Aircon Condense drain position and oil leak

[simonbrown]

Hi a relative newbie

Ive got a 1999 2.8 sport tiptronic non quattro and have a question.Can anyone tell me exactly where i should expect to see condense leaking from if looking underneath the car. I was checking for an oil leak last night and on the front drivers side up underneath the bell housing there was condense leaking out betwen the bodywork and the heat shield. It isnt coming from the coolant, that I know as its cold. About an hour before id spray washed the car so perhaps its a slighly blocked drain hole??? Ive never noticed this before but then i dont crawl about under my caras a matter of course. Some guy at the garage commented he saw a whisp of smoke/steam coming from my front wheel, which is cold and had a new bearing fittted recently so its not that...I didnt notice any but I had just been on a blast from London to Bristol so it may be a bit of oil somewhere. Ive had a look on the a/c drain hole unblocking procedure but this doesnt say where it drains out to.

Whilst we are on the subject of oil leaks its leaking oil from the front LHS of the engine. If you take out the plastic undertray its leaking on the front LHS.The top end seems nice and oil free. Any ideas Im guessing its the sump gasket perhaps. Shine a torch through the front passenger wheel arch and i can see the whole area covered in oil.Its not losing oil at an alarming rate (about a litre avery 1500 miles which for 122k is normal I guess)Anyone know af any common leak positions on the 2.8's

cheers

Simon

[Atomic]

Take the wheel off and check the seal around the gearbox / driveshaft coupling. Ideally clean the whole area and drive it around for a while and check again to make sure it's not just dropped from above and splattered around.

[Ska]

2nd what Atomic said; check the final drive housing seal Oh and the a/c drains off exactly where you saw the water come down; around the bell housing - leaves quite a big puddle too. If the bloke saw some steam come from the wheel it may be the drain for the engine bay that let some water go- has a tendency to block very easily then lets rip once in a while when there is loads of water accumilated, not good seeing as the ECU is located there. I reccomened cleaning these out with a screw driver every month especially if its been raining. where abouts in London are you based?

Oh and the engine is designed to consume about 1 litre of oil for every 100okm or miles i forget which one

[Atomic]

I litre per 1000 miles is pretty poor imo. I'd be looking for that leak...

Hard to compare though cos I put about 2 litres in over the 9k or so miles I did in my 2.8 but when I filled it the first time I took it to max and it may have been low to start with and i've no idea of how much of the second fill i've used. All in all it could be 1 litre to 3 litres per 9k.

[simonbrown]

Thanks guys.Spent yesterday afternoon with the bonnet up cleaning all drain holes by sticking a long screw up through the wheel arch drains.....faily well blocked they are too!This may have been the cause of my ABS/EBL light coming on last autumn which suddenly went away. I did notice some condensate type water in the ecu housing lid. Ive just pot a silicone pad (from the box of a stereo ive just purchased) in there and sealed the lid with some bath sealant....should do the trick. This then lead to cleaning the engine bay a little then completely T cutting the body and applying a nice coating of wax sealant.

Ive got a box fluid and filter change coming up soon so they can trace the leak for me as well..

Ive since had a look at the handbook and it recons 1 litr every 1600km which equates to roughly 1000miles. Sort the leak and everything should be OK.