Minor oil ingress beneath Intercooler

[anniesbloke]

Just noted some oil evident beneath leading edge of intercooler and rubber pipes running above the exhaust manifold heat shield. Everything working fine and no black smoke or poor performance. Have been told this is normal by my reliable local garage. Is this OK?

 

[Goatmaster]

In a perfect world there would be none but a little is nothing to worry about. Check the clips on the rubber connections and perhaps provide an image just to confirm the amount is not excessive as that could indicate turbo wear.

 

[anniesbloke]

Many thanks indeed. Spring clips seem secure but maybe changing to jubilee clips would be better? Leaking is really quarter to half a thimble full if that along the top of the vent pipe to the back of the engine cover . Only just noticed it - but turbo working fine and I thought it might just be normal wear and tear with 95K mileage..

 

[Goatmaster]

Just keep to the recommended oil change intervals to reduce wear. However is the leak on the drivers side of the ingercooler? If so then more likely from the EGR if you have one. Well worth blocking the thing off with a blanking plate. Easy to make up, I have in the past made one up from a few layers of coke can but a little thicker single plate would probably be easier to fit. Do a search for EGR for a link to a video how to.

However I should mention that it is not essential to do so.

 

[macabethiel]

I agree

Just noted some oil evident beneath leading edge of intercooler and rubber pipes running above the exhaust manifold heat shield. Everything working fine and no black smoke or poor performance. Have been told this is normal by my reliable local garage. Is this OK?

As has been said most turbo diesels tend to have a small amount of oil build up in the Intercooler system.

On both our Jeeps and our previous Terrano r3mR this was most evident when the throttle was floored after a period of restrained driving. A small cloud/puff of oil smoke was evident but this would not happen again for the remainder of any journey it was a sort of one off thing.

I have always assumed that the sudden throttle demand sucked the small amount of residual oil out of the intake system with probably some extra diesel to help. Oddly enough the loss of this oil never reflected in any noticeable oil consumption.

 

[Barrbeast]

Is it a 3.0 or 2.7?

If it's a 3.0 then it's the same ZD30 as the Trols so don't blank the egr without doing something to control the boost as otherwise the engine could start overboosting.

On the intercooler, as said it's not unusual to get a bit of oil in the intercooler but if it's leaking out you could have a very slight intercooler leak as they like to do it at the seam.

 

[anniesbloke]

The slight leak is on the passenger side but no black smoke under harsh acceleration. I think I will keep an eye on it as we have a long trip to Cornwall in a couple of weeks. When I have a moment will also take the whole intercooler off and just double check hoses and clips etc.
Having owned Defenders (from new) with oil leaks from everywhere the Terrano is absolutely leak free underneath and uses no oil at all. Chassis rock solid too rather than crumbling apart after 15 years! Thanks again for your help..