2.0t sfi oil in intercooler pipes

[Donfero]

Hi All, i know this topic has been discussed before and im trying to get all the info i need to save my engine.
My engine is consuming to much oil. Its all in the intercooler pipes, when i open them i can fill a cup. I have changed rings, changed turbo and change all the pvc pipes to the lates upgrade, still the same problem. Will a catch can setup reduce oil consumption? What other solutions is there?

 

[Dani_B19]

What grade oil are you running?

 

[Donfero]

5/40

 

[Dani_B19]

So the oils fine then.

Have you flushed the pipes and intercooler out to ensure the oil is fresh and not old oil from when you had the issue?

 

[Donfero]

Yes. And it still gives Minimal Oil warning.

 

[Donfero]

So the oils fine then.

Have you flushed the pipes and intercooler out to ensure the oil is fresh and not old oil from when you had the issue?

No solution in mind?

 

[Dani_B19]

It's a hard one mate.

The main culprits are the turbo and piston rings for excess oil blow by but both have been changed.

Fitting a catch can will help stop the oil in the pipework etc but it won't solve your issue of excess us.

The tfsi engines are thirsty things though so do tend to use a lot of oil.

If going down the catch can route, don't forget the engine has a rear feed that goes into the turbo, this will either need to be blanked or routed into the catch can.

 

[GDCAUDIA4B7]

Hi mate was the turbo rebuilt or brand new? Do you notice any blue smoke whilst driving?? It does sound like the turbo is at fault

 

[Marc B7]

When I fitted my front mount inter-cooler i drained roughly 0.5L of black oil out of the left hand stock inter-cooler. The car had 37000 Miles on the clock at the time. Im guessing this is normal due to the pcv system.

 

[Charlie Farley]

as much as that marc, based on your low milage experience I am very tempted to take mine off and see whats going on too, are they a straight forward removal or a bit of a pain, how much improvement was there afterwards.

 

[Marc B7]

Easy to remove, plenty of guides on the web. Bumper off is best but you could just remove the under engine tray and pop off the bottom pipe of each inter-cooler (if your A4 has 2)

I can't say about before or after as I had literally just bought the car and within a week or two I fitted the front mount. All I can say is that if there is a lot of oil inside of the stock cooler it would surely reduce its effectiveness as the air inside the cooler wont be passing over the submerged and oil coated inter-cooler fins.

I even considered welding a drain tap into my front mount to let out trapped oil every few thousand miles lol.

My other car is a turbo'd vw Corrado. It has a Mocal catch can connected to the pcv which also fills with an oily watery sludge after time but my not nearly as bad as my A4's pure oil.

 

[Donfero]

Hi mate was the turbo rebuilt or brand new? Do you notice any blue smoke whilst driving?? It does sound like the turbo is at fault

Sorry for the late reply, the turbo is new but aftermarket, the original turbo was changed for this reason. I only notice smoke when the pipes have oil in them.

 

[Donfero]

I changed the oil today although it had less than 3k ob it, chaged to Wurth 5w40 as a test to see if the oil makes any differance.

 

[Charlie Farley]

I am running Titan pro 5w 40 and my oil consumption has improved dramtically compared with 5w30 previously used, found halfacup of black nasty oil in my coolers today but that may have been prior to me using the w40 over the last couple of months.

 

[Charlie Farley]

from a thread I started yesterday, sounds like very similar symptoms as you have been having Donfero.

" Afternoon chaps, as it's been a bit of a grey day I thought i'd have both my intercoolers off to see if there was any of the dreaded oil residue in them as it was after reading marcB7's reply recently to a thread mentioning he found a lot of oil in his at on 37k miles.

so whipped them both off and was very surpised to see the volume that had built up in both , and certainly more in the offside intercooler, i rekon the combined quantities of nasty black oil was close to half a cup, yes that much.

Now one may say well over the lifetime of the car almost 10 years , well the 2.0tfsi that is, that the amount is not too bad , but i'd say any amount is not ideal fullstop frankly, anyway as my old bus had a new engine not so long ago around the 36k ish mark i think it was (now on 56k ish) and a complete new turbo and parts surely any residule would have cleaned out then , so if it was then all the nasty oil almost half a cup has accumulated in 20k miles, now that is a worry.

This does now tend to make the need for a oil catch can setup even more important , i suspect all that oil and oil vapours being pumped around the engine and ancillary parts is the reason i still get some smoke under lively acceration.

right now then, i know its been covered a gazillion times before but what really is the best catch can setup to go with that illiminates the dreaded problem. "

 

[Donfero]

Looking for this option but was hinted by an audi expert that it might be one of the hoses that has the problem so i orderd the hose it needs about 2 weeks to arrive ill keep you updated. The hose part number is 06F 103 235 A

 

[Donfero]

It's a hard one mate.

The main culprits are the turbo and piston rings for excess oil blow by but both have been changed.

Fitting a catch can will help stop the oil in the pipework etc but it won't solve your issue of excess us.

The tfsi engines are thirsty things though so do tend to use a lot of oil.

If going down the catch can route, don't forget the engine has a rear feed that goes into the turbo, this will either need to be blanked or routed into the catch can.

Dani, its been long since i started this post im still having the same problem. I installed a catch can and blanked out the rear feed now i have oil all over my engine. The catch can has a 6mm breather vented to atmasphere. Im hoing crazy plz any help will be great.

 

[Charlie Farley]

I checked mine last week again, pulled off the bottom hoses of both sides and only a very small amount in both....a big improvement over the last time I checked as they were swimming with oil....

 

[Dani_B19]

so what have you done exactly with the rear feed?

The catch can shouldn't have a vent on it if you plumbing the return pipe back into the engine, this will cause idle issues etc as unmetered air is drawn in.