Leak around the oil cap

My 02 Jetta is leaking oil around the oil cap. I followed the advice of the veterans and have changed the oil myself with 5w40 (no more Jiffy Lube) and have carefully cleaned the oil cap (looks to be in good shape). Oil still leaks around the cap, splatters a bit, and then smokes when the engine is hot.

Questions:
1. Could the CCV be the culprit?
2. Do I need to clean the EGR?

3. When I changed the oil, I noticed that the noise-insulating foam on the engine cover has disintegrated and shed all over the engine. I removed the rest of the foam and vacuumed the dust as best I could. Do I need to replace the foam, or can I leave the plastic engine cover naked as it now is?

You can run without the engine cover.

Could be a clogged CCV, but try replacing the gasket under the oil cap first.

The smoke is normal.

Go to the dealer or prefered vendor for this part number.

06A-103-483-D

It's a new O-ring for the cap.

The oil leak around the oil filler cap, it is caused by the insufficient oil cap rubber gasket thickness. It's an easy fix and very inexpensive. Get one or two new oil cap rubber gaskets. Remove existing rubber gasket and clean it. Wipe clean oil inside the oil cap. Install the new one first, then the old one. Or install two new ones. Don't forget to lightly oil the rubber gasket that makes contact with the oil filler hole flange. Mine has been free from oil deposit around the oil filler cap on the valve cover for 10K+ w/o any issues at all.

1. No
2. Yes. The accumulation can be further reduced by using SAPS oils
such as M1 ESP 5W-30 or M1 ESP FM 5W-40

You could leave it w/o the insulation.
Alternately, you can always get a used one from the junk yard. I did pick one up for $10.00

You might want to check and see if your EGR valve is the culprit.

About a year ago I noticed an oily mess around the oil cap. After cleaning it up and doing a little driving, I was able to track it to the EGR (with a little help).

In my case, the EGR valve had to be replaced. The picture below is what someone else's looked like--mine pretty much looked the same.

Thanks for the encouragement to try a new oil cap gasket and the part number. I'll definitely replace/add a new oil cap o-ring. My leak looks similar to LOoOky's posted picture above; if the EGR valve is the trouble, does anyone know of any DIY instructions on replacing the EGR valve?

See the intake manifold cleaning procedure in the how to sticky above. The part is about $190.

As jasonTDI said. the "how to" is in the sticky and the process is fairly straightforward. I did it in well under an hour, and I fix computers for a living--not cars. The biggest slowdown was trying to get a bolt or two back after dropping them .

As you mentioned, try the gasket first--unless you can narrow it down like I did. You will notice in the picture, that there is oil on underside of the EGR valve. The place the oil will leak from is here:


Clean the EGR and oil cap area, do a little italian tuneup and check again. if you see oil there, you have narrowed it down.

I can't take any credit for the pictures or the tips--oldpoopie helped me out and gave me links to the pics.

L0o0ky

o man!!! this is it!!!! it looks just like my issue! exactly. I am just not able to ensure that it's exactly the EGR but it is also wet.

Always a good idea to first try and clean and then monitor to get a better idea where the problem is really coming from. Of course, I say this and then don't follow my own advice! I replaced the EGR valve on my wife's car (used the one I swapped out from my intake cleaning from my car) thinking for sure that the oily mess it was experiencing was due to the EGR valve weep hole- WRONG! Turned out that the EGR valve-to-manifold seal was bad and that the oil was blowing out between the two: had not read of any other instances of this, though I'm sure there have been. This failure to properly heed my own advice, however, cost me nothing as I was wanting to swap in a clean EGR anyway (and had a new seal for the job). Oh, also had plenty of oil spewing down on to the intake manifold. Have pictures posted that show all of this.

o man! yeah I ended up noticing it's not oil leaking from the cap. I see a spray of oil actually and the egr is a bit wet also there is no oil elsewhere other than on top of the timing belt cover, and near/beside the oil cap as the pics above this post seem to show... I also hoisted up the car to see today I did see a bit of oil but I will have to investigate further tomorrow and test it out. maybe make a mini aluminum foil tent around there drive down the block and see which section (egr, valve to manifold or the cap) it's coming from. I will let you know where it is coming from when I get this all solved.

if you can share the pics that would be great. Thanks, feel free to message me with those links please.

What is the life expectancy on an EGR anyways? It's about 277800 kms . or say 12 yrs old. I never had to replace it for 6 yrs (the length of time I have had the car). I did do a carbon clean a while back. I know it's fully clean inside of it.....

the turbo wouldn't be related right? I am just concerned as I had it removed, taken apart, thoroughly cleaned, actuator replaced and put back in back in January.

Here's a picture looking at the mouth of the intake with the EGR valve removed (oil plumes resulting in spray hitting the valve cover. Oil also down below on the intake). (can't get the image to load here)

http://pics.tdiclub.com/showphoto.php?photo=110897&title=double-trouble&cat=all

Thanks, I checked it about 3 months ago and it looked clean inside the egr. but didnt' look further into it after it was removed. I will let u know. Thanks,

JasonTDI gave me a great tip when my oil cap was leaking. Change the gasket, but never remove the cap again. Just fill your oil through the oil filter housing.

Thanks eats. Yeah I checked it with some aluminum foil in the car to see the direction the oil was coming from. it was def the EGR.