Help! EML and fluid in engine bay!

[Tcochrane92]

Started my car this morning and it had a really tough idle, revs fluctuated and the EML was on, pic attached

Opened the bonnet as it looks like some liquid (smells a bit oily/petrolly) has escaped out the intake onto the engine cover. Pic below.

The intake pipe is fully on and there's no oil in the air box

Subsequent start ups have been normal, car idles as normal, but the EML is still illuminated. Need a code reader...

I checked my oil level yesterday and noted how clean the engine bay was, nothing abnormal. It also drove fine yesterday.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks all

 

[Fishy Dave]

Id be checking all around the fuel rail, it might be a tiny leak, but the consequences of fire are serious. Then again a fuel leak would be unlikely to trigger an eml? If it is fuel a lot will have evaporated by now, so the pool you see in the pic could have been larger.

 

[Roundozo]

Have you stuck your fingers on that liquid to see if fuel or oil? Do the M's have crank case breather pipes? Are they blocked?

 

[Tcochrane92]

I'll check whether its fuel or oil, I only smelled it this morning.
I turned the car back on and the EML wasn't on anymore so I drove to work, felt normal (15 min drive)

I'll put a fault code reader on it after work and check the fuel rail and surrounding pipes for any leakage

I checked the engine bay last night and it was nice and clean, this must've happened overnight

 

[Phoenixboy]

Hope it all gets sorted mate, I sometimes wish I was more mechanically minded, but I’ll stick to what I’m good at
I can clean a car well.

 

[Tcochrane92]

Hope it all gets sorted mate, I sometimes wish I was more mechanically minded, but I’ll stick to what I’m good at
I can clean a car well.

Thanks!

 

[AndyBeech]

Did you take the intake elbow off and nothing in the plenum box I presume?

Any on the underside of the bonnet?

Deffo check if it's oil or fuel first as that would eliminate the fuel rail....but yeah as said, possibly the breather pipe I would say.

Also, check the rubber connections from plenum to throttle bodies are all tight.
Weird placement for a leak!

The EML will disappear after 2-3 starts after being illuminated if the problem is no longer present (generally) but the fault will be logged so worth a code read for sure if you can find someone.

Also for OCD sake if you're that way inclined, in you're second pic, the sucking pump jet on the right of the second pic should be attached to the air box bracket next to it :wink: Though the bracket might be broken, not very robust!

 

[Tcochrane92]

Did you take the intake elbow off and nothing in the plenum box I presume?

Any on the underside of the bonnet?

Deffo check if it's oil or fuel first as that would eliminate the fuel rail....but yeah as said, possibly the breather pipe I would say.

Also, check the rubber connections from plenum to throttle bodies are all tight.
Weird placement for a leak!

The EML will disappear after 2-3 starts after being illuminated if the problem is no longer present (generally) but the fault will be logged so worth a code read for sure if you can find someone.

Also for OCD sake if you're that way inclined, in you're second pic, the sucking pump jet on the right of the second pic should be attached to the air box bracket next to it :wink:

I did indeed take the intake elbow off, inspected it and re-attached it securely. I also checked the airbox for any oil (incase its the crankcase breather) and it was fine - no problems. I'm fairly confident to write off the intake system - I'm not concentrating on the oil and fuel systems

I need to check the underside of the bonnet

I'll be reading the stored codes with Carly after work today.

Yes, I know the the sucking pump jet should be attached, but the bolt has sheared off! And half of the remaining bolt is still inside so I think that's a lost cause for now! :thumbsdown:

 

[ph001]

Very weird location. Could it have come from the washer jets on the underside of the bonnet possibly? Although that wouldn't bring on the management light of course.

 

[AndyBeech]

Did you take the intake elbow off and nothing in the plenum box I presume?

Any on the underside of the bonnet?

Deffo check if it's oil or fuel first as that would eliminate the fuel rail....but yeah as said, possibly the breather pipe I would say.

Also, check the rubber connections from plenum to throttle bodies are all tight.
Weird placement for a leak!

The EML will disappear after 2-3 starts after being illuminated if the problem is no longer present (generally) but the fault will be logged so worth a code read for sure if you can find someone.

Also for OCD sake if you're that way inclined, in you're second pic, the sucking pump jet on the right of the second pic should be attached to the air box bracket next to it :wink:

I did indeed take the intake elbow off, inspected it and re-attached it securely. I also checked the airbox for any oil (incase its the crankcase breather) and it was fine - no problems. I'm fairly confident to write off the intake system - I'm not concentrating on the oil and fuel systems

I need to check the underside of the bonnet

I'll be reading the stored codes with Carly after work today.

Yes, I know the the sucking pump jet should be attached, but the bolt has sheared off! And half of the remaining bolt is still inside so I think that's a lost cause for now! :thumbsdown:

Ha yeah same happened with mine, crappy design. I zip tied it to a hole on that bracket, works!

I thought washer jets but obvs that wouldn't bring on the EML or affect the idle so can't be that.

Code reader will probably reveal all!

 

[Beedub]

You know all my years of messing with the s54.... ive never seen this one before.... and the bits i would suggest are clearly dry and not the issues, even more weird its seemingly a patch in the middle of the airbox with no sort of "start" to the trail...

 

[Tcochrane92]

I think the next step is to let Carly tell us what's wrong and go from there.

I'm going to wipe off all the fluids (and try to determine if its fuel or oil) and see if it leaks again on my drive home.
Very weird though, looks almost as though its dripped down onto the engine cover and not from the fuel rail?

 

[Z4M-2006]

It does look like oil,there does seem to be other spots as well randomly around the intake chamber.


Thats a real weird place to get a stain though,especially as you checked it last night and it was fine and presumably hadnt run again when you found the residue ?

 

[Tcochrane92]

It does look like oil,there does seem to be other spots as well randomly around the intake chamber.


Thats a real weird place to get a stain though,especially as you checked it last night and it was fine and presumably hadnt run again when you found the residue ?

I checked the engine bay last night when I checked the dipstick. Then I drove to the pub and drove home again - a total of maybe 15 miles.
That was the sight I was welcomed with this morning at roughly 6:30ish am

Weird..

 

[Buckz]

a couple of drops of oil ended up on the intake and spread around when it warmed up? maybe you didn't notice them falling of the dipstick?

 

[AndyBeech]

a couple of drops of oil ended up on the intake and spread around when it warmed up? maybe you didn't notice them falling of the dipstick?

Would have to be literally streaming off the dipstick to make that much mess! Plus wouldn't explain the EML, can't be a coincidence!

 

[Tcochrane92]

These are the fault codes we read:

View attachment 1


The fluid had dried by the time I'd gotten back out to the car. It had left residue, but it wouldn't transfer onto my finger and it didn't smell of much, so a bit confused about that.



We think what had happened was that it was very cold and the springs on the throttle bodies were sticking, meaning the butterfly valves couldn't open and close as required on first, cold start up. It was about -1 degrees at the time.
By the second time, I noticed the idle was ok, but the EML was still on. The 4th time, the EML turned off and it ran as normal. So the fault only occured once, on that initial start up.

As for the fluid on the engine cover... :| Must be a random red herring. I'll monitor it