oil collecting in lower intercooler hose

oilspot · Post by **oilspot** » 06 Oct 2011, 19:42

I have been reading this thread with great interest, as I have a '99 V70XC that's burning oil, and has loaded it's intercooler hoses with oil, and made a general oily mess all over the front of the engine. I just tore into the PCV job today, and found only one small 1/8" vacuum line really clogged, everything else seemed fine, but got replaced anyway. I was afraid the turbo may have screwed the pooch, but the impeller has no discernible play in its' bearings, radial or endplay. the PTC nipple had a little crud in it, nothing too bad. The car has 147k on it, and runs smoothly, makes plenty of power, it just smokes! Is there anything else I may be missing here?

Post by **jblackburn** » 06 Oct 2011, 22:07

Do you get a blue puff on start-up after the car sits overnight?

If you just cleaned the PCV system, the smoke may take a few days to clear up.

oilspot · Post by **oilspot** » 07 Oct 2011, 20:11

haven't driven it yet, just tore into a/c evaporator replacement, but I did get the inlet duct off the turbo and tried to wiggle the iompeller shaft- zero play. so I'm hoping the PCV job may cure it. Hope to get this thing on the road early next week.

oilspot · Post by **oilspot** » 07 Oct 2011, 20:16

I notice smoke right away when starting it usually, like valve seals, but it also keeps smoking while idling, hard to say exactly what the exact symptoms are yet though, as it isn't in use yet, just yard driving in and out of the shop lately. (new purchase) have only verified that it still runs since the PCV job, haven't driven it yet.

SimLyons · Post by **SimLyons** » 08 Oct 2011, 00:11

I had exactly the same symptoms as you (oil in lower intercooler hose). I pulled the whole intercooler system apart and went right ahead with Jblackburn's PCV clean/replace routine. There was oil in all the intake piping and turbo, exhaust and pipes also had slightly burned oil coating it. After the PCV job and cleaning MAF and other essential parts, replaced all vacuum hoses/lines and some clamps. Since then I have no issues at all, no smoke, no dips, no oil wasted (I had gotten as low as 500 mi/qt) and now I'm back to "normal", maybe a qt in 3000 miles. I had started with the thought it was a turbo seal. Not! Saved me a lot of money and would have wound up doing the PCV anyway. Happy camper here! Thanks again, Justin!!

sschlage · Post by **sschlage** » 14 Jul 2014, 20:30

Same symptoms on my 1998 V70 AWD w/ 200,000 miles (turbo has 150,000). I first started noticing a wet oil pan and it seemed to be coming from the front of block area which led me to suspect the PCV system was clogged. I also noticed oil dripping directly from intercooler inlet hose.

Things I have done "recently" since noticing the symptoms:
(I say recently because when my father owned the car the turbo went out at 130,000. he replaced the turbo with an 80,000 used turbo and I believe the high pressure oil lines to the turbo along with the PCV system)

1) PTC cleaning. (wasn't badly clogged)
2) PCV system replcement. (moderately to highly clogged/oily) after about 600 miles, enough time for any excess oil to clear through the system, the car is still burning oil at a high rate and there is still smoke coming out of the dipstick tube. Oil is also dripping from the intercooler inlet hose at an increased rate. The PCV system replacement did not help. My worst fear, the turbo failing, seems to have come.

I am now looking into turbo rebuild. $250-$500 is really the most I want to spend on the car at this point in its life and the rebuild seems like the only thing left to try. There is a turbo at the local salvage yard with 130,000ish on it for $175 but there are no guarantees there.

Any last thoughts on what could be causing the oil build up? Any advice or thoughts are much appreciated.

Shawn

Post by **abscate** » 15 Jul 2014, 04:11

Shawn..if you can get the turbo off, the rebuild is quite simple and in your budget. There are some great write ups with pictures here

XCAndy · Post by **XCAndy** » 01 Jan 2017, 01:10

I had a similar situation with oil in the intake hoses and throttle body. My loss appears to be associated with a bad CHRA and a leaky intercooler. Low pressure resulting in a small hole in the intercooler allowed the worn CHRA to push oil into the intake. If the intercooler did not suffer low pressure, then the oil would have leaked into the exhaust, causing smoke.

All other issues had been addressed prior, i.e. pcv system full replacement... including dropping the pan , new seals, fully clearing the sludge from the small port above the pan to the oil trap, new ptc nipple, blah, blah, blah.

My intercooler was cracked/leaking on the drivers side where the hose that ends up at the throttle body connects to the intercooler.

i drove the car for 4 years before realizing the issue... I just thought the oil loss was normal for these cars based on other posts on this site and others. I had the turbo out and sent for a rebalance during a cylinder head repair when I was informed of the CHRA problem and that caused me to dig deeper and I discovered the IC was bad as well.

800 miles into a turbo rebuild and new intercooler and not a drop of oil used - intakes tubes are dry.

Post by **abscate** » 01 Jan 2017, 05:21

That was either caused by the center hub rotating assembly or something to do with Canadian human rights?

oil collecting in lower intercooler hose

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