Had the wheel arch liner off this weekend while changing the droplinks and noticed some large carbon deposits on the pipes from the bottom of the intercooler..

The build-up on the pipe to the left is dry carbon while the stuff on the bottom of the intercooler feels slightly oily.. Car still feels fine to drive, with no apparent loss of power. Any idea what is causing this..?

I beleive this is pretty common as mine had the same build up.

Yep mine had all this too. Best thing to do is -

Don't fix what ain't broken you can't see it and its not causing an issue therefore I would leave it. The standard boost pipes on these are a pain in the rear anyway.

Mines the same all oily deposits. probably is a 'slight' leak. and overtime it builds up.

Mine too,thought it was a strange place to get an oil leak when i first got the car but when i checked on here it seems pretty common.

Cheers for the response guys, thought that may be the case.. Although still puzzled as to why there would be oil in this part of the system..?

It's because when it boosts - it all moves and in theory the pipes should expand when on boost. There is gunk within the pipework and intercooler anyway, all it needs is a slight gap and it will seep through and then all muck / dirt / road grime will soon get stuck to it.

If you remove your standard intercooler and turn it up side down then you should get a fair bit of oil running out of it.

you don't need to remove the arch liner to change the drop links though, do you?

you don't need to remove the arch liner to change the drop links though, do you?

No just the wheel

No just the wheel

that's what I thought after changing my suspension the other week.

Egr sooty gases plus oily vapour from crank case equals all this gunky crap.

you don't need to remove the arch liner to change the drop links though, do you?

No normally you don't but since I ended up having to grind the bolts off the droplinks, I wanted a wee bit more room to work..

when i seen oil leaking i thought what the heck is going on but read a couple of posts seems its quite a regular occurance just remove the pipe and clean out.  

No egr gases at that point

Its from the crank cass vent from the top of the engine

Simple solution is to vent crank case to atmosphere

No egr gases at that point

Its from the crank cass vent from the top of the engine

Simple solution is to vent crank case to atmosphere

I have done this. And also replaced all the pipes for my FMIC, when one blew off recently there was still some oil and gunk all inside there. Any reason why?

I have done this. And also replaced all the pipes for my FMIC, when one blew off recently there was still some oil and gunk all inside there. Any reason why?

Turbo seals passing oil

I had mine off last weekend and it was bone dry! Did the mod around 15k ago with full clean out

No egr gases at that point

Its from the crank cass vent from the top of the engine

Simple solution is to vent crank case to atmosphere

 

Am I right in thinking thats what the elephant mod does..?

Am I right in thinking thats what the elephant mod does..?

Yes