For a while now, I have noticed that I have to feed my car the odd extra litre of oil between changes (every 30k, as I am variable and seem to the get to the maximum). I think it has had 2 litres to top it up and must be getting pretty close to being changed now.

However combined with this, I noticed that I get a funny smell when the car is over 2.5-3k for any length of time, say when booting it up a hill or doing an overtake. From what I can see the oil is coming from the crankcase breather and leaking out of the side of the part of the EGR assembly. I guess the funny smell I can detect is oil on something hot towards the back of the engine (part of the exhaust assembly maybe?). I am however surprised at how quickly the smell appears (and disappears) once the revs drop back down. Car is now on a 156k.

Any suggestions? I did take the EGR assembly off a couple of years ago and clean it up, so I might do that again, and possibly take off the intake assembly it bolts to and clean that up as that was rather oily and generally mucky inside.

Thanks,

Matt

could it be vapours from the crank case breather that are getting out and creating the smell. You would think that when the engine is going faster that more vapours come out and thus more smell.

Since I diverted the CCB through a catch can and vent it to atmosphere you can smell a sort of hot oily odour when you open the bonnet with the engine on or just after turning it off.

Hi trundlenut,

That is indeed what I was thinking, but I am wondering something has happened over the last few months (say about 6) to cause more vapours to be generated.

Have you got some pictures and details of fitting a catch can? where did you source your can from? My MOT tester even suggested I did this, and it would be interesting to see how much I "catch".

Cheers,

Matt

I used a compressed air filter thing from Machinemart (£16ish), though I ended up removing the innards because it was too effective and got horribly bunged up with a oil/water emulsion.

It has an advantage of being see through and you can watch it fill up. I connected it with some radiator hose and a few fittings I had knocking around. I put the end of the hose down into the wing. I also changed how it's tied on since I took the picture because it was a bit of pain to get off and it was attached to the battery cover, now it's attached to the slam panel and the bg radiator hose you can see.

where does the end of the hose in the wing go to? just vents to the open air? What else is blocked off - ie the hose where it would normally go from the crank case into EGR assembly, what is done at the EGR end of things?

How many miles before you need to drain it?

where does the end of the hose in the wing go to? just vents to the open air? What else is blocked off - ie the hose where it would normally go from the crank case into EGR assembly, what is done at the EGR end of things?

How many miles before you need to drain it?

Yes it just goes into the wing and just vents to air. I blocked off the inlet into the air intake by fitting a pipe blanking cap onto the fitting that was on the end of the original pipe which went between the CCB and air intake (it goes into the air intake before the turbo rather than the EGR). I did have to rotate the regurgitator valve thing through 90 degrees but it can do that OK.

i'll try and get a couple of better piccies tomorrow.

Oh and I just check it every so often and empty it when it has an inch or so of gunge in it. Normally 1-2000 miles before it needs doing. It seems to accumlate more when it's cold though.

Here are another couple of pictures of what I've done.

Excellent - thank you. I must get shopping then.

It's worth making sure you've cleaned out the EGR/Intercooler again and that the breather system isn't blocked increasing the pressure on the system and so causing more oil to be pushed back into the combustion chambers.

Also worth checking for weeping oil from any seals.

IIRC you're car is on a reasonable mileage these days, so it's probably worth giving it a flush through and changing to a fixed service interval with the slightly thicker oil (assuming they still make the correct VW spec).

I'd say it might be worth getting a proper catch can (not a cheap one) and also turning the EGR right down if you have not done so already.

I have not changed anything EGR related.... assume that is a vag-com option? I would probably wait till the warmer months and then take the EGR assembly off and unit it bolts to as well (did not clean that before).

Fixed servicing - its a possibility, but not sure I can be bothered with 3 oil changes a year!