couple of instances where flooring it say in fourth gear from fairly low revs, the engine cuts for a nanosecond - completely dead. It also happened on a motrway in fifth overtaking and really felt as if something had broken. But she continued on fine. Also, the hesitancy at 3000 rpms has remained???

Any ideas John?

Thanks

Jerome

john banks

This sort of thing is impossible to properly diagnose at a distance. You need to log instances of this happening to see what is going on. Has it always done it with this ECU in or has it just started doing it and does it do it with the standard one? What boost is it running when it happens? What condition are the plugs in? What is the fuel pressure? Are the lambda and MAF sensors OK? Is it drinking oil? etc. Every issue that there has been apparently related to one of these maps so far has on investigation not been related to the ECU but to something else on the car. When did all these problems start? If the car drove perfectly on the standard ECU one minute and then the next it had faults on the remapped one then I would blame the map. Otherwise I think you need to look elsewhere, especially if problems started after an interval.

A compression test would put your mind at rest hopefully about the status of the engine.... but is it actually using any oil?

[Edited by john banks - 1/18/2003 12:55:48 PM]

JFB

No John, there is no noticeable reduction in oil. She's due a 37500 mile service within the next couple of weeks and I will raise the issues then. There has always been hesitancy at 3000rpm. I just thought the new ECU would change that but the symptom has remained.

Thanks for your comments and needless to say, your Tek 2.5 has transformed the car and makes it go like it really should!

Cheers

Jerome

john banks

It is very reassurring that it is not using oil, and suggests it is just blowby.

Whilst the MY00 AE802 was coined a "hesitating bag of $hite" by T-uk and Babber, it is not all that bad IMHO. The ignition is basically a bit retarded on some of the maps and its richer, and hence down on power and torque, but it shouldn't hesitate at 3000 RPM when warm because of the ECU IMHO.

Hesitations when there are no "faults" as such can often be cured by a change of spark plugs to NGK PFR 7B with a 0.7mm gap and also a fuel pump.

A few people whose cars I have mapped will tell you that we put a remap on their car it improved things with regard to hesitation, but that when I regapped or changed their plugs for them things improved remarkably.

JFB

http://album3514.fotopic.net/show_collection.php?id=10942

This was the only way I could get the phots up as the uploader thingy isn't working but you sgould be able to see what I was writing about.

Thanks

Jerome

ozzy

Not sure if this will work









Stefan

P.S. You're welcome

[Edited by ozzy - 1/18/2003 3:22:24 PM]

JFB

Cheers Ozzy

john banks

Mine never did that but I always had uprated intercooler pipework running more boost than standard. Maybe it is worth pulling a few breather hoses and trying to see where the oil is coming from. The plastic pipe is quite rigid and thin, and would benefit from being changed to something more robust. Clean up the pipes when you change them and see if the problem returns?

[Edited by john banks - 1/18/2003 3:26:54 PM]

Claudius

Sounds to me like you get too much pressure in the engine blowing some oil from the head. Try and install a catch tank and see if that fills up.