5,500 mile and no oil left

milou_1968 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2005 11:41 pm

Well, my first problem arrived.
This morning i check the oil level and it was below the minimum, just the tip of the stick.... not much left in ...
I am close to the 6000 miles so i go in for my "free oil change" and i mention to the mecanic that i had almost nothing left in it. ... I go home and look under the hood so i can install the Digi cr and i see some drips. I look under the jeep and see at the base of the turbo some little drips of oil. Tomorrow i have to call them and let them know about this , so far they were nice to me but i had not had any serious problem yet . Will see what happen....

gsbrockman · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 1:38 am

What frequency do you check your oil level between oil changes ?
Greg

milou_1968 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 1:52 am

i did check it at 3000 miles it was close to the minimum , but not that low and i did not know how full it was at first . (i have a nissan quest with 190,000 miles and it does not lose or eat any oil). but here it 's different , i can see the oil dripping from under the turbo :evil:

gsbrockman · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 2:10 am

I feel my CRD was not shipped with the proper amount of oil from the start. It took about 20 ozs. of Mobil 1 0W40 to top mine off to the uppermost portion of the "full" mark...and this is with a 15 minute wait in hot weather (April) with only 200 miles or so on the clock before re-checking. Mine consumed some oil the first 5,700 miles (first oil change)......I contributed it to some break-in. My garage floor is dry as a bone below my CRD. It now has 9,700 miles on it and the level is about 1/16th of an inch below the uppermost portion of the "full" mark.
Seems like we have "twins" also.
Greg

milou_1968 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:17 am

yeap, we have twins :wink:

well almost, you do have the tru-trac and i don't have it yet. hopefuly next month it will be in (front and rear)

CTKJ · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:39 am

I heard that the CRD does use oil during break-in, also, you do get blow-by at the oil filter. Nothing to worry about though, just check it now and then. Is the dripping due to the dealer spilling oil during the change?

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

milou_1968 wrote:

i did check it at 3000 miles it was close to the minimum , but not that low and i did not know how full it was at first . (i have a nissan quest with 190,000 miles and it does not lose or eat any oil). but here it 's different , i can see the oil dripping from under the turbo :evil:

You may have a leaking turbo oil return line. The turbo has pressurized oil coming from the engine block to the top of the turbo, and it drains over the turbo bearings for lubrication - the bottom of the turbo has a oil return line that is plumbed to the bottom of the engine block. One or two CRD owners have reported having that turbo oil return line leak, usually at the point of conection to either the turbo or engine block. That kind of leak can be significant. If that is the case, you need to keep an eye on the engine oil level - its not good to run it below the lower level on the dipstick - I'd buy a quart of either 0W-40 or 5W-40 diesel rated oil and add it to keep the level between the low and full marks on the dipstick before I'd let it run low.

If its not a leaking oil return line, it can easily be the blow-by oil from the oil separator hose leading into the turbo. My turbo intake was dripping with oil when I first pulled the intake hose to check it out around 2500 miles. That's when I bought the Provent and installed it. That leak will be at the bottom of the rubber looking hose that's connected horizontally into the turbo air intake. That amount of oil leakage won't lower your engine oil level to the danger point - but a leaking turbo oil return level certainly can.

Reggie · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 12:42 pm

I have a very small leak from the turbo return line. The oil drips on the automatic transmission cooler lines that run along that side of the engine. I'll take it in soon. First I want to clean it and than recheck it before taking it in.

milou_1968 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 1:18 pm

Hi took it to the dealer but the diesel guy was not there . i will know more on monday morning, It looks like the oil return from the turbo. I can see little drips coming from the bottom of the housing of the turbo next to the return pipe and then the oil follow the pipe to the side of the engine . I bought the provent and the Digi CR but i will not install any of them until this is fixed.
Thank you for your feed back all. I was wondering if another CRD had this problem :wink:

milou_1968 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 2:36 pm

Ok I look closely and took pictures to find out where the oil is coming from. Thank you for all your advises. Now it is easier to see where it is coming from and i hope this will help to solve the problem.....

aardvark4x4 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 6:21 pm

You guys should be checking your oil once a week, even if you don't have any leaks. These high speed diesel engines can use up to a litre of oil every thousand miles if driven hard. So don't just wait for oil change time, it could be too late!

