oil leak from separator under o/s air box
Discussion
Anyone experienced a leak from this separator. The pipe connecting it to the o/s cam box seems tight, clips are OK yet there is a persistent drip down onto the painted shield where it collects after a few hundred miles. It's not a lot but its messy and worse, when there is enough, the airflow under the bonnet at speed can flick a few drops onto the adjacent exhaust manifold. Now if it were Castrol R I'd probably have a nasal orgasm but mobil 1 smells terrible when burning. Ususal dealer advice of "they all do that sir" not terribly helpful. Anyone had this/fixed this
Cheers
john McKenzie
Cheers
john McKenzie
John,
Not sure if this helps, but I remember this section of Faisal Khan's Cerbera Guide. It came from a thread on the Yahoo Cerbera Group.
Oily Smoke
(Many thanks to James Hall and his cornflakes for this)
1. when I stop after a trip a wisp or two of possibly oil smoke curls up out of the bonnet near the drivers side windscreen - I open the bonnet to look (as it isn’t a big fire) but by then it's gone - no signs of anything obviously amiss -
2. When cleaning the car I noticed a greasy/oily deposit on the driver’s side just behind the number plate - about the area of a 50p piece. Could these 2 things be related?
That's coming from your colostomy pot. It sits under the driver’s side air box. When you're driving around slowly, the engine breathes a bit, and oil collects in the pot (that's what it's there for).
When you go out and give it a large portion, the engine emits all of its pent up crank case pressure into the pot, and blows some of the oil out. This then goes into the airbox (to be burned by the engine).
Some of it inevitably leaks down the air inlet pipe, and drips onto the front of the car by the number plate (as you described). I would suspect that there is a leak from the pipe that feeds the pot, and some oil is dripping onto the manifold. I'd be inclined to get it fixed, as oil and hot exhausts aren't a good mixture.
Not sure if this helps, but I remember this section of Faisal Khan's Cerbera Guide. It came from a thread on the Yahoo Cerbera Group.
Oily Smoke
(Many thanks to James Hall and his cornflakes for this)
1. when I stop after a trip a wisp or two of possibly oil smoke curls up out of the bonnet near the drivers side windscreen - I open the bonnet to look (as it isn’t a big fire) but by then it's gone - no signs of anything obviously amiss -
2. When cleaning the car I noticed a greasy/oily deposit on the driver’s side just behind the number plate - about the area of a 50p piece. Could these 2 things be related?
That's coming from your colostomy pot. It sits under the driver’s side air box. When you're driving around slowly, the engine breathes a bit, and oil collects in the pot (that's what it's there for).
When you go out and give it a large portion, the engine emits all of its pent up crank case pressure into the pot, and blows some of the oil out. This then goes into the airbox (to be burned by the engine).
Some of it inevitably leaks down the air inlet pipe, and drips onto the front of the car by the number plate (as you described). I would suspect that there is a leak from the pipe that feeds the pot, and some oil is dripping onto the manifold. I'd be inclined to get it fixed, as oil and hot exhausts aren't a good mixture.
Thaks Barry - thats exactly the problem I have. I've since gathered the separator is sealed into the airbox with silcone sealant and that this has a tendency to split or peel causing the leak. Now it's down to whether I can get off my arse to fix it myself or wait for the service in a couple of hundred miles.
Regards
John
Regards
John
John,
I had exactly the problem you describe on my 97 4.2 Cerbera - a small amount of oil dripping from the separator on the underside of the driver-side airbox onto the painted shield below it. No amount of jubilee clip tightening seemed to make any difference. And the silicone sealent between the separator and the airbox seemed sound. After several months of head-scratching I eventually traced the problem to a tiny fracture where the small metal inlet pipe enters the separator. A thorough cleaning and an application of araldite Araldite appears to have cured it.
I had exactly the problem you describe on my 97 4.2 Cerbera - a small amount of oil dripping from the separator on the underside of the driver-side airbox onto the painted shield below it. No amount of jubilee clip tightening seemed to make any difference. And the silicone sealent between the separator and the airbox seemed sound. After several months of head-scratching I eventually traced the problem to a tiny fracture where the small metal inlet pipe enters the separator. A thorough cleaning and an application of araldite Araldite appears to have cured it.
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