1.4 oil leaking on exhaust

[omerbagi10]

Hi all, my 2012 Ibiza with the 1.4 petrol (non turbo) leaks oil on the exhaust and it smells very bad while driving.
I tried looking under the engine to locate the source of the leak but I have no idea where its coming from (maybe the pan?).
Does anyone dealt with this problem before?

 

[RUM4MO]

I'd make a guess here, and my guess is that your oil separator has a leaking O-ring, there was a problem with its O-rings, there is a big one and a small one, I've know idea which one gave most trouble, I did buy new O-rings for my older daughter's 2009 Ibiza 1.4 - but never got round to replacing them before she sold that car.

Maybe at the age your car is, just buy a new oil separator and 2 new O-ring seals - if they are not included with the new oil separator.

 

[omerbagi10]

I'd make a guess here, and my guess is that your oil separator has a leaking O-ring, there was a problem with its O-rings, there is a big one and a small one, I've know idea which one gave most trouble, I did buy new O-rings for my older daughter's 2009 Ibiza 1.4 - but never got round to replacing them before she sold that car.

Maybe at the age your car is, just buy a new oil separator and 2 new O-ring seals - if they are not included with the new oil separator.

Thank you for replying.
Are you referring to this?

 

[RUM4MO]

Yes, the overall shape has changed slightly over time and your one might have a small heater in it and a cooling water loop running through it, that it will be in the same location at the back of the engine.

The strange thing on my daughter's 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16V was, the oil mist was being sprayed up and onto the lower face of the plastic air inlet manifold above this oil separator!

I also replaced that oil separator on my wife's previous car, a 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V but that was for another reason - its oil separator was allowing too much oil to escape back into the inlet system.

Just in case you don't understand what this is, it tries to remove as much of the oil mist from the crankcase air that is just air being blown past the piston rings etc into the crankcase, in the olden days this was allowed to escape to atmosphere as nobody bothered about that, nowadays these engine's crankcases are sealed to atmosphere, and so the oil needs to be collected and the air passed through the engine.

The large hole is the air inlet to the separator and the small hole below it is where the collected oil drains back down into the engine's sump, the rubber pipe is where the "cleaned" air is sucked back into the engine intake system - so this normally under atmospheric pressure so sucks the crankcase area of any built up pressure to make sure that there is never any oily fumes escaping to atmosphere.

That is quite a useful YouTube video, as it shows you any problems that he had doing this job, which can be useful. Curious to see that the new aftermarket separator came with a new fitting to fit to the rubber pipe - maybe that is to help where you end up breaking the original one, although he said that he could not fit the old one back onto the new aftermarket separator.

I'm sure that all replacement oil separators will come fitted with new O-ring seals, so no need to buy them if you decide to replace the oil separator - which I think is your best plan.

I gave up cutting up the old oil separator on my wife's previous car which was a 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V, and was also a bit disappointed in how little "gung" had built up inside it. I did try to clean it out by pouring petrol or similar into it and shaking it about and repeating a few times - but it still looked like more and more "gung" was coming out of it. That was just me wasting my time as I had by that time bought and fitted a new oil separator, but I felt the need to try cleaning it out anyway!

 

[omerbagi10]

Yes, the overall shape has changed slightly over time and your one might have a small heater in it and a cooling water loop running through it, that it will be in the same location at the back of the engine.

The strange thing on my daughter's 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16V was, the oil mist was being sprayed up and onto the lower face of the plastic air inlet manifold above this oil separator!

I also replaced that oil separator on my wife's previous car, a 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V but that was for another reason - its oil separator was allowing too much oil to escape back into the inlet system.

Just in case you don't understand what this is, it tries to remove as much of the oil mist from the crankcase air that is just air being blown past the piston rings etc into the crankcase, in the olden days this was allowed to escape to atmosphere as nobody bothered about that, nowadays these engine's crankcases are sealed to atmosphere, and so the oil needs to be collected and the air passed through the engine.

