Hi guys, I have an oil leak on the car. So to avoid being stung at a garage like I did few weeks back on a brake issue where the mechanic just changed the pads on car, and later turned out to be a vacuum brake pump I have invested in a smoke machine to locate where the oil leak is coming from.

Iv never used a smoke machine so what pipe do I need to access to test for oil leaks?

I believe the oil to be leaking on top of the gear box and trickles down to the bottom of it. It's engine oil so its obviously coming from the engine and falling onto the gear box.

Below is a picture of my engine, anyone who can edit this in Photoshop with arrows on where to insert smoke machine and what I need to block off will be greatly appreciated..

 

Remove the air filter together with pipe where air flow sensor sits and remove battery and inspect unleashed side of the engine (right on the picture, above gear box if you believe leak is there).
Remove also plastic cover (with DiD mivec logo) and inspect the top engine cover underneath. That cover is made of plastic too and may have cracked.

I am not sure that smoke generator will help you much with this diesel engine.

 

Thanks for the reply,

What you said here is confirmed but from the oil dip stick as the entry point before you had replied.

The advice was to place it in the oil dipstick however I didn't expect the smoke to reach the maff sensor and air filter and it's pipe from the oil dip stick. I thought to myself if it's an oil leak why introduce the smoke after the MAF sensor to look for an oil leak. It seems the smoke can enter the air path way from the oil dipstick.

Anyway as soon as I seen the smoke going passed the MAF sensor I halted the process and took the air filter box and pipe with it's MAF sensor off just in case the baby oil damages the MAF. I then put a surgeons glove on the air intake to stop smoke leaking out. I also took the plastic engine cover off revealing the injectors. Proceeded pumping smoke through the oil dip stick and discovered smoke coming from the second injector on the right. I already knew I had a leaky injector as I'm getting ready to fix it once the tools arrive plus I posted a thread on here to find out torque settings. However I'm really glad I bought the smoke machine before I fixed this leaky injector as I thought it was the second injector from the left.


​​​​​​I went under the vehicle no smoke, checked turbo no smoke, checked the sides of engine no smoke, The smoke was only leaking from the top of the engine rather than anywhere else.

So I have a few questions from the test

Would the smoke test coming out of the injector prevent the smoke reaching a possible leak at the bottom or the sides of the engine as the pressure is reduced?

Second question, is it possible that the black stuff I'm finding on the road (looks like oil) in drips is actually coming from the injector and the injector leak and oil leak are not two separate issues?

Should I just introduce the smoke through the air intake after MAF sensor maybe I will get different results?

Here is a picture of what the smoke test found on injector...

 

Take off the clamp from the rocker cover hose breather and it will be a good smoke injection point.
But, as I said in the previous post, you need to check plastic (rocker) cover for cracks. For that you will need to remove all fuel lines and probably common rail...

 

Thanks for the reply, I will try the smoke test from the hoser breather see if it yields any further results.

​​​​​​Also if the plastic rocker cover had any cracks wouldn't the smoke test leak through? Or do I still need to inspect the cover?

Thanks

 

You said that smoke was coming from the top of the engine. Rocker cover is most likely to blame. Try smoke test again and see if you can localize leak on cover before removing it all, but it might be difficult.