I was having work done on my car the other day and the tech showed me a bit of oil in the Y-pipe where the ends meet the intercooler hoses. Could this be an oil separator problem?

 

I had the same, and my tech said a little bit of oil in the y-pipe and i.c. hoses is normal. Massive amounts, maybe not normal, but a bit here and there, my tech (who is an ex premier factory tech) said not to worry about it.

 

i had a little teeny tiny bit in mine aswell
i was told it was fine... as long as it was a tiny amount

 

Oil for me also---not to worry.

 

Same for me! Was told not to worry.

 

every turbo vehicle I've ever had had an oily intake pipe. as everyone said, normal, not to worry. If it's DRIPPING wet, thats a problem. Bad compressor seal.

 

On this topic, I once heard someone offer an interesting explanation of why these cars burn oil, leave lots of carbon deposits on the exhaust stips, and let oil into the intake track. He explained that the pistons are cold forged instead of cast, and that because of this the pistons undergo more thermal expansion than normal cast pistons, which in turn means that they have to be designed a bist smaller to account for the thermal expansion that will occur with forged pistons. What this means is that there is a bit more "blow by" and oil consumption than in cars with more normal and cheaper cast pistons, at least until the car gets up to operating temperature. I thought this was interesting.

 

Being a flat 6 figures in there also. Oil doesn't drain to the sump as well as cylinders with more vertical inclination.

 

Whew! Thanks so much, I appreciate the quick responses. I guess I can now spend that money on cheap women and wine... or is it the other way around.

 

the question is how much is too much? When I take off the intercooler pipes at the Y Tube and hold it face down it can be that a drop leaves the pipe. Is that too much?

 

That and let your car idle down. The cam tower, crank case and turbo catch cans all have there own oil pumps. When you return to an idle you still have oil psi to bleed that off, all that oil will sit in the places I mentioned. The turbo will take most of the oil because it has the lowest resistance to flow as it is just a tube. Return lines out of the catch cans are bent up to go over the center line of the crankshaft (that's how high the oil can fill the case) so the oil that is left in the turbos is stuck there unless it leaks out into the compressor or or turbine seals.

 

When I changed my spark plugs a couple weeks ago, I noticed oil in the lower boost hoses but the upper boost hoses seemed to be clean.