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Oil leak issue and questions about PCV valve

12K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  landover  
#1 ·
After doing quite a bit of research on the forum I have a few questions

A little over a month ago. I walked out into my garage and had quite a bit of oil(possibly some water too) pooled up on my garage floor after a very cold night -15 degrees F.

So I figured it was time to have the valve cover gaskets replaced because I could visibly see a little leaking from that area. At the same time I had the breather hoses replaced and the oil/water seperator.

2 days later I had much more oil leaking out of other parts of the engine(but I can't quite pin point the area). I am assuming based on recent searches on the forum that the valve cover gaskets are the "weakest" point in the oil system and now that that part has been resealed with new gaskets, the oil pressure causes the oil to leak at other points around the engine.

After watching the video from RSWsolutions regarding the PVC valve http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs3Y2JKAM70
I decided to pull the engine silencer off and inspect the parts the independent shop replaced. Everything seems normal. no leaking, a little oil in the intake valley but that could be left over from the valve cover gaskets.

Now the reason I was thinking that the PCV valve needs replacement is because the engine is starting to idle a little higher then normal. (the engine normally idles at about 500RPM but recently the engine has started idling at about 800-900 RPM) 70% of the time the vehicle idles at 500RPM 30% of the time the vehicle idles at 800-900 RPM) Based on RSW solution that higher idle might be because the PCV valve....

I have taken the rover to a few independent shops (that don't normally work on Land Rover or bmw) and both of them put the vehicle on the lift and can't seem to find where the leak is coming from.( closest land rover dealer is 330 miles away)

Strange issue: Seems that the oil dipstick(red handle to the left of the oil cap) Always seems overflow. When I lost a lot of oil in the garage I put in about a quart to make the trip 330 miles with out an issue. Now the oil level never seems to go down even though I have lost quite a bit of oil. I would assume I have lost 3 quarts in the garage, in front of work and various other trips that I make( I feel that it might be a little overfull after adding oil the first time but I haven't added any oil since.)(After loosing the amount I have been loosing it should be dropping on the dipstick.) With the vehicle off I pull the dipstick out, completly dry it off with a paper towel. and reinsert it slowly and pull it back out and still showing overfull.

I have attached a few pictures. I have taken the car 4 times to the carwash to spray by hand the entire bottom portion of the engine to try to find out where the oil is coming from, unforturtnatly me nor the 2 repair shops are able to "see it leaking" and its getting hard to tell where its leaking from because the fan appears to be blowing all the oil back onto components of the engine.( I have the bottom shroud completly removed(shroud=plastic plate that covers bottom of engine))
 
#3 ·
The fact that its leaking so much when it is not even running seems to point towards something fairly low... otherwise how would it leak? It seems like it would have to be the oil pan or the crank seal or something. The fact that it seems to be getting sprayed around does make me suspicious of the crank seal. Good luck getting that bolt off if you need to replace the main seal. Better eat your Wheaties or have some fancy power tools. One of my friends called it the "Jesus Bolt" :shock:

Not sure what to make of the oil level not changing though... the oil isn't getting contaminated with coolant right?

Also, did you replace the PCV valve, or the cyclone separator? If you haven't replaced the PCV valve, you may want to do that. The rubber membrane could be torn or deteriorated, the only way to tell is to pull it off, and if you do that you might as well replace it.