Oil mist?

[jon baker]

On cleaning the engine area on my k11 I have noticed that everything form the injectors down the rear of the engine has a oil mist on it? Anybody got the same thing? Is it a common fault? and is there a cure/thing to check? like rocker gasket?

 

[MattInARedMicra]

Mine has a fair bit of oil down the back left hand side (facing it) near the filler cap that doesn't look like spilled oil from filling it, not sure where it's coming from but it's never lost any oil from the dipstick

Unless you get your engine detailed for car shows I think it's always gonna be a bit messy in there, I wouldn't worry about it unless there's oil on the floor where you park it overnight

 

[jon baker]

Thank you for your reply, there is oil appearing on the floor which I must try and stop (if I can) I was hoping there was a typical leaking part.

 

[MattInARedMicra]

Thank you for your reply, there is oil appearing on the floor which I must try and stop (if I can) I was hoping there was a typical leaking part.

Try to get a white sheet down over a weekend and narrow exactly where it's coming from, I say pick a weekend because if you're in a rush to leave for work or something there's no time to be poking around trying to trace back where it's dripping from, you just need a plumb line to figure out what's directly above the centre of the drips, and then look for the path the oil took if it didn't drip directly

As far as I know the only 2 places that are known leak points on a Micra are the rubber hose that connects the rocker cover to the airbox to even out the pressure of the tappets, and the sealing plate (inspection cover? not sure what it's called) around the bottom of the chain drive. Rare with this engine for any oil leaks at all, it's very solidly built, I've seen one on youtube run without any oil at all for 5 minutes before seizing and it only seized because they redlined it in the end.

 

[jon baker]

Thank you for your reply. The leak would seem to be across the back of the engine of cardboard. I think I need to clean the engine first because the oil has gone everywhere. I suppose its rust proofed the front cross member lol! I will try a sheet of cardboard on the floor and try to pinpoint it, that's a good idea thanks!

 

[jon baker]

The leak would seem to be across the back of the engine. (don't know where of cardboard popped up from

 

[MattInARedMicra]

possibly the seals on the injectors then?

and aye haha, bit of free rust proofing and if you keep it topped up save yourself the job of doing an oil change too

 

[ash d]

It's difficult to say where it's actually coming from without seeing it properly but from what you have described it sounds like there's a good chance your rocker cover gasket might be leaking.

 

[ash d]

Best thing to do is wash it all off and then take it for a runand check it again, it's hard to tell where a leak is coming from if it's already covered in oil.

 

[plmval]

The leak would seem to be across the back of the engine. (don't know where of cardboard popped up from

Most likely leak source is the oil filter that may need tightening a quarter turn.

As has been suggested, clean up all leak residues especially at the back & underneath up around where the oil filter hides!

Use cotton based old rags to thoroughly manually clean & dry the mess everywhere to enable the leak source to be quickly found after next start up & short run.

Good luck & happy oil hunting prospecting.