found the cause of the hissing today when i removed the bumper

**richiem** · 24th March 2011, 20:28

Hi guys!

I took the bumper of yesterday as im getting it ready to be painted and noticed some oil sprayed over the aircon rad so i had a look around the area. When i removed the aircon rad i noticed that it seems my intercooler is fooked! Its buldging really bad at the top and the bottom and the core has swollen up in both areas and then i noticed a nice hole in the core >>

As you can see, theres a hole in the core here right underneath were i thought the hissing was originally coming from ( the air intake)
Not sure if it shows but the core is all out of shape and i also noticed the aircon rad and the cooler are both bowing backwards and i can only guess the air pressure from the front has pushed it backwards and caused this damage!
I can think of anything else that could cause this to happen.
Is this a common problem on these cars???
You might be able to see the bowing at the top better in this picture were i have dropped the aircon rad so its visable>>

It seems the core has swollen out of shape or something

Cheers rich

**Derek Mc** · 24th March 2011, 20:32

I am thinking oil build-up in the intercooler fills up the rad until all bost is forced through only upper section which then blows up like a baloon hence this severe mis-shaped I/C core

What year and mileage is on the car?

**Caveman_nige** · 24th March 2011, 20:33

jeez, thats a gonna, you can buy exact replacements for less than a ton so should be any easy fix..

**richiem** · 24th March 2011, 20:39

the car is on an 04 plate and has done 116,000 miles.. I have noticed it smokes abit on exceleration but she does pull really well!
Was remapped by guy before me to around 170bhp ( so he said)
I m thinking if theres oil in the cooler it might be the oil seals in the turbo are shat??
Was always the way in my cali turbos ( nightmare)

**richiem** · 24th March 2011, 20:43

theres a nice puddle of oil on my drive thats been coming from this hole for a while now! You can see were its been blowing thro the aircon rad ( top left area)
Im guessing that there shouldnt be oil spurting out of the whole!!

**Grumpy1954** · 24th March 2011, 20:46

And there was me thinking you'd found a big snake..........

**Derek Mc** · 24th March 2011, 20:50

Originally Posted by richiem

theres a nice puddle of oil on my drive thats been coming from this hole for a while now! You can see were its been blowing thro the aircon rad ( top left area)
Im guessing that there shouldnt be oil spurting out of the whole!!

The oil comes from two sources one being passing by the turbo oil seals, the other is past the oil separator cyclone from the CCV system. The crancase breather sucks a heck of a lot of oil through and deposits it in the intercooler too.

**Caveman_nige** · 24th March 2011, 20:51

after a certain amount of time you'll end up with oil in the intercooler piping and a bunch in the bottom of the intercooler itself. Since the intercooler is the lowest spot in the system, any oil that blows into the system will gravitate toward the intercooler..