Removed TMIC today to fit a new sender and was very surprised to find some oil residue inside..!

Before anyone says, all breathers are VTA..!

Now this isn't a lot, nowhere near the amount I used to get before re-routing breathers, you can feel it on your fingers more than see it.

The only thing I can think of is the turbo , as air intake is 'dry'..!

Is there any other way oil can get into turbo intake pipe once breather ports have been capped..?

I always thought the intake should be clean without breathers, but then again what's the purpose of carb cleaner, IYSWIM..?

 

So if your TMIC is oily but your intake pipe is dry and breathers blocked off, the oil must be coming ultimately from your turbo.

I had terrible problems with oil, water and mayonnaise getting everywhere when I vented everything out. I'd never ever go back to that system again. I ended up accidentally leaving my crankcase blocked through a combination of factors, which then started pissing oil out the turbo. It got everywhere and was a major pain in the ****. Have you taken your turbo-to-intercooler pipe off to look at the compressor outlet?

 

Hi Nick,

just been reading about you're previous problems in this area..!

Compressor outlet looks clean, TBH most of the tract, inc IC looked ok, however, I could feel it on finger tip.

I only noticed it because there was a bit of an oily line between IC & TB on the lower part of the hose.

How did your crankcase get blocked..?

I've been running a VTA system for over 2yrs and never noticed any residue since doing it, until today. I must have had IC off at least 6 times in that period..!? I'm wondering if the CC hose is blocked, will check tomorrow.

Otherwise it's turbo oil seals on their way IMO..

I'll check VTA for blockages, clean/flush IC and pipework, put it back together, checking again in a few weeks. It's not like the cars been performing poorly, far from it..! I just spotted it during routine service stuff. Not been using any oil either..

 

Update:

Cleaned everything up and checked breather hoses, which apart from the cc hose sounding like me blowing my nose with a cold (ie a bit snotty) were clear..

I'll give it a few weeks and re-check IC.

With that now done I'm on to the next headache, the defi oil pressure sender appears to have a spiral oil seep..!

I used an LMA remote kit, so the OEM sender it still used. Applied a little PTFE tape on all 5 thread joints and the others are fine and dry..

I didn't initially over tighten, but nipped it ~1/4 turn after spotting the initial seep, which improved it a bit, but not cured..!

So, it needs to come off and try resealing. Just not sure if I should use extra PTFE or try some Loctite thread sealer..!

Any thoughts..?

PS one thing, the LMA adaptor is for 1/8NPT and the defi sender is 1/8PT (equivalent to BSPT), which I've queried before when I fitted the oil temp last year. However, I was rightly told that they would be compatible, which on the temp sender it was, ie no leakage..! So, I'm wondering if this may be an issue, as this time the sender almost screwed in all it's threads, hand tight. On the previous oil temp installation, the sender had 2-3 threads exposed when hand tight..!

If the extra sealing doesn't work I may have to get LMA to knock a custom adaptor..

OH THE JOYS..!!!!