My15 V60 D4. Giving off oily fumes

[Clan]

Originally Posted by joren

Hi people

I'm having pretty much exactly the same issue as Dtaylor, the topic starter.
My used V90 D4 (automatic) that I bought a few weeks ago is giving off fumes from under the hood from time to time and it looks exactly like the youtube video he posted.

It only happens when I come from the highway and get into a city traffic jam.
It seems the extra temperature from DPF regen causes a small amount of leaked oil to burn off, because it only happens at that moment.

I too have some obvious positive crankcase pressure coming from the oil cap when I take it off with the engine running at idle. It really blows like a person blowing on your hand. I'm worried but at the dealership they assured me that this is normal for the D4 engine...

What I don't understand very well is... if there is some crankcase pressure that is supposed to be sucked off by the breather system in the valve cover, wouldn't it be logical that it escapes when you open up the oil cap? It is after all a big hole that comes 'before' the breather system. If you break the airtight nature of the system, how can the breather system do its job when you remove the cap?
I'm just trying to understand whether its normal behaviour or not, because online there are a lot of mixed messages on this.

My car is at the dealer's today, really hoping they get it fixed.
The dealer said it could also be a leaking hose in the EGR system...

Apart from that my car is running really really well (VERY smooth and no error messages) and there hasn't been the slightest drop in oil level over the last 3/4 weeks.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance

are you sure it is PRESSURE you are feeling when you take the cap off ? The pulsations average pressure could be zero . Try stretching a rubber glove around the filler to see if it inflates . the main breather goes from the top cover to the turbo inlet pipe on the right hand side as you stand there looking at it . You could take that 19mm hose off the turbo inlet pipe and see whether you have a flow from the top of the engine to atmosphere. There is a valve inside the cover which may have failed . OR you could have too much blow by combustion gas for the system to cope with .

[joren]

Hi

After spending a day at the dealership, problem turned out to be a cracked hose in the EGR system, in the bottom part of the bay. It's been replaced and the car seems fine since then. No more smoke from the bonnet.
In hindsight, this seems to make more sense with the symptoms too, as the smoke was really blowing out under pressure (much like the video of Dtaylor). If it were some drops of leaked oil on a hot surface, maybe it wouldn't blow out like that? I'm hopeful that the problem will not reappear.

As I was worried about the stuff I read here, I explained it to the dealer and asked him to show me some other D4 engines. He fired up 2 other cars (cold) and took off the oil cap, and smoky air was blowing out of the cap just as much on those engines.

I will still do the glove test one of these days to see if the pressure is net-zero average. Just have to find a plastic glove somewhere Will report back!

Anyway, thanks a lot for your reply clan!

[RDesign4Life]

Originally Posted by gillypop

I checked to see if the PCV in the valve / cam / rocker cover is working. On tickover it is pretty pathetic flow but not sure what to expect. So it is working but not sure if it is correct.

I will post pictures of what I did later.

@gillypop - did you get your issue resolved? I have an identical scenario!

[RDesign4Life]

Originally Posted by Clan

are you sure it is PRESSURE you are feeling when you take the cap off ? The pulsations average pressure could be zero . Try stretching a rubber glove around the filler to see if it inflates . the main breather goes from the top cover to the turbo inlet pipe on the right hand side as you stand there looking at it . You could take that 19mm hose off the turbo inlet pipe and see whether you have a flow from the top of the engine to atmosphere. There is a valve inside the cover which may have failed . OR you could have too much blow by combustion gas for the system to cope with .

When I take the oil filler cap off there is definitely some positive pressure there but this could be normal as opening the cam cover to atmospheric pressure by taking the cap off may well cause the diaphragm valve at the other end of the cover to close and stop venting to the fresh air charger intake hose as you have introduced a path of lower resistance.

With the cap on my cam cover vent pipe that connects the the fresh air hose will inflate a rubber glove in a matter of seconds so I believe it is operating correctly.

My problem was I observed smoke drifting out of the front grille last week after I pulled into a car park after a relatively short drive into Town of 10 minutes and maybe 4 miles. It was definitely smoke and smelled of burnt oil. Looked like it was coming from the back of the engine (no surprise there as that's where the hot bits are). So far I have not managed to reproduce the smoke issue so hopefully was just a DPF regen.

Does anyone know where the lower end crank PCV valve vents to? The one that comes off the oil filter housing - where does the vent pipe from there connect into? I can't see it and the web is very light on exploded diagrams of this engine it seems.

[RDesign4Life]

Originally Posted by joren

Hi

After spending a day at the dealership, problem turned out to be a cracked hose in the EGR system, in the bottom part of the bay. It's been replaced and the car seems fine since then. No more smoke from the bonnet.
In hindsight, this seems to make more sense with the symptoms too, as the smoke was really blowing out under pressure (much like the video of Dtaylor). If it were some drops of leaked oil on a hot surface, maybe it wouldn't blow out like that? I'm hopeful that the problem will not reappear.

As I was worried about the stuff I read here, I explained it to the dealer and asked him to show me some other D4 engines. He fired up 2 other cars (cold) and took off the oil cap, and smoky air was blowing out of the cap just as much on those engines.

I will still do the glove test one of these days to see if the pressure is net-zero average. Just have to find a plastic glove somewhere Will report back!

Anyway, thanks a lot for your reply clan!

Thanks for posting this. This makes perfect sense. I believe I may have exactly the same issue that occurs intermittently and only after slowing down or stopping after a longer drive (when the EGR valve is supposed to operate into the open state), here is my vid..

https://youtu.be/5haUxu7eYrg

It's a shame that the OP did not also feedback what the final resolution was as it seems likely that it was also the same issue that went un-diagnosed for several dealership visits.

My car is booked in with the dealer on Monday and I will report back on what transpires.

[RDesign4Life]

Update - car went in to dealer yesterday morning, rang me couple of hours later to say found a split in EGR pipe (as well as wanting to replace trailing arm bushes, replace coolant and brake fluid). Said they could get the EGR pipe that afternoon and have car ready by end of day. Rang me at 4pm to say won't be ready until next morning after 9:30.

Picked it up this morning - so far so good but as smoke issue was intermittent I won't know for sure that it's fixed until a week or 2 has passed.

Initial diagnostic check £120, then pipe was £90 labour about £70 so £280 plus VAT.

If it is fixed I'll be happy.

[RDesign4Life]

Well after getting car back with renewed EGR pipe where they said they found a split now I have the dreaded tortoise and 'reduced engine performance' message. Never had this before it's only since I got the car back from the dealer.

Now they have said EMAP pipe needs replacing and are on with that!

[RDesign4Life]

Update - so far so good no more fumes in cabin and no tortoise return yet (although he may be just a bit slow crawling back!) .........


..........I'll get me coat.

[julietabenegas]

Hi everyone!
I've the same problem, I've tried to access the mentioned EGR pipe but it's very difficult.
Please, does anyone know how to remove the damn EGR pipe?
Thank you very much in advance!

[RDesign4Life]

Originally Posted by julietabenegas

Hi everyone!
I've the same problem, I've tried to access the mentioned EGR pipe but it's very difficult.
Please, does anyone know how to remove the damn EGR pipe?
Thank you very much in advance!

Mine was letting out visible smoke from the rear of the engine presumably where the EGR pipe connects to the exhaust manifold (see my vid above). Access looks a nightmare from the top so I'm guessing it's a case of fresh air pipe and heat shield removal at the very least (and maybe air filter box) or it's approached from underneath.

I just took it to the dealer as I pretty much shat myself when I saw smoke coming through my heater vents inside the cabin.