The large hole is the air inlet to the separator and the small hole below it is where the collected oil drains back down into the engine's sump, the rubber pipe is where the "cleaned" air is sucked back into the engine intake system - so this normally under atmospheric pressure so sucks the crankcase area of any built up pressure to make sure that there is never any oily fumes escaping to atmosphere.

That is quite a useful YouTube video, as it shows you any problems that he had doing this job, which can be useful. Curious to see that the new aftermarket separator came with a new fitting to fit to the rubber pipe - maybe that is to help where you end up breaking the original one, although he said that he could not fit the old one back onto the new aftermarket separator.

I'm sure that all replacement oil separators will come fitted with new O-ring seals, so no need to buy them if you decide to replace the oil separator - which I think is your best plan.

I gave up cutting up the old oil separator on my wife's previous car which was a 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V, and was also a bit disappointed in how little "gung" had built up inside it. I did try to clean it out by pouring petrol or similar into it and shaking it about and repeating a few times - but it still looked like more and more "gung" was coming out of it. That was just me wasting my time as I had by that time bought and fitted a new oil separator, but I felt the need to try cleaning it out anyway!

Great I will dig into it.
You were very helpful, thank you!

 

[dm222]

I had the same problem, it was the rings in the oil separator, you can see it in the second photo

 

[omerbagi10]

I had the same problem, it was the rings in the oil separator, you can see it in the second photo

Did you take apart the oil separator from under the engine? I saw videos of both showing from above the engine and below the engine and I dont know what will be easier.

 

[RUM4MO]

I seem to remember placing a mat/rug or something on top of the engine and lying or leaning on the engine and working by feel or memory of what it looked like, maybe trying doing that and see how easy it looks to work from there, I never ever considered working from the front right hand side wheel area with the wheel and wheel arch liner removed though - that might be an option for some bits.

 

[dm222]

I did from above removing the air filter box to have more space to work, although it is probably easier from below
I just didn't feel like getting under the car was a good idea...
The hardest part was to disconnect the hose from the oil separator it would not come out for nothing and I didn't wanted to break it. you need to press in the sides to remove it but for me it was not working
Removing and placing the oil separator was easy

there are videos on youtube on how to do it, search polo oil separator

 

[omerbagi10]

Thank you all for your help.
I did check with my local parts store, a new oil separator is 300 dollars so Im not replacing it.
This weekend I will try to take it off, clean it, replace the o-rings and hopefully it helps.

 

[dm222]

Thank you all for your help.
I did check with my local parts store, a new oil separator is 300 dollars so Im not replacing it.
This weekend I will try to take it off, clean it, replace the o-rings and hopefully it helps.

N90617501
036103677

if it is the same the part numbers are those

 

[omerbagi10]

So today was the big day.
First I tried taking it apart from above but I couldnt see anything even without the airbox, so I tried removing it from under the car.

I then removed the bolts of the oil separator, tried removing the lines too but I couldn't remove the clips and I didnt want to break anything so I left them attached, looked into the separator and saw that the main big o ring was leaking.

I found an o ring kit on ebay for the oil separator and went to many stores looking for the same size o ring from the kit.

Notice that the new o ring was much thicker but it was as the same size from the ebay kit. (the old o ring tore apart while I was trying to remove it, it was very dry and hard).
So i went on and assembled it on the oil separator, with the new o ring the oil separator didnt slide into the engine block easily, so I tried to insert it by screwing the oil separator in with the bolts and the o ring should be pushed in.
But the I heard something break, it was the arm of the right bolt of the oil separator, it didnt break apart but it created a crack.
The o ring was too thick and needed much power to push it into the engine so the plastic cracked.

After removing it again I inspected the separator so see if the crack is also from the inside, but I think the crack is only on the outside.
So I got a smaller and less thick o ring, replaced it, put some RTV on it and on the crack from the outside and attached the oil separator back to the engine.
I hope this fixes it and the crack is only on the outside because I didnt see anything while looking from the inside.
I will keep an eye on the oil level and the buttom of the engine where the oil separator sits.
Thank you all for your help!.