I have been chasing a nagging oil leak since early June. It seemed to be mostly on the passenger side of the engine. The area under the
AOS
on the
Boxster
was very oily. I contacted Precision Imports, here in the area about having them take a look at it. I opened the top of the engine and checked the
AOS
hoses. I had replaced the
AOS
in late April. The one hose on the top was not seated properly and it looked an oily mess. I re-seated the hose, cleaned up the mess. I figured that fixed it, contacted Precision to let them know.
It didn’t fix it.
I looked at a number of things but couldn’t find it. I pulled the engine cover behind the seats and the whole area was an oily mist, especially around the crank pulley. Was the FMS leaking? In checking, and messing with hoses, I managed to break the lower AOS hose, the one that gets routed to the front of the Boxster engine. Maybe that was leaking?
Got a new bottom AOS hose. Nope, that didn’t fix it. Off to Precision, now a few weeks ago. We could see the area on the top of the engine, that oil had pooled in all recesses and particularly noted the area oil soaked around the oil cooler, left side of the engine. Tony said it’s not the FMS, but suspected the oil cooler, as he noted this was a concern on other German cars. I didn’t think so, but it has happened. Tony worked with me and did a superb job of cleaning the whole engine with his ‘Purple Power’ degreaser, following it up with a complete rinse. Tony told me to drive it a few hundred miles and we’d check again where the oil was.
I did so, pulled the top engine cover and the panel behind the seats. The engine top and front were clean and dry, except… I shone a light into a crevice under the top AOS hose. Behind the starter was a fresh oil pool. Noting, there was nothing dripping or any oil film anywhere else.
Back to Precision last Monday, and I left the car. Tony gave me a free loaner car, an A6. A few hours later, he had found the leak. The Oil Filler tube was cracked where it goes into the engine. It could have broken naturally, as all these hoses are brittle. I did separate the halves of the filler tube at the AOS to more easily get at the 2 bolts that secure it and the top hoses. It’s very possible I cracked it when I replaced the AOS in late April and it took that long till early June for it to show.
A snafu by their parts supplier, caused a long delay in getting all the parts. I got the car back yesterday and the invoice stated the Intake manifold needed to be removed. Tony did say the tube was buried deep. I asked for pics but haven't gotten them yet.
To add to the misery, I had warned Tony about leaving the ignition key in. I have 2 days of them walking by the car in the shop, from my dash cam. Yup, they left the key in. Tony and others weren't there yesterday when I picked up the car, only one tech who didn't really seem to know much about my car.
Battery was completely dead. A quick starter-pack jump got it going but that sure added to the annoyment factor.
when I got home, I clearly saw them jumping the car in the shop a few times. I sure wished they had left in on their big charger.
Lessons learned.
Total cost just under $1200. Wish now I had done it myself.
Thanks for sharing! I am now very thankful that I escaped the headache that you went through. I replaced my
AOS
@ 60K miles as a DIY preventive maintenance. Fortunately, it was uneventful.
Clem, not to jinx you, but did you replace the accordion hose that connects the
AOS
to the top of 4-6 bank on the driver side engine?
Yes, I had to replace that hose. It simply disintegrated when I tried to move it for any clearance.
Actually, it was the first time the
AOS
went out.
