# X-trail 2004 2.2 dci Oil Leak - can anyone please help



## gladstonescrewer (Sep 16, 2008)

I have an oil leak underneath the engine i would say it leaks about half a dozen drops or something like that each night on my drive its in line with the oil sump plug or there abouts its been like it for months but i only noticed when the patch built up on my drive.I took it to my local garage who checked the vehicle over & decided to replace various gaskets as it was not coming from the sump plug nor the filter they didn'nt really know where but assumed the changing of gaskets may solve the problem me not knowing an awful lot about what goes on underneath the bonnet agreed to this.
Garage phoned next day to say the work was done & i could collect the X -trail.... great got vehicle back only to wake up next morning with the usual drops of oil on the drive, took the x-trail back to garage where once again they started searching for leak now i am getting a bit cheesed off now because i paid them to fix a problem & they did not do it but remembering they told me they did not know for sure where the leak was coming from i should not really be surprised, anyway they tell me now that i have a turbo problem because they have found some oil seeping from underneath the rubber hose that comes from the turbo to the intercooler they remove rubber pipe and sure enough there is oil in there enough to cover the walls inside they tell me this should not be there and the turbo seals have probably gone.
Now i bought this vehicle 6 months and i new it had a reconditioned turbo fitted and i have in my possesion the 12 month warranty for this part which the dealer gave me so i take the vehicle to the turbo people and explain what has been done and what is happening and what i have been told ( please bear in mind i dont know a lot about vehicles ive only ever driven them like most of us ) ok they remove the hose from the turbo to intercooler & agree that oil is getting inside and it should not be but when they check the breather pipe from engine to cooler pipe they notice oil inside the breather pipe & the cooler pipe that goes down to the turbo & this is where the oil is getting in they tell me there is probably a fault with the breather system inside the engine and i need to get that checked there is no problem with turbo.
Now from having a few spots of oil on my drive and nearly £200 bill from previous garage who did not fix my problem i am getting a little bit worried now ,i asked a local mechanic for his advice and he said i should really take it to an authorised Nissan dealer & they would be able to find out the cause but when i called the local Nissan they qouted me £110 an hour for diagnostic check & in this case it may well run into hours.
Now i simply cannot afford that but niether can i afford to keep paying tin pot garages money just to tell me what the problem is not !
I am getting a little desperate now as where to turn if i have to go to Nissan then i will, i have been told many things, i could do with some advice , the vehicle runs fine allways has no smoke out the back or anything some people have even said that this oil is not a problem because its not unusual to have a little coming through the breather but surely it should not be there and is this the oil that is leaking down on my drive ,the oil level is ok .can anyone please help


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## trifon (Jan 12, 2008)

Hi,

Many defectives 2003/2004 XT Intercoolers have been changed under garantee. This is one known issue that should be fixed at no charge.
Air leakages in the intercooler leads to wrong turbo working and thus reduces its life expectancy.
Also, low quality semisynth oil(10W40), if used, means oil vapor injected in the turbo.

The X-Trail DCI is equipped with very sophisticated engine, like many new cars, I am afraid that local mechanic can't do anything on it.


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## supperfridgemagnet (Oct 29, 2008)

gladstonescrewer said:


> I have an oil leak underneath the engine i would say it leaks about half a dozen drops or something like that each night on my drive its in line with the oil sump plug or there abouts its been like it for months but i only noticed when the patch built up on my drive.I took it to my local garage who checked the vehicle over & decided to replace various gaskets as it was not coming from the sump plug nor the filter they didn'nt really know where but assumed the changing of gaskets may solve the problem me not knowing an awful lot about what goes on underneath the bonnet agreed to this.
> Garage phoned next day to say the work was done & i could collect the X -trail.... great got vehicle back only to wake up next morning with the usual drops of oil on the drive, took the x-trail back to garage where once again they started searching for leak now i am getting a bit cheesed off now because i paid them to fix a problem & they did not do it but remembering they told me they did not know for sure where the leak was coming from i should not really be surprised, anyway they tell me now that i have a turbo problem because they have found some oil seeping from underneath the rubber hose that comes from the turbo to the intercooler they remove rubber pipe and sure enough there is oil in there enough to cover the walls inside they tell me this should not be there and the turbo seals have probably gone.
> Now i bought this vehicle 6 months and i new it had a reconditioned turbo fitted and i have in my possesion the 12 month warranty for this part which the dealer gave me so i take the vehicle to the turbo people and explain what has been done and what is happening and what i have been told ( please bear in mind i dont know a lot about vehicles ive only ever driven them like most of us ) ok they remove the hose from the turbo to intercooler & agree that oil is getting inside and it should not be but when they check the breather pipe from engine to cooler pipe they notice oil inside the breather pipe & the cooler pipe that goes down to the turbo & this is where the oil is getting in they tell me there is probably a fault with the breather system inside the engine and i need to get that checked there is no problem with turbo.
> Now from having a few spots of oil on my drive and nearly £200 bill from previous garage who did not fix my problem i am getting a little bit worried now ,i asked a local mechanic for his advice and he said i should really take it to an authorised Nissan dealer & they would be able to find out the cause but when i called the local Nissan they qouted me £110 an hour for diagnostic check & in this case it may well run into hours.
> ...


