Oil around coil packs?

[adam04]

Yesterday, after driving on the motorway for about 15 minutes, I was stationary at lights when a plume of blue smoke came from under the bonnet, it last a few seconds with the typical oil smell and then stopped. Nothing else wrong with the car, continued to drive with no further issues. The car hasn't been driven much lately so i just put it down to a spot of oil building up and burning off.

Had a look this morning and there is a small amount of oil on the metal below the top of the engine which may of been yesterdays issue, no obvious leaks anywhere else. I took off the engine cover to find a small amount of oil all along the bottom of the coil packs (i'll add some pictures shortly).

Any idea what this may be a symptom of? I have previously spilt some oil on the cover whilst topping up the oil so it may just be this collecting? I have cleaned it all up to keep an eye on it.

Other than that the car runs fine, oil consumption is pretty standard with it needing about half a litre top up every 1000 miles.



TIA

[patriot66]

Hi Adam. Was the oil clean or dirty ? If it was clean then probably what you spilt whilst topping up. Did you undo the coil pack clips and look down each spark plug hole ? If they have oil in them then the rubber gasket at the top of each tube will have perished/hardened allowing oil to leak in. Just get a full cam cover gasket set and change the lot. It's an easy job. I did mine April '17. You can see the round rubber gaskets at the top of each spark plug hole in this photo

20170418_103920_Richtone(HDR).jpg (246.01 KiB) Viewed 910 times

[adam04]

Thanks Simon, ill get the cover off again tomorrow and have a look.

Wbere did you get the parts ftom?

[patriot66]

Thanks Simon, ill get the cover off again tomorrow and have a look.

Wbere did you get the parts ftom?

I bought this FAI gasket set on EBay
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 1738909686
You also need a dab of RTV Silicone in the corners of the 4 x half moon bits. I bought this JB Weld
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 1770002345

[Lance]

Yep, as Patriot66 says

I changed my a couple of months back, easy job and should take about an hour to an hour and a half. I got my gasket set from ECP and it fitted perfectly and has been fine since.

Word of warning - the old gasket can be very brittle and can fall to pieces on removal, you don't want pieces flicking off and into the top end of the engine.

Do a rocker cover Z4 search on YouTube as there's a useful video on there.

[adam04]

Thanks all, well having found the part at ECP last night and watched a couple of you tube videos, I got up this morning to replace the gasket. However, having taken the coil packs out, the inside is bone dry, not a drop of oil. I even took out the spark plug and that is the same. So it doesn't look like this is the culprit, I will still probably change the gasket at some point, but on a slightly warmer/drier day.

20181128_095539.jpg (156.2 KiB) Viewed 828 times

20181128_095545.jpg (103.5 KiB) Viewed 828 times

So back to the drawing board, the oil around the coil packs is dirty, however, this could just be from all the dust/muck sat under the main engine cover and the oil being sat there a while (I spilt the oil about 2 months ago) and the drop the other day was just the oil working its way down with the car being sat there for over a week not moving. The oil around the screw for the engine cover appears to be clearer where this has been trapped.

My only other thought was if oil could some how be escaping through the filler cap seal, however, this seems unlikely given how far the oil sits down in the engine? there again i guess it will expand as it heats up. The concentration of oil does seem to be at the front of the engine rather than the rear?

I think for my own sanity I'll have to just keep my eye on it for now in the hope it was simply the spill that's caused it.

[Lance]

Mine was weeping slightly for about 3 years, gradually getting worse before I changed the gasket. I eventually got fed up with the smell of burnt oil and the smoke every time I drove it.
Probably a job better left for a nice spring day.

[adam04]

Okay so having spent the last hour on the forum reading similar stories and seeing pics of drops of oil in the same place I'm pretty convinced it is this, albeit mine is very minor at the moment.

ECP have 37% off at the minute so i'll pick one up so i can get it changed at some point.

Thanks all!

[patriot66]