Traces of oil having been thrown around the pulley area of s CJZD 1.2TSI engine

[RUM4MO]

As per the subject field, initially I thought that some one had been sloppy when changing the oil during the second year service, as I found traces of oil on some water pipes and on the under cover, so wiped it off. Now having had a better/longer look, it appears that there is a line of oil spots under the line of the inner edge of the pulleys, that needs a bit more investigation, ie up on ramps and lower cover off!

Anyone else noticed this, the car is an August 2015 1.2TSI 110 6MT SEL with just over 11K miles?

[RUM4MO]

I've now had the undercover off that car and found no source of the drops of oil that have been thrown around some of the water pipes, and AC pipes.

Think a bit more about this, I remember not recovering back into the suction side, the contents of the discharge hose on my fridge manifold when I was checking the running pressures etc on this car's AC system a few months ago - so as the HP connection point is in that area, I think that I know what has caused that oil to be there! (my mistake, brain in neutral)

Edit:- One thing I did discover while looking up from underneath the engine was, the lower portion of the inlet pipe, where it gets connected to the fresh air feed at the front grill, was wet with oil? I took that short section of pipe off and cleaned it up, only the outer surface of the end that is clipped to the air filter box was wet - the inside and looking into the filter box and back into this pipe was dry, this was confirmed by me wiping it with a new dry paper wipe. The TB is below this point, but there was no sign of any oil having been blown out of it - very strange, maybe just oil being split during an oil change, from the top of the engine you can't see anything - only possible from underneath - so one oil leak solved and another discovered!

[RUM4MO]

Hum, after only roughly 60 miles, the oily spots appearing on the inside of the engine under cover are returning and the inside "outer" edge of the ribbed belt looks like it is getting bit wet with oil on the outer face of the AC compressor but nothing showing on the inner face of that compressor pulley!

[derkie54]

I'm sure you know a lot more about the Polo's than I do RUM4MO and I don't know what is causing your problem but it does remind me of a problem I had many years ago with a Metro.
Coolant was everywhere under the bonnet so as it was under warranty it went back to the main dealers. They said it's a common problem, the water pump seals are failing and leaking coolant is being thrown around by the pulley.
Pump was changed and problem was still there, they diagnosed a faulty replacement pump and put another one on.
It made no difference the coolant was still everywhere so they did a pressure test and no leaks were found.
Eventually the fault was found and turned out to be a hairline crack in the thermostat housing that leaked coolant on to the belt when the engine was under load.
Nothing at all to do with the water pump.

The only point I'm trying to make is could a stationary leak (from who knows where) be dripping on to the belt and then thrown around making it hard to pin point the source...........only a thought !

[RUM4MO]

The most obvious oily area is the centre section of the AC drive pulley, but I don't think that there should be any oil in that assembly. I think that this needs looking at soon!

[derkie54]

You do say " nothing showing on the inner face of that compressor pulley" so surely it's dribbling/weeping/leaking from elsewhere on to the AC assembly.

[RUM4MO]

My only thoughts are that there could be a fluid damper on that pulley and that is where it is leaking out of, but I don't think that there is, the only "thing" that is in the front end of that pulley, I'm guessing, is some form of shear coupling, it used to be rubber but that pulley looks different to previous ones.

[RUM4MO]

I think that I am wrong about there being any hydraulic damping/coupling on the AC compressor shear coupling, but I have now found that the inner side of the AC compressor pulley is not clean, it is covered in a black oily film, road pollution plus maybe AC oil leaking out past that compressor's drive shaft! Happy days, though that problem will need to develop before VW will show any interest I'd guess.

These Sanden compressors do seem to have been getting a lot of bad press for a few issues on these Fabias/Polos/Ibizas - if I'm correct, my wife's car will get included in that!

[derkie54]

Is there a plug where you can you top up the oil in the AC compressor or are they sealed units ?

[RUM4MO]

You don’t want to try that trick with a pressurised fridge system!