Focus Leaking Oil

[Dave_TDCI]

Unfortunately today I discoverd my Focus is leaking oil. It has obviously been leaking oil for at least 3 or 4 days now because there is oil marks where I park at work and at my girlfriends house.

Car seems to be driving well I can't say I noticed anything wrong other than this.

Oil seems to be coming from underneath around the right hand side of the engine, although I can't see fully where it's coming from as its dark.

Here are a few photo's from where the oil seems to be dripping down from underneath the car

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Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!...I'm afraid to drive the car at the moment incase I do any damage but I need it for work over Xmas

[iantt]

From what I can see, the leaks coming from the oil filter side of engine, check that for leaks but dont normally leak unless the seal not fitted correctly, more likely the breather hose to cam cover leaking, thats easy enough to check from under bonnet.

[Dave_TDCI]

Thanks for the reply. I'll check both of those tomorrow as it's near impossible to check in the dark.

Car was serviced about 3 weeks ago, wonder if possibly the o ring or seal wasn't put on properly by the mechanic which might be a cause...

Checked oil level earlier and car seems to have plenty of oil at the moment even though it's been leaking a few days

[Dee_82]

that's a lot of oil for the breather, ive just fixed mine due to a broken clip and a damaged o ring and yeah it makes a mess all over the top of the engine, down the breather to the turbo air intake but ive never seen it that bad, its more of a film of oil rather then dripping.

like everything else on this car the oil filter is a pain in the !Removed! to remove, if they cut some corners like not undoing the brackets on that turbo pipe they maybe didn't seat it correctly.

but isn't that oil coming down the front side of the DPF, behind the heat shield? there's a problematic turbo sitting on top of that...

:/

[Dave_TDCI]

Yeah there is alot of oil coming from it, I left a few sheets of newpaper under the car for about 2 hours to see how much came out and they were completely black when I removed then.

I'm starting to wonder now did I cause some damage when I drove last week at 120km in 3rd gear trying to unclog the DPF?!?

[troy45]

Definitely keep a regular eye on the oil level as that does look like a decent leak you've got there :(

Suggest you get a few tins of clutch/brake cleaner and give everything a decent dosing of it to wash as much of the oil away that you can. Then just let the engine run for a while and see if you can pinpoint the source better. Would be wary driving the car if it's losing so much oil.

When the tdci's have turbo problems does this actually show up as an external leak?

[Dave_TDCI]

That's a good question Troy!...Wondering that myself.

I was always of the impression that when that would happen that usually the turbo failed or went into limp mode but maybe there is actually visible signs such as leaks before this?...Hoping not!!!

[Dee_82]

ive not heard of massive oil leaks from about to go turbos an ive done more research on these !Removed! things then anything ive ever looked at, I think turbo paranoia should be medical condition!

but I wonder if booting it that hard for a length of time has upset the oil feed / return pipes?

[Dave_TDCI]

Neither have I and I did a fair bit of research prior to buying a Focus 1.6 TDCI because of it.

It could be something relatively simple like a pipe or seal but as you said because of the car it is and the horror stories you hear I'm paranoid about the turbo because of this...that being said the turbo is still pulling very well. I don't know usually if before they fail if it starts to loose power before the turbo actually goes or if it?...

It's unfortunate I only spotted it yesterday as no garages will be open for the next few days.

[Dee_82]

try and find the highest point the oil has got to, there is a channel of air that comes in under the turbo air intake and up to between the battery and the breather, so that might spray some upwards but otherwise gravity should be pulling it down, pull the airbox off to see the oil filter, remove the air intake ohose to the turbo and get a good lookaround there, I think the feeder pipe is on the front for the turbo as you face it, not sure where the return pipe is though..

[Dee_82]

heres the turbo setup, might help a little if you can have a look

[Dave_TDCI]

Thanks for that Dee...I'll go have a look around and see if I can find where the leak is possibly coming from...I'll also check the turbo see if there's any oil or leaks around there

[STEADS]

You say you had it serviced a few weeks ago I assume if you had a leak then they would of said so first point I would look at is the oil filter what I have seen before on a service is the old o ring staying stuck to the block and a new filter and o ring being fitted causing a leak its a possibility seems a fair bit of oil.

[Irishman1127]

Or the spindly apprentice forgot to tighten the filter properly. It happens you know....

[iantt]

The oil filter sounds most likely now you said it was seviced recently, its a paper filter in a plastic housing top, the seal is a rubber ,square cross section seal, that can twist when fitting to the housing top therefore leak quite a bit.remove the air filter to turbo intake rubber pipe and see if filter housing is leaking.if it is then top up oil to max level and take it back to garage to fix

[Dave_TDCI]

Had a good look around today to see if I could pinpoint where the oil is actually coming from but no joy.

