[SOLVED] Oil drain leak after CTS4 Instal

Anaphra

Anaphra

Greenie N00B Member
Greenie Member
Year: 2009
Make: Mazda
Model Mazdaspeed3
Mileage: 188239
DTC: N/A
Modifications: See Signature + CTS4
ECU/Tuning Software: Accesport
Tuner: Freektune
The Concern isn't intermittent, I'm pretty sure it's constant

A little bit of backstory, my OEM ko4 went out about a month ago and I ended up getting a CTS4. I installed it last weekend, went off pretty much without a hitch.

Although that’s what I thought until I noticed I was leaking oil from the turbo drain line, specifically on the turbo side. All the gaskets are new and the drain line doesn’t have any cracks.

While doing research today I found that companies sell aftermarket turbo drain lines. I was curious if anyone had any experience with this problem and if a new drain line solved the problem.

I can add pictures later if anyone is interested.

Edit 1: Added vehicle information as per pinned thread
 
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Easter Bunny said:
did you reuse the oem line?
are you positive it is tight?
Click to expand...

I reused the OEM oil drain line as I was sort of assuming that it'd be fine in this case.

I installed the turbo last weekend (6/18 - 6/19), found the leak this weekend (6/25 - 6/26). Based on my best knowledge it's definitely leaking from the turbo side (and yes I know oil does weird things and the wind or what ever could push it up, but I followed the leaking oil from the bottom of the turbo down the drain tube to the block and then down the block, there was no oil on the block above where the drain tube meats the block). I was able to get a wrench on it this weekend and made sure everything was tight. Then when that didn't work, yesterday I took the drain pipe out to make sure that the gasket hadn't fallen out of place or something weird. I tried to use a micrometer to measure the diameter of the OEM drain pipe hole and the CTS4 drain hole to ensure they were the same inner diameter, but I couldn't get the micrometer up to the turbo in an effective orientation to measure the turbo drain hole. On reinstallation I got all the bolts snug as I didn't know exactly what the torque spec was, but they are 8mm heads and I thought snug would be good enough.

Two thing I should note, first I did find a small amount of the original gasket yesterday which I ended up scraping off before reinstalling, I made sure to not score the surface of the drain pipe and made sure it was clean, and second I made sure that the longer bolts went into the block and the shorter bolts went into the turbo.
 
So there was old gasket left behind? Is it still leaking after removing that? Did you inspect the new gasket for damage from the old gasket?
 
I removed the gasket remanence from the drain tube last night, it should be noted that the left over gasket could probably have fit inside the space in the O on a keyboard. I did not thoroughly inspect the new gasket before reinstallation. I did though wipe the excess oil off of it, and from what I recall it didn't seem to have any "Damage", although I'm not exactly sure what damage I'd be looking for, if you could be more specific I can take it apart again this week and check it out.

I'm not sure this is a dumb question or not, but are the gaskets for the turbo and block side the same?
 
I did a little bit of digging after work last night, and figure out that the upper and lower gaskets have 2 different part numbers. I haven't been able to find substantial evidence that these 2 gaskets are differently sized in some way or another. I ended up riding to work today so I can work on a cold car this evening. I plan on taking it apart once again and comparing the 2 gaskets. I might try complete cleaning everything and swapping the gaskets in an effort to see if that solves it, OR if the leak changes locations.

Inked6603773983_e5841c38d1_b_LI.jpg
14-264
14-293 (This one says it's an EGR gasket, but I'm not sure about that)

With all that being said, someone can intervene if I'm barking up the wrong tree.
 
IIRC the bolts from the engine side, and the turbo flange look similar, but one set is ever so slightly longer.

Once upon a time it was common to hear of people mixing up one of those bolts and developing a leak at the turbo.
 
Mauro_Penguin said:
IIRC the bolts from the engine side, and the turbo flange look similar, but one set is ever so slightly longer.

Once upon a time it was common to hear of people mixing up one of those bolts and developing a leak at the turbo.
Click to expand...

Yes, the 2 bolts for the turbo are smaller in length than the bolts going into the block. I've made sure not to mix them up each time I reinstalled it.

I pulled the gaskets out again last night to see if there was any damage done to them as suggested by Easter Bunny and to check if they looked the same. I discovered, as shown below, that the gaskets were identical looking, making me curious as to if one should be different that the other per my findings yesterday.
gaksets.jpg

So I did some digging and was able to find these gaskets, which obviously appear to be different. I'm now hunting around to find an auto parts store that carries the correct gasket kit just to see if that solves my issue.

Some more evidence, that I'm kicking myself because I didn't catch it sooner, can be seen in the other 2 images below. In the one marked T for the turbo side of the drain, the gasket obviously looks a little large for the flange. The gasket's tabs don't hug the flange as well as they do in the image marked as B (the block side of the drain). Something else that I noticed was that the turbo side of the drain has some faint circles, from what I can only assume to be the old gasket, that are much smaller than the gasket that is on it currently.

InkedGasket fit_LI.jpg
InkedGasket Fit 2_LI.jpg
 
Not to dismiss your efforts by any means, but you really shouldnt have to have such a struggle. One of the surfaces has to be off deck, or something else to that effect. Especially since you confirmed no obvious damage to the existing gaskets and didnt mix up the bolts.

The only other thing that comes to mind is the flex in the drain line. I remember tightening the turbo side first, and watching the line flex as I torqued the block side after. Mazda didnt write any procedure for something so stupid, but just something to give a watch.
 
@Mauro_Penguin you're totally fine dude, I was actually able to figure out the problem. I also noticed that while tightening down each of the bolts the drain tube did do a lot of moving around and flexing, effectively putting unnecessary strain on that flex section of the tube. I think I'm decently lucky that I didn't crack or break that tube. The last time I was under there finishing the install though, I got all the bolts snug in an even pattern by hand. And then I came through and got them all tightened down pretty good.

So there actually is 2 different gaskets. I'm just more upset that I didn't catch this sooner and confused as to how I ended up with 2 identical gaskets. I know this is a silly mistake on my part but I think documentation of it is good for the next chump like me.

Gaskets Comp.jpg

So the bottom gasket (in the picture above) is L3K9-14-293 and belongs on the turbo side of the drain tube. Luckily the dealership had one in stock, as I called Autozone, Advanced Autoparts, O'Reilly, and Napa, and no one had one in stock, and they were all pretty much a week out.

I installed it on my lunch yesterday and haven't seen a leak since.
 
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