Hey everybody,

I wanted to introduce myself since I'll be on here for the foreseeable future, as I am now an '06 CTT owner!

My name is Shane, and I live in downtown Jersey City, and recently lost my Lexus GS350 to Hurricane Sandy. As most of you were before you were Cayenne owners, I always wanted one and finally the timing was right for me to pull the trigger and get one. I picked up an '06 white CTT with 67k while I was home in Dallas for the holidays, and drove her back to NJ with me. Needless to say, the car is an absolute blast to drive, and is every bit as comfortable as my GS was. With the weather and older beaten down northern roads, it's good to have an SUV, have AWD, and some HP to have a little fun with as well. I only drive about 100 miles a month now since I live about a mile away from work, so I'm not "so" worried about gas as I was when I lived in Dallas, driving over 1,000+ miles every month. My daily driver up until a month or two ago "was" a vintage Schwinn that I took down to the frame and rebuilt, but that's another story altogether.

I drove the truck from Dallas to Jersey City straight through, 1,600 miles, and everything ran fantastic. After having the truck here for about 3 weeks, the weather finally dried up and this is what I found under the driver's side of the engine compartment (first pic attachment). I did my homework on here and knew this was a common problem, and even checked the undercarriage for oil residue, but I guess the dealer power washed the undercarriage to hide this issue. Sooo, what I was hoping to start off as a build thread is actually going to start off as a maintenance thread. I was already planning on doing a full fluid flush, so I guess this is prompting me to do it ASAP, even though all of this was done at 63k. I'm really hoping it's a stripped drain plug or something simple, but if anybody has any experience with oil leaking in this same spot just behind the front wheel on the driver's side, please chime in and let me know what the root cause is please!

Anyway, it's great to find a good forum to be a part of and have members that are helpful/informative of their experiences and sometimes find quick and easy solutions to common problems and maintenance DIY's on these toys. A couple of pics added to show her off a little...

 

First of all congrats on your purchase, love the White. AS for the oil leaking problem I can't really say without looking at the underside of the engine. The drain plugs are in the center, and the commonly leaking intercooler pipe is on that side, but further forward (usually toward the front of that wheel). With the belly pans on, the leak could be originating from just about anywhere, and just running off the belly pan on that side though. I think your best beat would be to take the belly pan off and see if you can see where it is originating from.

 

Thanks, after reading through a few search strings I figured it could actually be the intercooler pipe or the drain plugs, but I'll just have to take the belly pan off this weekend and take some pics. I was used to having the GS, so for the first couple of weeks I was parking a good foot off the curb out of habit, so it could actually be coming from further forward part of my motor. I'll leave a piece of cardboard underneath to see if I can pinpoint the location of the leak before I can get the belly pan off this weekend. Will post an update this weekend, thanks.

 

Welcome to the forum and good luck with the leak. I absolutely love that color with those wheels - are they OEM? Are they painted?

 

I know you said it is an oil leak, but isn't that the spot where the a/c drains to the ground? Do you drive in Auto climate mode? Did you touch the stain to see fluid color and oiliness?

 

ez1973, believe it or not, they're reps. I really wanted to get something concave that would sit right on the wheel well, but after looking at these and seeing the offset calculator somewhere on here, I figured what the hay. Came with a lifetime structural warranty and 1 year finish warranty, and I know that most people would shy away from reps but for the price I figured I would give them a shot. I don't know if anybody on here is familiar with Jersey City and Manhattan roads, but I've been driving on some rough, bumpy, patched up roads the past few weeks and couldn't be happier with them. I guess only time will tell how well they hold up though, so I'll have to hope for the best with them.

They're 22x10.5 on all 4, et/60 offset

Speaking of, I still have the original 19" split 5 spoke stockers with Bridgestone Duehler HP's (50% tread) and original TPMS. Once I get my 30 posts I'll have to put them on here, as they're still in Dallas in my parents' garage.




Hal, the weather here has been pretty wet on & off since I got back from Dallas after the holidays, and the car had been sitting for a couple days when I took that pic, so I have to assume it's an oil leak. I want to take my belly pan off this weekend but the tempurature for the rest of this week is in the 20's up here, so I'll have to be in the mood to get under the truck in that weather... Man I miss Dallas and my old garage!

 

Drain plug leaks are quite common. The plug is made of aluminum. Sometimes it get over-tightened during an oil change and it cracks, leading to a leak. As mentioned above, the plug is in the center. It's worth having a look underneath the pan.

Congrats on your new CTT!

 

Hey Dennis,
Yea I have to assume it's either a plug or the intercooler piping is dripping oil. The truck is running so great and I've checked the oil every day in the last week and it's holding the same level whether I drive it or just go downstairs to check it, so I am optimistic that it's a minor fix. I drove it 23 hours (1600 mi) straight through from Dallas to NJ/NY, only stopping for food & LOTS of gas and it ran as smooth as ever, and I even checked the oil at every stop and it still held level.
It's funny, the beginning of the trip I averaged 13.x MPG per tank, and my last tank when I got into town I was averaging 18 MPG. I guess the ECU learns/adjusts to your driving behavior?

 

Welcome to the board and nice beast! Those black wheels look good on that white! I'm debating on getting some 20"s in that style.

Yea that driver side lower IC hose probably has a 1/2 quart of oil in it! The factory PCV system is garbage, and some people have modified it to stop that. Good luck man and have fun!

 

Thanks Scot, I appreciate the warm welcome. I wouldn't say the wheels are black, maybe like a dark grey or "gunmetal". They have a little flake in them as well, so the wheels look fantastic in sunlight. Now if I can just wrap/paint that trim! Really wanted to order my bypass pipes, intake, and exhaust this week, but I guess this oil issue takes precedent at the moment...

 

Lol already got your mod list...NICE! If you do some searching, you'll see some fixes to the factory crankcase vac system that other members have tried. The easy fix is just taking the time to drain that IC pipe every so often.

 

Yes sir, I want to do a few mods but I'm not going to get crazy with it. I want more sound, a bit more power, and a clean aesthetic and I'll be happy. I actually saw a an interesting catch can thread you started, did that work out for you?

 

yea it worked, but the catch can I bought (some murican moroso junk) wasn't baffled and residue/moisture was still getting through....so I dumped in favor of a K&N filter on the top port for now. I just need to pick up a good baffled catch can now to complete the system. Good call on the mods...it doesn't take much to unleash more power in these pigs

 

Hey Scot,
Have you ever looked into a Saikou Michi catch can? When I had my 300zx I was always on twinturbo.net and some of the heavily modded TT guys were running that setup on theirs, and their tanks are all baffled. I think you can have one made for under $200 to fit your application (AOS, different diameter tank sizes, etc). I don't think I'll go that route personally, but if my oil issue actually is the intercooler piping, I might just keep emptying it every oil change and cleaning it out as it seems to be a normal thing on turbo vehicles.

On a side note, I was just going to do 2.5" from the bypass pipe through, because I don't want to hear too much noise inside the truck. How do you like your full 3" exhaust? Do you get much cabin noise?

 

That's the catch can I was thinking of getting!

I'd say you will notice a little more rumble at start-up when its cold, but other than that it should still be pretty quiet. So far I like my setup...there's a few more things I need to do to make it what I want though.