2.7 tdi oil leak from exhaust manifolds??

[stu210782]

 Stu210782 , 04-17-2019 12:42 PM

Hi everyone, 

My car has got an oil leak that I cannot get my head around and wondered if someone could help me make sense of it. Basically both exhaust manifolds are wet at the bottom and dripping off of the studs but the top of the manifolds are dry and there isn't an excessive amount of oil on the block so wouldn't of thought that head/gasket would be the cause. I cleaned the engine and under tray last week and its covered again already. Any help would be appreciated. Tia
Stu

[Dan3222]

Hi Stu. This is interesting as last week someone else with the TDI V6 (although 3ltr) had the same problem.  The fact that you have this on both sides also is weird tbh. I have to admit I pointed the other person away from thinking it could be from the manifolds itself asi have never come across this before in many years of playing with engines. 

First question is stick your finger inside one or both of the tailpipes (obviously engine off and cold!!) and see if you have an oily residue on your finger. I would expect this to be the case if oil is leaking quite heavily from the manifold, it therefore makes sense that it would be making its way down the inside of the pipe too. If you do this after a drive but say an hour later, the tailpipes will have cooled but will not be wet in any way by moisture, only oil.... hope that makes sense.

[stu210782]

Hi Dan, 

Thank you for the response. I checked the tailpipes and there is only the black soot that you'd expect from a diesel and no oil. I thought that this would be the case as it doesn't smoke at all and I'm not using that much oil really (haven't had to top it up since owning it since the beginning of January). I've searched the net and found that there are relief ports around the manifold area on the head which are for combustion gases etc when the injector seals fail so now leaning towards new seals.

[Dan3222]

Ha, you beat me too it. Had a search online too and it does look like you have leaking injector seals. I would assume that the substance is oily but thick? That’s how it is described on other forums. 

Please post a reply if replacing the seals fixes this issue. I will be checking my manifold soon for this.

[stu210782]

That's the thing.  It's fresh engine oil I'm getting and its dripping off of the under tray so not just the thick black soot I have read about but there are rubber seals aswell so I  imagine that they ate for the oil so replace all seals on all injectors as there is no other reason for a leak in that area unless both heads have cracked internally and leaking through the relief ports which I'm thinking is highly unlikely but with my luck I'm not ruling it out lol 

[stu210782]

And of course I'll post the outcome as there is nothing worse than a thread that stops dead with no answers 

[Guest BMW_Mania]

Have your concern resolved ?

Thanks in advance..

Jose

[stu210782]

Had all seals changed which hasn't stopped the leak

 

[Joewill2222]

I think I have the same issue! Have you found a conclusion? 

[Steve Q]

10 hours ago, Joewill2222 said:

I think I have the same issue! Have you found a conclusion? 

Have you had the seals changed as per above?