I took out the air filter, air filter box and the breather pipe for the turbo to try have a better look.

From the top of the engine bay there isn't really any visible signs of oil anywhere. There is oil stains just behind the oil filter but from what I could see there didn't appear to be any oil leaking from the oil filter (still a possibility though)

From underneath the car is where you can see all the oil and it's covering half of the underneath of the engine are.

I feel in order to located where the oil is actually coming from the car needs to be put on a lift.

Few more photos:

And turbo

One thing I have noticed is that when I turn off the engine the oil seems to pretty much stop leaking, or at least slows down an awful lot. When I turn back on the engine it starts leaking again :(

[Irishman1127]

Ok, what you have identified there is that its leaking under pressure. Does the oil light take a while to go out on start up? At this point as you've identified it was serviced recently, Id be bringing it back to the garage and quoting them fire and brimstone if they don't put it right. Servicing (very loosely termed) in these places is done a lot of the time by apprentices. i spent a couple of years in a Nissan dealers in the late nineties as a valeter and some of the stuff i seen going on was totally atrocious. Get it back there sharpish and get them to put it right. Remember, with it leaking profusely like that you run the risk of running very low on oil and starving the turbo of oil. And from someone that had to fork out last year to get the turbo redone on my beemer (through old age 130k) its very hard on the wallet....

[Dave_TDCI]

No the oil light goes off as usual. Didn't drive the car since Xmas eve and checked the oil dipstick today and from that reading there doesn't seem to be any loss of oil.

As soon as the garage I got the service done in is open after Xmas I'm bringing my car back to them. I'd imagine it will be Monday.

Had planned to go away tomorrow for a night but don't think I'll bother now as could be risky taken the car for a long journey.

Yeah the turbo being starved of oil is my main concern with this whole saga. As you well know yourself turbo's and wallets don't seem to be too fond of eachother.

[Dee_82]

if it was coming out of the oil filter then it would be going against the wind to end up on the front of the DPF, I guess it possible tho.

But Those pics look like its running there, rather then splattering about and it kinda looks like its running down the DPF but is concentrated more at the corner of the sump, did they run through any of that oil cleaning stuff before they changed the oil? is the sump covered in oil too, can you get a picture on the other side of the DPF.

[troy45]

In the second photo is that an oil feed pipe going to the DPF or whatever it is?

Worth checking that's tight, and ideally cleaning the oil off best you can then start the engine and you'll get a better idea where it's actually coming from.

[Charliesdad]

Hi, I work for a breakdown organisation. I went to one of these on 23/12/2014 with exactly the same problem. Cleaned the oil filter off with carb cleaner, then started the engine. Lo and behold after 20 secs oil was weeping from under the oil filter cover. Took the filter out and the seal was split. New filter and seal and the leak was cured. Car had been serviced by a Ford dealer last Friday and filter housing tightened with an impact wrench judging by how tight it was. Ford say 25Nm which is quite light but if you haven't got a small torque wrench a gentle nip with a short ratchet and a 27mm socket, hope this helps

[troy45]

That could well be it then - in the past with bike engines I've worked on you did them up hand tight, and perhaps a gentle nip but no more.

[iantt]

They dont split by tightening to 25nm , but by the seal twisting on fitting seal or seal catching on something on fitting the filter housing, (esp on later focus/ mondeo with restricted access)

[Dave_TDCI]

I'm not fully sure but I doubt they ran any of that oil cleaning liquid before the service. Next time I'm getting the car serviced I'm going to put a bottle of that oil clean through it.

I'm also going to get the sump cleaned soon as that's were oil can clog aswell.

Oil doesn't seem to be leaking as much but is definitely still leaking, hopefully the garage might be opened tomorrow after the Christmas.

Dee sorry, where were you suggesting to take a photo of?

CharliesDad, thanks for that. Hopefully this is what is wrong with my. When you say you do call outs for a breakdown organisation, had the car you called out to actually broken down or did they just stop driving because of the oil?

[Dee_82]

the oil cleaner thing, I was actually wondering if the cleaner had done the damage, Ive read that in some cases the old oil can help create a seal, the cleaner then takes that away and leak can start.

Sump cleaning can be a pain in the !Removed!, stupid DPF needs removed to get it off!

if you can get photos from the other side of the DPF that your previous photos are from, from the drivers side I mean, it might shed a bit more light on it, be interesting to see if the sump has oil all over the bottom as well.