Afternoon all. Found alot of oily mess underneath the VRS when I serviced it the other week. In December when I had the MOT the guy said I have a small leak on the Turbo but nothing to worry about . . . but upon finding this mess I am beginning to think otherwise, and maybe doing something about it now rather than later when it blows up.

Any help you can give greatly appreciated.

The photos are taken from under the car, feet under engine, head under floor if it helps.

Rob.

thats the drive shaft oil seal leaking and possibly the boost hose down the back of the engine.

Edited 28 July, 201114 yr by furry

the boost pipe will req changing as that will be leaking boost and its common to have oil in due to the crank case breather system being put back into the inlet track!!!

thats why the best thing to do is fit a catch tank and that solve the oil in the pipes,turbo,intercooler etc etc

easy job to change prob 10mins at most and new part is around £19 from skoda

at the same time as changing this i would take the oppotunity to get as much oil out of the pipe work and sidemount intercooler and fit a catch tank easy job plenty of how too's on here

as said above the oil seal on the drive shaft req changing but i would clean it first and see how it is in a few months!!

thanks for the speedy replies, have spoken to my brother mate who is a bit of a petrol head, and he reckons that cleaning off the mess and seeing if its a seep or a leak to begin, and also topping up the gearbox oil.

am going to clean / empty the carbon canister as i havent heard that working in a while, which could be the cause of the oily mess.

Could someone advise me on the parts I need to replace as mentioned earlier, boost hose? i think it was. . .

will have a look shortly into fitting a catch tank

Any other thoughts or ideas into severity of this oily problem?

My bros mate did say that if the drive shaft seals need replacing its a long hard job, but we would do it if absolutely vital

Thanks,

Rob

04 VRS 76k on clock

i would just replace that lower hose and clean the gearbox area up

you need the hose and some good cleaner to rinse out the pipes and intercooler.

then to stop it happening again you will need that catch tank

look up the guide by bowders off here will show you all you need to know

easy job but worth it and should hold boost better too win win all the way

ok nice one, so take off that rubber hose (undo jubilee) and using hosepipe and cleaner rinse it out . . . and the intercooler . . take it off and rinse it?

Ive found a catch tank guide, not sure who did it but the engine bay had alot of blue hoses and seemed fairly detailed so have printed off for future reference, unsure where to purchase the bits and tank from as google has been completely useless :(

Am going to do gearbox oil tomorrow as I have a few days off

Rob.

yep just undo the jubilee and pull the clip out the other end and remove simple as that.

take the pankcake pipe off and intercooler off and clean out takes abit of time but really is worth it you will see once you get under the car,

as for the catch tank guide that will be the resident forum guide maker Bowders / if its a red estate it will be our other resident guide and picture guru.

thanks for the speedy replies, have spoken to my brother mate who is a bit of a petrol head, and he reckons that cleaning off the mess and seeing if its a seep or a leak to begin, and also topping up the gearbox oil.

am going to clean / empty the carbon canister as i havent heard that working in a while, which could be the cause of the oily mess.

Could someone advise me on the parts I need to replace as mentioned earlier, boost hose? i think it was. . .

will have a look shortly into fitting a catch tank

Any other thoughts or ideas into severity of this oily problem?

My bros mate did say that if the drive shaft seals need replacing its a long hard job, but we would do it if absolutely vital

Thanks,

Rob

04 VRS 76k on clock

Hi there your oily mess (on the boost pipe) is what folks have stated is because your lower boost pipe is leaking. This is common on these cars and as the seal / clip that holds the pipe to the metal tube start's to get loose the oil will drip past it and down between the pipe and the heat wrap where you see it at the bottom on the heat shield.

The second oil mess is your drive shaft oil seal which is not a bad job to do to be honest.

I would clean all the areas off first to prove you still have a leak as previous owner may of fixed them but not cleaned area up. I doubt it as the oil looks freash to me though.

But i would do it as you will be loosing gearbox oil and if it gets too low will be heading for a new diff.

ah right, was a black vrs with blue samco hoses i think . . .or forge ones. Pancake pipe? sorry not quite up to speed on the lingo. basically take off all the pipes that go to the intercooler, and take the I-cooler off itself. . . nothing to drain or watch out for jus whip them all off . . .and give a good cleaning.

sounds simple enough :p

Previous owner 3 years ago sold it to me in pretty much immaculate mechanical condition . .. so i would assume the leaking is down to me lol.

will get underneath tomorrow and have a closer look.

Would it be worth my while doing both drive shaft seals ? or just do the one and hope the other one doesnt go anytime soon

just an update really . ..

got the car up in the air the other day and took off the intercooler pipes.

found ALOT of oil in the IC, took pancake off etc etc and cleaned them all out. put all back together and car seems alot happier and better now. I will be taking the other "side" of the engine air pipes etc off soon, and then fitting a catch tank as suggested here.

My question is: should I be worried that the IC had that much oil in it? and if so is it likely to be a Turbo issue and something expensive?

There is no smoke at all coming out the back under idle, load or anything, and car pulls like a train! No noises and nothing strange. Gearbox can be a pig to get into first sometimes and then 1st to 2nd is a huge clunk but am going to do the Gearbox oil soon so hopefully that will solve it

Any thoughts?

Rob.

here is the album of my car, have a browse at your leisure the recent work are the last pictures. the oil in the white tray is what came out of the IC. ( most of it, some went on the floor lol )

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.75750558385.77509.658633385&l=d43c4c3f14&type=1

theres the images.

You don't mention mileage or age, but that doesn't look unusual for a 1.8T with reasonable miles on it.

If it builds up again quickly then you maybe looking at seals (valve/turbo) being on their way out but you would expect some smoking if that was the case.

54 plate, 76 k on clock

no smoke at all from rear, which is a little reassuring

thanks for the reply,

rob