Oil leaking out of EGR

Started an oil change on my 220k Jetta and discovered that oil is coming out one of the side holes of the EGR. I also noticed my new valve cover is leaking all around the gasket area and at the oil fill cap. The valve cover issue is most likely a cheap version that I bought at idparts, it was half the cost of the OEM they were selling, replacing it with an OEM now.


Anyway, I'm concerned about this oil coming out of my EGR, I even see it on the joints IC pipes. At 200k when I did a TB change I cleaned out the intake manifold but it looks like I will have to do it again.


Why so much oil? Is it from a cheap valve cover?


What do I need to do to delete the EGR?


Thanks,
Nick

The "seal" in the EGR is worn out.

That seal is not serviceable. It seals the compressed air from escaping around the valve stem of the internal Valve. The oil comes from the by-pass oil mist from the vent puck on top of the valve cover........ a natural thing TDI engines do. There are lots of reading about "thingys' to capture that oil. It [oil] also comes from the Turbo seal on the Impeller side.

The best fix is a new EGR if you intend to keep it OE compliant. There is such a thing as a racing pipe (where in the *ell did that name come from) that can be used to replace the EGR assembly.

Just remember, you should do an Italian Tune-up two or three times per tank of fuel to keep the oil blown out of the Inter Cooler........ otherwise, it could accumulate and some day be forced out in a slug.... resulting in a hydro lock.

Lay that old OE valve cover out behind the house in the rain drip for about two months. Then clean it up and re-install and tighten the screws appropriately and it is likely to serve you well!

There is always *some* oil in the charge air tract, because that is where the crankcase breather scavenges vapors to, through the pressure regulator valve atop the valve cover, through the heated breather tube into the air inlet ahead of the turbocharger.

So that oil mist gets compressed along with the incoming air, and will find any way out it can over time. Some cars are worse than others. Plus, a worn turbocharger will also pass some oil into the charge air tract, but that is generally not the cause... and a turbo will pass oil out BOTH sides of the turbine shaft, so you'll have especially sooty gunky buildup on the exhaust side, too, although that requires removal of the downpipe to check.

The valve cover itself has a baffle inside (held in by four Torx screws) that itself is an assembly of a couple plastic pieces snapped together with a couple metal screen baffles inside designed to trap oil but allow vapors through.

A leaking vacuum system will also cause excessive crankcase scavenging, as the vacuum pump exhausts into the engine as part of its normal operation. It may be providing plenty of vacuum to work the various components (VNT, EGR, ASV, and most importantly the brake assist) but still can be leaking.

Your EGR valve leak is through the vent hole, due to a worn internal shaft causing that oil in the charge air tract to wick up and out. Only fix for that is a new EGR valve. Blocking the hole(s) will not allow the valve to operate properly.

If the oil consumption isn't excessive, I'd not worry too much about it and just replace the EGR valve and if you need to the valve cover. If the oil consumption IS excessive, you may want to investigate further.

Well, that sounds better than what I have been researching. Some threads suggest that a bad seal on the turbo can cause this excessive oil and if the seal get really bad that you can get a run-away condition that fry's the engine.



I have read up on deleting the EGR but have not found anything that tells me how to prevent the CEL from coming on, does any one know what I have to do with my VAG-COM to disable this?


Thanks,
Nick

VCDS will not help you, the software will need to be changed.

I've seen EGR leaking oil but not loosing boost. Maybe avoiding getting oil in the intake, but using an oil catch can, would solve the problem.

Those leaks are kind of a warning that there is too much oil on the intake due to excessive blowby or turbo seals letting too much oil go to the intake.

Not necessarily, could just be the seal on the EGR shaft leaking as was suggested twice above.

Even if there's "too much oil in the intake" the EGR wouldn't leak if its seal was good.

I’ve made a stealth egr on mine.
I’ve cut the valve mechanism out and sealed up,all the ports, just keeping it for the ASV portion, also I’m not running egr cooler and it’s coded for egr delete

Studying this EGR system I have discovered that it works almost in the opposite way from a gas engine, I might be wrong though.


On a gas engine an EGR system will actually cool the combustion camber by reducing the oxygen, but from what I'm reading the EGR on an ALH engine is needed to heat up the engine. Am I understanding this correctly?


Nick

You are understanding part of its function.

The EGR is there to reduce combustion temperature however advantage is taken of the hot exhaust gas to heat the coolant for faster warm up.

EGR's function is the same: reduce NOx by displacing free oxygen in the intake air. However, since a diesel always runs lean, it requires much more EGR to make the same impact, and even then it isn't enough (hence Dieselgate), however because the ALH and others do run so much EGR, they want/need to cool this oxygen-depleted air down some, so they pass it through a heat exchanger to remove some of the heat to the engine's cooling system. This has a side (positive) benefit of making the engine warm up faster, which diesels are already more difficult to do given they are superior at turning fuel into motion and less waste heat.

csstevej_"I’ve made a stealth egr on mine.
I’ve cut the valve mechanism out and sealed up,all the ports, just keeping it for the ASV portion, also I’m not running egr cooler and it’s coded for egr delete"

Does this ASV help prevent runaway's? I've delayed fixing my leaking EGR due to not wanting to replace it with a new one and not wanting to chance a runaway safety measure from going away.