I have a 05 x-trail that has 35,000 on the clock and has had the standard turbo and intercooler changed as per most others. Regarding the oil leak and oil from breather I think this is typical of this engine. I have both oil inside the turbo inlet pipe and a little even gets onto the air filter, which it has done since I first checked back at 20,000.
I change the oil myself with Mobil 1 and the level hardly moves over say 5,000 miles so we are talking about a very small amount of oil which is misted out of the oil breather.
The seal on the crimped end of the intercooler tends to start leaking after about 10k on these cars and as there is a coating of oil around the inside of the cooler the oil leaks out. When mine leaked it was just oil and no air leaks at all, so absolutely no danger of effecting the turbo boost etc. You would need a large air leak which would be noisy before any effect on the turbo etc. However it is worth getting the oil leak fixed to stop the mess the oil makes. The leaks on the intercoolers are a bad design fault that will not be fixed by nissan so you will end up at best with a brand new replacement which will ultimately start to leak at some point.


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## martyxke (May 25, 2009)

*X trail oil leak*

I know this reply is way too late to be of any use to the owner with the original question, but could be good for any owner exploring oil leak answers. I have been chasing an oil leak for a few weeks now on my T30 diesel, and after much engine de-greasing and exploration, found the engine sump to be leaking due to corrosion. The internet provided a new one for just a shade over £70 (www.milneroffroad.com) and its a very straight forward job to replace ( just over an hour for me). Apparently due to the location of the sump it is a magnet for road salt and water spray, and had rotted through in three places. This issue is certainly worth checking before spending time and money on the inter-cooler.


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## FKA (Feb 24, 2021)

gladstonescrewer said:


> I have an oil leak underneath the engine i would say it leaks about half a dozen drops or something like that each night on my drive its in line with the oil sump plug or there abouts its been like it for months but i only noticed when the patch built up on my drive.I took it to my local garage who checked the vehicle over & decided to replace various gaskets as it was not coming from the sump plug nor the filter they didn'nt really know where but assumed the changing of gaskets may solve the problem me not knowing an awful lot about what goes on underneath the bonnet agreed to this.
> Garage phoned next day to say the work was done & i could collect the X -trail.... great got vehicle back only to wake up next morning with the usual drops of oil on the drive, took the x-trail back to garage where once again they started searching for leak now i am getting a bit cheesed off now because i paid them to fix a problem & they did not do it but remembering they told me they did not know for sure where the leak was coming from i should not really be surprised, anyway they tell me now that i have a turbo problem because they have found some oil seeping from underneath the rubber hose that comes from the turbo to the intercooler they remove rubber pipe and sure enough there is oil in there enough to cover the walls inside they tell me this should not be there and the turbo seals have probably gone.
> Now i bought this vehicle 6 months and i new it had a reconditioned turbo fitted and i have in my possesion the 12 month warranty for this part which the dealer gave me so i take the vehicle to the turbo people and explain what has been done and what is happening and what i have been told ( please bear in mind i dont know a lot about vehicles ive only ever driven them like most of us ) ok they remove the hose from the turbo to intercooler & agree that oil is getting inside and it should not be but when they check the breather pipe from engine to cooler pipe they notice oil inside the breather pipe & the cooler pipe that goes down to the turbo & this is where the oil is getting in they tell me there is probably a fault with the breather system inside the engine and i need to get that checked there is no problem with turbo.
> Now from having a few spots of oil on my drive and nearly £200 bill from previous garage who did not fix my problem i am getting a little bit worried now ,i asked a local mechanic for his advice and he said i should really take it to an authorised Nissan dealer & they would be able to find out the cause but when i called the local Nissan they qouted me £110 an hour for diagnostic check & in this case it may well run into hours.
> ...


Did you ever resolve this issue? 
I have a similar problem and my local garage are not keen to tackle it. 
At this stage I am about to have a £320 main service and cleanup of the timing cover area, to see if the can get a clearer picture of the leakage point.


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