I have a oil leak somewhere behind the drivers intercooler collecting and dripping from the inside of the heat shield. I didn't drain the turbos when I changed the oil. I never have. I can see a very tiny amount of oil from inside the engine bay where the intake hose meets the body and the other intake comes from the outside. If that makes sense.

Based on this uber detailed description, anyone want to take a crack at what it might before before I start ripping things apart?

 

As in coming more from underneath the intercooler assembly, or more towards the turbocharger/engine? You don't necessarily have to drain the turbocharger tanks during an oil change, it's just done so to remove as much residual oil during the oil service.

Anyway if it's more from the intercooler area, then I'd pop the charge hose off between the compressor housing and intercooler and see if there is alot of residual oil in that hose. If its more in the turbocharger area, there's a host of small things there that can be leaking. If that's the case you should wash the area down and dry it, then start and run the car for awhile over a dry area(concrete with cardboard down for example) where you can look under and see when it emulating from. You've got turbo feed and drain lines/gaskets, suction lines to the scavenge pump, chain tensioner covers/gaskets, cam covers, valve covers, etc. The drain oring between the turbo tanks and turbo center section do go bad and will leak like a sieve if so.

Little bit of brake cleaner and/or simple green goes a long way here

 

Seems be underneath the intercooler assembly. I'll check on that.

 

I would check the tubing going to the turbo around the fitting and I am sure you checked the small drain screw under the turbo tank to make sure it is tight. If you lift the car it should not be that hard to trace.

 

The turbo is dry. Looking from underneath I can't see anything wet. Do I need to take off the bumper to really see what going on?

 

If you lift the back end you might be able to get up back there and see a problem, but with the bumper cover off, it's easier. Obviously the oil is running down a panel and dripping from it. You should be able to trace the place where it's running down from. You can run the engine a bit and get it hot so you can get a fresh drip. Also it could be that when everything is off, it does not drip. This again could still mean it's coming from the turbo feed line or near there.