hi all,

FIRSTLY I APOLOGISE FOR THE PICS IN THIS POST, THEY HAVE POSTED UPSIDE DOWN AND SIDEWAYS AND WHAT NOT AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FIX IT :yuck:

I've been suffering with water getting into the oil for quite some time, and i've really been ramming my head against a wall trying to find out the solution to the problem. It isn't the head gasket (thank god) seeing as my coolant level has been constant for the months and months while this has been happening,

Recently while driving along the motorway, my engine cut out. The electronics were still on however as i drifted over to the hard shoulder. The car started up again no problem however. I called the AA guy and he plugged it into the diagnostics and didn't find ONE fault. He said he double checked all the sensors ETC and nothing came up whatsoever. He advised it could be a crank sensor problem.

After chatting to my old man about the problem he said he went through everything with his Citroen Picasso. sensors were changed, new parts were ordered and still they never got to the root of the problem. Eventually he took it straight to the Citroen dealer and was told pretty much straight away it was the fuel filter. He had it changed and no more problems have arisen since, so i'm guessing my fuel filter could also need changing?

anyway, i whipped the bonnet up this morning to check the air inlet valve and give it a clean. When i took the intake pipe away the inside was brown and wet. There was even a small puddle of browny liquid at the top of pipe.I had a look in the breather hose and it was same all the way down. A creamy browny oily looking substance. I checked the intake on the front of the car and found a small box just beneath it. I have no idea what this box is for but i found it snapped off from the pipe, leaving a gaping hole for water to enter the air intake.So at last! it looks like i have found the reason for water in my oil. It's obviously entering the oil from the breather hose! I've added pics here to make what i am saying clearer.









what would be a good step to take from here? should i clean the whole air intake myself and repair the mystery box back onto the pipe?

or should i just get a whole new air intake just to be sure? If so, what price am i looking at? i've always wanted a BMC CDA, is it worth getting one of them or another aftermarket piece instead if the price isn't far off?

cheers guys!

when oil and water mix it floats to the top and gets blown down the breather..... so thats why its in there....

tbh if your using the car everyday. id still say it will be the headgasket on its way out...


having a split hose in the air intake will not introduce water into the oil it would just suck it in and burn it....

That looks more like condensation and crankcase vapour than water you've sucked in from your air intake. Obviously you'll need to repair your intake hose, but other than that, I would just clean everything up then consider fitting an oil catch can. I use on of these:

http://www.saikoumichi.com/Stage2OCC.htm

from the USA. Not cheap but beautifully made and actually works (unlike most of the rubbish on eBay).

clock34 said:

when oil and water mix it floats to the top and gets blown down the breather..... so thats why its in there....

tbh if your using the car everyday. id still say it will be the headgasket on its way out...


having a split hose in the air intake will not introduce water into the oil it would just suck it in and burn it....

Click to expand...

But i'm not losing anything from the coolant whatsoever. I had the gasket done when i first bought the car about 3 years ago as well. So where the hell is that water coming from if its not from the air intake? :bang:

tbh it really wouldnt take much to get that sort of build up.... take your oil filler cap off and whats it look like on the inside of it?

also do you use the car for lots of short journeys.

Zer089 said:

But i'm not losing anything from the coolant whatsoever. I had the gasket done when i first bought the car about 3 years ago as well. So where the hell is that water coming from if its not from the air intake? :bang:

Click to expand...

If the car is used for a lot of short journey's condensation can build up inside the engine and eventually mix with the oil causing a light brown gunk to form.

Simple solution, make sure the engine reaches running temp for as long as possible as often as possible.

clock34 said:

tbh it really wouldnt take much to get that sort of build up.... take your oil filler cap off and whats it look like on the inside of it?

also do you use the car for lots of short journeys.

Click to expand...

i always reach running temp on journeys. i mainly do motorway journeys. there is a pic of the oil filler cap i posted, its not very clear though.

the build os excessive, the AA man even said its very excessive. this definatly isn't condensation.

categorically not water ingress from intake... At some point that gunk You see has been inside the Engine and blown out. The only way you get that is either your engine is breathing heavily which could be caused by worn piston rings which i doubt very much OR you have hg failure... Ive covered the various ways in which they Fail in here a couple of times and what to check in each instance a quick search of head gasket/my username/stilo section should bring it up

just a stab in the dark, but when the head gasket was gone before, was all the pipes cleaned out? could it be left overs?

the hg was done after i bought the car. however, it was done under warranty which makes me think they did a half assed job! im thinking of checking the coils and spark plugs etc and eventually giving it a compression test. would a compression test cost much in my local garage or could i do it myself?