Oil Leak from Rear of Engine

Hiyo,

I just did a 50 mile highway trip at about a constant speed of 70 and I noticed my rear windshield started getting more and more murky on my way home. Turns out it was oil and its all over the back of my car. No oil was leaking from my exaust but I pulled off the plastic skid plate and covered the ground with oil.

There's a bit of a hiss when driving and a little part of the intake manifold was a little damp but I figured that I'd go and replace the gasket later and make sure all the bolts were tight. Most of the oil seems to be coming from the back of the engine, but I can't really tell with the amount of oil everywhere. I did my best to clean it up and wipe everything down but I've only got a few ruined t-shirts now and no better idea of where the oil leak is.

My coolent is the exact same level, but there's a lot of excess white smoke from the oil cap when I take it off. Could just be because the engine is still pretty hot.

Is there any common points where oil leaks spring up. I have a BEW engine.

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Oil leakage is usually seeps and drools, sounds like you got a spray.
When there's that much oil, the hiss makes me think spray, it can be hard to tell unless you see it while it's leaking. Easy stuff first, look at the hoses, valve cover, filler cap.
How far down was oil on the dipstick?
When you say back, guessing you mean the face towards the passenger compartment, hard to see back there. Maybe mirrors.

BobnOH said:

Oil leakage is usually seeps and drools, sounds like you got a spray.
When there's that much oil, the hiss makes me think spray, it can be hard to tell unless you see it while it's leaking. Easy stuff first, look at the hoses, valve cover, filler cap.
How far down was oil on the dipstick?
When you say back, guessing you mean the face towards the passenger compartment, hard to see back there. Maybe mirrors.

Click to expand...

Oil is a little over the full line actually.

By back I mean the rear window and hatch are completely covered by a film.

Filler cap doesn't look too good already.

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Here's some pictures

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And oil on the hatch

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Here's behind the engine (top of picture toward back of car)

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It looks like it sprayed from my oil filler cap or the port. Which would make sense because it's all over the hoodliner specifically right above it. It doesn't really touch the back of the engine after I cleaned it. Some might have just caught on the oil pan?

Would an oil overfill cause that? Since there's still plenty of oil in the pan.

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Check for a boost leak, see if you can find the hiss. If your oil level is ok that might be all it is. Lose any power?

Missed your last line, did you just change the oil?

Crankcase pressures are usually high in diesels, so a loose cap could do it. Overfilling might do that. Pull out the excess, clean it up, and see what happens.

I did just change it with 5W-40 and overfilled it a little. Didn't pay much attention to it, figured it'd settle to lower but that never happened. I'll pick up a turkey baster and siphon some out and see what happens.

I haven't lost any power, so maybe not a boost leak. All the hissing is coming from my coolent overflow cap, I've found out, plus whatever sprayed out a bunch of oil.

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On the bright side, no will tailgate you. By the way, did you use an oil made for turbo diesels?

jmodge said:

On the bright side, no will tailgate you. By the way, did you use an oil made for turbo diesels?

Click to expand...

Mobil 1 TDT 5W-40

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So now I have a low oil pressure light on, engine smells like burning oil, but after a small trip the oil level on the dipstick is extraordinarily high? Two other warnings went on for my MAF and intake manifold flap.

This is all weird.

Diesel in my oil. It reeks. Bad injectors or gasket?

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Might be a bad tandem pump.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=347305

thorp said:

Might be a bad tandem pump.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=347305

Click to expand...

Would there be anything that would point to this, other than fuel mixing with oil. Would the spray be the oil pressure getting too high because of too much fuel mixing with the oil and then breaking a seal? That's just my logical thought, since oil sprayed in my engine bag but then stopped spraying pretty quickly.

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That's just diesel fuel leaking and blowing out to the rear. You have a fuel leak, not oil. The oiliness is from the fuel and whatever it picks up on the to the rear of the car.

I'll bet your MPG is way off now.

It was definitely oil on the back of my car. It didn't smell of diesel at all.

I'm going to pop the valve cover and check my injectors.

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DO NOT run the motor any more. You have low oil pressure because of all the fuel you have in the motor. Find out where the fuel is coming from.

I believe the tandem pump can develop a leak and push fuel into the head.

pudman2003 said:

DO NOT run the motor any more. You have low oil pressure because of all the fuel you have in the motor. Find out where the fuel is coming from.

I believe the tandem pump can develop a leak and push fuel into the head.

Click to expand...

I'm changing the oil right now again.

But the question is is how do I find out where the fuel is coming from. My tandem pump is disgusting with all the grime on it but it doesn't look like it's leaking on the outside but they have interior seals don't they.

I'm going to get a compression guage tomorrow to see if that's the problem, and then if that doesn't work it's on to injectors.

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Where in Oregon are you?

Oregon City

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Try to get a hold of member oldpoopie, he is in the Portland area. He may be able to help you diagnose where the fuel is coming from.

I would be very careful about running it until you have this figured out.

Looking at the manual I think fuel flows through ports machined into the head. An internal leak with the tandem pump might push fuel through where the pump engages the cam.

I think the only other source would be orings on the injectors.

My bet would be the pump.

Robert

Gotcha. I will. I've emailed him before with no response. Does he go through the forums?

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I don't know how active he is. Just know He wrenches for people in Portland.
Side job, but very knowledgeable.

Try a search or post how to diagnose leaking tandem pump.

Good luck I wish I could be more help. Please post what you find so we can all learn.

Robert

Look at this.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=367372

I will post what I find along the way.

It seems most forum posts are saying to just replace the tandem pump anyways since it's $250 and not hard to do and if that doesn't fix your problem then it's probably something to do with your injectors.

I might go for it.

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Tandem pump.

You may also want to look your oil cooler over. It won’t put diesel in your oil but they do leak.

Also check the cam. Tandem pumps leaking into the valve area can kill the camshafts on these cars.