Hi,

Noticed today that my skoda octavia 2004 L & K Is leaking a small amount of oil from the drivers side front wheel area.

I removed the sump guard to have a better look and found the oil to be coming from what looks like some

sort of cooler mounted in the well of the front bumper . Having looked at other threads I think its the engine oil cooler!

Has anyone got any Ideas?

Thanx in advance.

Edited 2 May, 201214 yr by WOCCO65

Thats not an oil cooler, the intercooler cools air after its passed through the air filter on its way to the intake manifold. Oil can enter the system however and a small amount of oil in there is not uncommon. However it should not be leaking, the joints are well known for leaks and the solution is to replace the pipework piece thats leaking.

Cheers Mannyo

I will have a look at the pipe connections for leaks and replace as you mentioned.

Looks like its been leaking for some time before I noticed it on my path because looks like an oily residue has built up around the cooler and bumper, is this normal for a leak from this area?

Thanks again !

Edited 2 May, 201214 yr by WOCCO65

A tiny bit of oil residue / weepage is normal from the bottom Intercooler hose joint. Doesn't matter how well you seal this joint - oil residue seems to find it's way out eventually!

However, as you can appreciate, the intercooler system runs basically dry air - you're gonna get a small amount of oil in it, but not a lot.

If it's leaking enough to drip onto driveways - then in my experience it's possibly indicative of turbo seal failure. The turbo's spindle is lubricated by high-pressure engine oil, and if the seals start to give out then this is where the leaked oil will gather and leak from the car.

Seen it on quite a few VAG cars, not just Octy's. A friend's Mk4 Golf was leaking quite badly because of this - I had to replace the turbo for him to cure it.

How many miles has yours done?

_{My Octy has done 85000 miles , How much do you think then to replace the Turbo? sounds very expensive to me :wonder:}

_{Cheers Terry}

If the turbo oil seals have gone you would get a James Bond style smokescreen behind the car

I would just remove the intercooler, clean the oil out and replace the pipe and any hose clips holding it all together. Then monitor your oil weekly and see if it's going down.

_{I Removed the intercooler today cleaned out some oil that had made its way down to the bottom of the outfeed pipe. Replaced short section of pipe making sure the clips that hold the pipe work were put back correctly, need to snap into place.}

_{Thought I would do an oil and filter change while I was at it}

_{will monitor oil level again in a couple of days!}

_{Thanks for the advice}