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

That leak looks like blow-by from the turbo inlet, leaking out and down onto your drain line. Notice how the fitting on the larger oil return line is clean. Mine was just starting to look like that at 2500 miles, but it had not yet started leaking that badly down out of the turbo inlet hose. It only had a small drop or two leaking. If you trace the source of the blow-by oil, it begins at the oil separator on top of the engine, on the passenger side, towards the back of the engine. There is s 5/8 inch hose connected to it, that runs down into the turbo inlet hose. The blow-by oil goes straight into the turbo inlet, and when you are stopped, it eventually ends up leaking out of the inlet turbo hose as shown in your drawing. I've seen this same thing on Ford PSD.

milou_1968 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:12 pm

Is it the oil coming from the hose on top of the crank case..........
If yes then the ProVent will stop this leak. Also i am wondering if all this oil was going to my air exchange while driving !! And the excess comes out when i turn the engine off. This might be why i can not get mote than 22.5 mpg on th highy at 65 mph on one trip that i did. :roll:

But It must be something more because i did lost a lot of oil in 5500 mile.

The tube for the oil return is clean and dry.

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

From what I can see in your pictures, the answers are yes and yes...

Reggie · **Posted:** Sun Dec 04, 2005 1:49 pm

I just crawled under my Liberty and it has the same leak from the same place. I've got to do something about the CCV oil vapors soon.

milou_1968 · **Posted:** Sun Dec 04, 2005 2:18 pm

Reggie,
how many mile do you have now? did you lose as much oil as i did? what is your average mpg, just curious.

Thanks

Reggie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:41 am

milou_1968 wrote:

Reggie,
how many mile do you have now? did you lose as much oil as i did? what is your average mpg, just curious.

Thanks

We have about 4700 miles on it now. I've added about 2 cups of oil total during that time. My average around town is about 22 mpg. We have not taken it on a trip yet so I don't have a good highway mileage figure for you. Fuel does make a difference, at least on our CRD. Ours seems to run better when using some biodiesel. The last tank I used Shell diesel (it said premium, but I don't think they offer more than one brand of diesel) and about 7 gallons of B100 biodiesel and the CRD ran much better than the previous tank which was straight cheap diesel.

The oil dripping from the turbo is obviously from the CCV system and the provent should be able to prevent it from re-entering the intake. The leak itself is probably a loose hose clamp. I'll take it to the dealer since it's under warranty purely out of principle - they should fix their own screw ups.

Guest · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:56 pm

Great pictures of the oil drips! As for my CRD, no leaks yet. Mine consumed a half a quart the first 700 miles. I watched it for another 1000 miles and it had not consumed any more oil so at this point I switched out the 0W-40 oil for fresh 5W-40 Shell Rotella T Synthetic. Just turned over 3k miles today and still no additional consumption. I average 22mpg around town, no real highway trips yet.

milou_1968 · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:08 pm

Hi
I came back from the dealer and they tight up the clamp to prevent the oil to leak. They said it's normal ...... I am going to install the Provent so I will be able to see how much oil is going there. I will monitor my oil level and see if I lose more.

Thanks for all your feed back

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

Oh yes, it's "normal" all right. Tighten up the turbo hose clamps so all of the blow-by oil will not leak out and be noticed by the owners, but instead get sucked into the turbo, compressed, blast through the intercooler, anti-shudder valve, egr intake and cylinder intake.... then, after you go 70,001 or so miles, let the dealer tell how badly your intercooler needs cleaning, your intake is all clogged up and you need $900.00 USD worth of non-warranty repairs.

What they really mean is its working as designed, and as long as DCX is happy with the blow-by oil saturating the intake system, they're going to leave it as is... Once you put a Provent or something equivalent on it, you wonder why they at least don't offer it as an option...the intake system is so clean you know better.

5,500 mile and no oil left

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