Hi again, gang - Ideally a quick question. Previous owner of
987.2
greatly overfilled the engine oil, of which I had to drain off over 2 quarts in December and it's now correctly at the top arrow per the electronic dipstick.
Meanwhile, there's an oil leak on the floor of the garage, which is sometimes better/worse after driving. I've been trying to trace it from the bottom (tracing it is another post...), and not much from the top except an overfilled power steering fluid (oil with Pentosin) that I siphoned off to the correct level; there was a LOT of caked on fluid from the top of the engine bay - so I figured (and hoped) that the power steering fluid was the culprit. Clearly the previous owner didn't know about overfilling.
My key question is telling the difference between motor oil and the power steering fluid. The latter in my
BMW
E30 is pink, lighter in color, and feels differently (more slippery) as opposed to motor oil. However, this other stuff was super dark (dark enough to be difficult to tell if it was green or brown/golden) and didn't smell as bad.
Being able to rule out one or the other will definitely help me track down the source of the leak -- either one of which I'm hoping is just a result of overfilling and will resolve. Thanks.
From memory - new Pensotin PS fluid is greenish.
Right. It most definitely is greenish -- but looks like a dark cup of coffee. It is just so incredibly dark, that it's admittedly difficult to tell; the fact that I'm color blind isn't helping matter any - LOL!
Here's a ugly photo of the goo on the floor that I mopped up. Maybe someone who isn't color blind can help identify? Does this have a greenish tinge?
The key thing that is making me think it is NOT motor oil and likely power steering oil that it was completely odorless. [
EDIT: it was odorless at the time...more on this below - my sense of smell was off
] Usually even fresh motor oil that has been run (at least to my nose) has the smell of burnt hydrocarbon smells. Plus, there was plenty of caked runoff (I think there's a blow-off valve at the top of the reservoir for it to pour out) at the top when I opened the engine bay the other week -- and I'm guessing this is a chronic problem as evidenced by caked oil on the plastic skid plates.
What do you guys think? I'm just hoping this is residual from the previous owner's overfilling and it'll settle down now that it's at a proper level. Either that, or maybe there's a leak; difficult to trace and it wasn't obvious.
FYI - Per the previous owners engine oil overfilling, there has been zero loss for over 200+ miles since I drained off the excess. It's still at the very top arrow, so that's good.
My only main concern was a very light amount of white smoke (I think?) from the exhaust during idling -- and that's while it was running at idle for about 5 minutes or so @ 60ºF temps while the car was being inspected by the MA State inspector. (It passed emissions - Hooray!) Time for a prophylactic AOS swap? Do I need to clean the plenum, etc?
That doesn't look green. Sure looks like motor oil (mixed with dirt) to me.
I had a similar issue with my
987.2
last year when I purchased it. Top of engine was dirty, with small pools of oil, and slight smoke on start up.
I changed the AOS, tightened the intake tubes on the plenum which were loose (5 Nm), cleaned the top of the engine, and did an oil change. When I changed the oil I found out the previous shop overfilled by 0.5 -1 qts.
After a few days the slight smoking went away, and top of the engine is still clean. I think the overfill and loose intake tubes were at fault. The AOS was preventative. I got the AOS from FCPeuro for $110 with their lifetime guarantee. So I won't have that expense again.
This is a huge help, guys. I think it's pretty confirmed it's motor oil. My wife came home and said it's brown (no green) and she smelled the burnt hydrocarbons. On re-smelling it, I picked up on it. (My sense of smell was likely shot from smelling some gasoline this afternoon - gas fumes from a leak on my Vespa.)
My guess is that it wasn't super dark (which was throwing me) as it has probably <500 miles since the last oil change, and there's a LOT of oil.
Per the AOS, the top of the engine is totally dry (except for the overfill residue from the power steering fluid). One weird thing was I got a CEL recently due to a dirty MAF (cleaned sensor...cleared code with
PIWIS
...100+ miles so far and no CEL). I'm just wondering what's dirty and where. Any suggestions as to cleaning any particular hoses, etc.? I'll check the plenum hoses to be sure.
Do you have any record of the AOS every being replaced? Most oil-drip reports, especially ones involving a dirty MAF seem to be caused by AOS misbehavior. It's a PITA to change on a 987.1 and a bit less of a pain on a 987.2 (no hose clamps where it plugs into the engine, it's just a push fit..) I did mine at 60,000 mile service just as preventative maintenance.
Still hunting on the car's history and will be trying to get that from
Porsche
Atlanta. Glad to hear it's easier on a
987.2
, Don. Unfortunately, all major projects on the car will have to wait until May given unforeseen events here.
However, I was thinking about an AOS swap anyhow for preventive maintenance -- and wonder if the previous owner's overfill screwed anything up. Do I need any special tools to knock that out (clamp removal tool) on the
987.2
? Given I just cleaned the MAF, anything else I should consider removing and cleaning during the AOS swap? Figure I'd add any particular items to my
next
Porsche
part ordering list now. Cheers and thanks.
