D5 Lower plastic turbo outlet pipe - engine oil weep

[OriginalTDave]

Hello, this morning I removed the lower plastic engine protection tray from my recently acquired XC90 MY 2012 D5 AWD engine type D5244T18.
All looks ok, except I have oil showing on the outside of the black plastic turbo outlet pipe connection at the area where it meets the resonator box ( at the orange seal area ). The oil appears to be engine oil from its colour and smell and seems mostly in the area of the orange seal. There is not a lot of it, but its enough that the lower plastic outlet pipe was damp for about 20cm of its length toward the front of engine and there is a small indicator of oil on the inner part of the plastic protection tray. I looked around and above the connection going up to the turbo and can not see any oil external leaks, so I am assuming the oil is coming from within the turbo pipe outlet and is slowly weeping out at the seal point.
My question is, is this an indicator that the turbo itself is leaking ( failing) as I suspect, or as this pipe/seal is at the bottom of the engine area could the oil have come from somewhere else.
Has anyone seen this issue before? The car is low mileage at 19,000.
Its still covered under warranty, so if its an issue I need to get it back to the dealer.
Dave

[CaerYnArfon]

Discovered very similar on mine a 2010 reg D5 when I took off the cover.

Cleaned it up but couldn't see any obvious leaks.

Would also be keen to know if anyone has found/rectified the problem

Cheers guys

[TruckbusUK]

The "leak" is nearly always from the orange seal(s) ... AFAIK, there is always a little oil (condensed oil mist) in the pipework, but never as much to cause issues, large amounts of oil suggest a problem. There are a few threads about this and replacement of the hose and resonator box with a 3rd party hose only ... have a search.

Hope it helps

Edit - TDave ... if its under warranty, get it back to the dealer, sooner than later, after all thats what you have paid for!

[OriginalTDave]

Originally Posted by TruckbusUK

The "leak" is nearly always from the orange seal(s) ... AFAIK, there is always a little oil (condensed oil mist) in the pipework, but never as much to cause issues, large amounts of oil suggest a problem. There are a few threads about this and replacement of the hose and resonator box with a 3rd party hose only ... have a search.

Hope it helps

Edit - TDave ... if its under warranty, get it back to the dealer, sooner than later, after all thats what you have paid for!

Hi TruckbusUK, thanks for the info. It was not a huge amount of oil, not actually dripping but it was wet around the orange seal and the plastic pipe was oil misted. I will call the dealer I purchased this from and see what they say.
The orange oil seal area looks like its been moved, as does the hose clip that clamps it together, so my guess is that this has been looked at before.. The question in my mind is, is this the reason the car was sold at such low miles??. or is it something that is seen on these engines and does not indicate a seal failing in the turbo??.
Rgds Dave

[TruckbusUK]

I believe its on most D5's certainly the 185BHP's and later.

Mine has done it since new, a few drips every year, but the orange seal's do seem to weep. I have changed mine once already it was almost split in two, at about year 4, and its weeping again at year 8.

Maybe some others with more experience of these engines in XC90's will also comment.

[owenfackrell]

All engines have a crank case breather and these go in to the fresh air intake of the engine.
With out one of these your engine would quite literally explode from the buid up of pressure inside of it. The breather emits a fine vapour to f oil and this collects on the pipework that it passes through. It is the typical reason for the build up of sludge at the egr valve point where it mixes with the exhaust gases. Having had a turbo fail on a career the amount of oil that ends up in the pipework and intercooler is a lot. I mean you can poor it out.

[Rooster]

If its not leaking boost pressure i would leave well alone,

The pipes go brittle with age and are a fortune to buy another if it brakes removing it,

They all leak abit of oil

[OriginalTDave]

Thanks to all, I will monitor the oil weep over the next few weeks and see if it builds. From the forum replies it seems this oil weep is fairly normal unless its a lot of oil ( turbo seal ).. Also the orange seal area of the boost pipe to resonator looks to be right at the bottom point of the system, so it seems a fairly ideal place for any oil mist to collect and ultimately leak. I will also look into the possibility of the 3rd party silicon hose to replace the resonator section of the plastic pipe.

Dave

[OriginalTDave]

Just as an aside, disconnected the boost pipe at the front of the engine where it exits the under engine plastic pipe and joins the rubber hose that feeds the inter-cooler. No oil in the pipe to the inter-cooler. A little wetness inside at the joint area of plastic to rubber pipes, but very little in the actual plastic pipe and nothing in the hose. Seems the oil mist collects and weeps at the pipe joint areas where there is a greater resistance to flow.

[TrickyRickyDicky]

I wanted to add my experience to this post even though its old as it helped me solve my issues. My Engine Warning Light came on and I could hear air escaping when accelerating hard - I had previously replaced the air cooler at the front of the car and suspected that perhaps I hadn't fitted it correctly. After taking it to Volvo for a diagnostic (£99) it turned out that air (and lots of oil) was escaping from either end of the rigid plastic pipe that is attached to the turbo. I was quoted £621 (Nov 2019) by Volvo to fix the issue. After removing the cover at the base of the engine, it took me 15 minutes to remove the right angled rigid plastic pipe that connects to the turbo (7 screws with a star head and 2 x 10mm bolts holding the rigid pipe to the engine). Two jubilee clips later at either end of the right angled rigid pipe and it came loose to reveal that the turbo boost pipe seals (orange rubber - part numbers 30778628 30778629) had completely fallen apart both top and bottom. I've just ordered them on Ebay for £9.95 including free delivery. Job done - see two pics attached