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YOUR RESEARCHoil separator....
Leading reported evidence
Fill intake full of oil
Performed · outcome unconfirmed
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed
It also filled the intake full of oil which drained down into the engine.
Leading evidence: 'Fill intake full of oil' (no explicit attributable resolution; this is a reported action or suggestion). Across 1 matching discussions, The most frequently discussed action is 'Clean of the oil out of them' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
I'm changing my clutch and I understand that oil separator can be replaced during a clutch change...
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Mine just got replaced on my 99 C2 with 41,000 on it...
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Went at 6oK the cavitation took out some other seals ran me 1200.
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Suggestion
I had to take the exhaust and intake off and clean all of the oil out of them.
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How would you know if your car had a bad oil separator? what are the symptoms and why does this happen.....
I'm changing my clutch and I understand that oil separator can be replaced during a clutch change... so is it worth doing it while I'm in there?
thx
Pete
On my '99 986 it failed, causing cavitation in the oil, which manifested itself as a sound that can only be described as a dying whale jumping off a tall building.
Ok - it was a very loud squealing noise!
That cavitation would eventually put air bubbles into the oil, and that would be a bad thing.
Not sure why it failed - but mileage was around 60,000.
start the car and try to pull off the oil fill cap, if it feels like somethings holding it down and it takes 2 hands to pull it off its likley the seprator that failed. also tell tale signs are lots of smoke and a checkengine light
Just had both sides done on my car under warranty - symptoms were smoke on start up and excessive oil consumption. I had no noise or cavitation - and can't figure out why you would, it's just a breather.
Mark
Mark,
it's a whole lot more than just a breather!
Original and updated replacement units side by side
In my case, the squealing came ahead of any excessive oil consumption or clouds of blue smoke - so was a good early indicator which I acted on immediately, saving myself from potential issues down the line.
Chris.
Mine just got replaced on my 99 C2 with 41,000 on it...
The symptoms started with an oil leak created by a 1/2" whole in the "accordian" hose in the picture above.... Unfortunately this started on my first session at the track and subsequently caused multiple black flags and ended my weekend early...
Worse yet, on the drive home armed with extra quarts of oil, she started to smoke like a cropduster.....
Looking at where this part when the car was on the rack at my Indy it can't be easy to replace....
They cost around $125, what the do is let all the condensation escape from the engine oil so the water does not mix with the oil.. thats why driving for very short periods is not so good for the engine, it doesnt warm up enough to evaporate the water contained in the oil. Please correct me if I am not right... Greg
Greg, during any high speed driving or long sustained speed event we all know that additional oil consumption is expected.
The reason for that is not because the engine is consuming more oil past the rings or valve guides.
The reason is that the oil is being churned up, causing a higher than normal vapor in the oil.
This oil vapor is then drawn into the intake system of the engine and burned through normal combustion.
On 9x6 model cars, Porsche installs a device known as an oil separator.
The purpose of this device is to separate the oil from the vapor. The oil is then returned to the crankcase and the pure vapor is sent to the intake system, decreasing the amount of oil that is lost in the combustion process.
so the "vapor" is not water but actually Oil that changed phase into "oil vapor"?? so actually these vapors go back to the combustion chamber? so the engine will be burning Oil vapor+gas ??
Greg
Mine went at 94,000 miles. Exactly the symptoms, sound wise, that you described. Porsche said the sound was caused by pulling a vacuum in the crank case and the air attempting to get in through the oil filler cap. In my case it also collapsed the oil filler tube.
I would highly recommend changing it if you can. Mine failed at about 92k and drank over a quart of oil in a half mile. The smoke screen was massive and immediate loss of power. We took the old one apart and found the thin diaphram inside was ruptured. It also filled the intake full of oil which drained down into the engine. I had to take the exhaust and intake off and clean all of the oil out of them. The part is cheap enough that I would make it part of the normal maintenance when you have the engine out for any reason.
I've had 2 oil separators replaced in my 2 previous BMW 540i's.
The first one was really bad just as described here, lots of smoke, sputtering accleration, whining/whistling noise, and my mechanic said he had to clean up lots of oil in the intake as well.
But the good thing is it only cost $300 with change for the bimmer.
Maybe there is a difference by M/Y....I dunno....they pulled my engine to do the job. Cab, C4 make a difference??? I dunno. They did cut me a break on the bill though. Prolly because 3 weeks earlier they had pulled the engine to replace the tranny.....
This has been an expensive year with the car.
