Possibly leaking oil

[drew1202]

So when I changed my oil at 30k I noticed oil and the bottom of the drain pain and plastic shield. There wasn't much consumption, maybe about .5 liter over the 10k miles but I did reuse the washer and plug from before so I thought that might have been the cause of the leak. Well to be sure I got a new drain plug from vw with a new washer and called it a day. Well 3 days later and a couple hundred miles I figured I'd check out the pan again to be sure. Well there is still fluid down their but idk if it is from when the oil drained out and never completely dried or I might have a leak somewhere. Nothing noticeable from the plug itself but the foam insulation around the drain plug secretes oil whenever I put a towel to it. What should I do?

 

[meerschm]

I might be tempted to wash the bottom cover with some simple green and hose it off to clean up the oil.

then you can keep an eye on it.

not sure if you can remove the oil pan cover to clean up, but it should not hurt much to have some oil there, (assuming it dripped when you drained the oil as part of the oil change.)

a close look should inform you if the plastic cover on the oil pan can be removed with ease. if it does, you can clean it too.

might want to investigate cover replacement prices before you get too carried away.

 

[drew1202]

I removed that plastic cover last night and it was drenched in oil. I'm thinking it is because of reusing the old washer and having a slow leak, it currently isn't dripping any oil from the drain plug and I don't see any indicators of a leak anywhere else. I'm letting the plastic cover with the foam insulation air dry, but I don't think it needs to be replaced.

 

[adjat84th]

That foam insulation definitely soaks a good bit of oil when draining. Needs to be trimmed down a little more around the plug I think. Also with the drain plugs, you can just buy the copper washers to replace every interval rather than throwing away a perfectly good plug. You'll just have to snip the old captive washer off of the plug before being able to use the copper ones.

 

[IRISHpride]

I now a lady that had her engine replaced for her ea288 leaking like that. the pan was leaking and she didn't know until her car locked up. at 5k miles. I'll dig through and see if I can find the info on it

 

[meerschm]

one might think the first order of business for anyone who thinks they may have an oil link is to frequently check and record the oil level as indicated on the dipstick

 

[drew1202]

It was a slow leak that I thought was just regular consumption. The oil level hasn't changed since changing the oil.

 

[PAULMKOLON]

My 2015 EA288 in my Jetta is doing the same thing. I have changed the oil twice and discovered this plastic pan and foam insulation covering the steel oil pan. It has 4 pins that expand the "molly" which holds the plastic pan. They are easy to remove with needle nose pliers, just pull straight down. Yesterday i changed the oil and there was even more oil in the foam than last time. I squeezed some of it out, about 2-3 oz.
My questions about this set up are; 1.Does this foam insulate noise and/or get the oil temp up quicker on cold starts to help improve emissions? 2. The collecting oil in the foam, does that reduce noise/ oil temp compared to an oil free foam? 3.Was i put there, while the car is brand new, and no oil soaked foam, to improve emissions? 4. This arrangement was also on some previous TDI engines from 2013, according to my Google search. What for?
At this point, with 28,500 miles on the car, it is a pain to deal with!