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As title where is coming from and why is it there?
Technical Oil on throttle body/in air filter
- Thread starter Leroypanda
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Technical Oil on throttle body/in air filter
Probably from the Positive Carter Ventilation.
Too much oil? As per other thread: wrong oil viscousity?
gr J
Too much oil? As per other thread: wrong oil viscousity?
gr J
- Joined
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oil 3/4 onn dipstick, it does do a lot of short cold runs though.
Its probably just needs cleaning out as mine needs doing when I get some carb/throttle body cleaner or my dad told me a common problem there is a rubber seal where the airbox attaches to the throttle body & they are known for going or the butterfly in the throttle body gets caked in oil & you see the oil residue on the edge of the throttle body where is meets the airbox requiring just a clean. We checked the seal & the breather hose on mine & are both fine so just a good clean is required. My Panda has only been used about once/twice a week in recent months since starting a new job as I cycle to work due to parking being awful, it was fine before that when it was being used nearly everyday
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The pressure under the pistons (oil side) changes as they go up and down, there's also a bit of blowby which is some combustion getting past the pistons (blowby is worse when the engine is cold as the heat hasn't caused any expansion of the pistions and rings).
This means the crank case cannot be totally air tight, it needs a breather system.
Somewhere on an engine above the oil line will be a breather (cam cover on the FIRE) to allow for this changing pressure and blowby to vent out.
Years ago these breathers used to vent to atmosphere via a can to catch the oil which condensed any that came out with it, but they are pretty toxic fumes so these days they are plumbed back into the engine to get burnt off via the air intake system.
There are clever ways of doing this and there are cheap and cheerful ways as well.
No gold star for guessing which Fiat used!
Clever ways use oil separators that are plumbed into the sump as well as the air intake that allow the condensed oil to dribble back so only the fumes get into the intake.
Fiat used a rubber pipe and what looks like a pan scrub stuck in the end!
In the cam cover end is this pan scrub thing and the pipe comes off the end of the cam cover to the underside of the airbox.
(this is a 100hp, but your car will have a similar arrangement, just on the other end of the cam cover https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/439443-standard-crankcase-breather-filter-removal.html)
The idea is the scrub thing allows some of oil to get trapped and condense on it so it drips back inside the cover.
Reality is it's pretty hopeless and allows the engine oil past and out into the air intake to be sucked up by the engine.
Most owners find some oil that's been flung out of the crank vent splattered around the airbox to throttle body seal, the butterfly valve, pooled at the bottom of the intake manifold and coating the MAP sensor (that's screwed into the end of the intake manifold).
When it gets bad it can start to find it's back up into the airbox itself and show signs it's getting onto the air filter.
Most of the time owners clean it all out with some carb cleaner, though some owners have fitted aftermarket catch cans, so the vented fumes/oil goes through the can where most of the oil is trapped and let the fumes out to go to the air intake.
There was a post a while ago that the dealer replaced the pan scrub thing with a new one as the owner was getting some running problems because oil was getting on the MAP sensor, not sure how long that lasted, I'd have a stab at not very long!
It is a very common complaint and doesn't always mean there is a serious problem, but obviously over filling, using the wrong oil, an engine problem like worn bores, pistons and rings that let more combustion past into the oil side and short tripping with lots of cold starts can exaggerate the problem.
Also diesels as they run higher compression, tend to create more blowby, so can throw a lot more out of the venting system but manufactures do tend to invest in better venting systems for them.
This means the crank case cannot be totally air tight, it needs a breather system.
Somewhere on an engine above the oil line will be a breather (cam cover on the FIRE) to allow for this changing pressure and blowby to vent out.
Years ago these breathers used to vent to atmosphere via a can to catch the oil which condensed any that came out with it, but they are pretty toxic fumes so these days they are plumbed back into the engine to get burnt off via the air intake system.
There are clever ways of doing this and there are cheap and cheerful ways as well.
No gold star for guessing which Fiat used!
Clever ways use oil separators that are plumbed into the sump as well as the air intake that allow the condensed oil to dribble back so only the fumes get into the intake.
Fiat used a rubber pipe and what looks like a pan scrub stuck in the end!
In the cam cover end is this pan scrub thing and the pipe comes off the end of the cam cover to the underside of the airbox.
(this is a 100hp, but your car will have a similar arrangement, just on the other end of the cam cover https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/439443-standard-crankcase-breather-filter-removal.html)
The idea is the scrub thing allows some of oil to get trapped and condense on it so it drips back inside the cover.
Reality is it's pretty hopeless and allows the engine oil past and out into the air intake to be sucked up by the engine.
Most owners find some oil that's been flung out of the crank vent splattered around the airbox to throttle body seal, the butterfly valve, pooled at the bottom of the intake manifold and coating the MAP sensor (that's screwed into the end of the intake manifold).
When it gets bad it can start to find it's back up into the airbox itself and show signs it's getting onto the air filter.
Most of the time owners clean it all out with some carb cleaner, though some owners have fitted aftermarket catch cans, so the vented fumes/oil goes through the can where most of the oil is trapped and let the fumes out to go to the air intake.
There was a post a while ago that the dealer replaced the pan scrub thing with a new one as the owner was getting some running problems because oil was getting on the MAP sensor, not sure how long that lasted, I'd have a stab at not very long!
It is a very common complaint and doesn't always mean there is a serious problem, but obviously over filling, using the wrong oil, an engine problem like worn bores, pistons and rings that let more combustion past into the oil side and short tripping with lots of cold starts can exaggerate the problem.
Also diesels as they run higher compression, tend to create more blowby, so can throw a lot more out of the venting system but manufactures do tend to invest in better venting systems for them.
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