5.9 guys with oil on intake side of air filter FIXED

[JFought]

So forever it seems i have gotten oil on the intake side of the factory air filter.
Never on engine side of filter-sqeaky clean/oil free

EVERY filter i have ever replaced or checked had oil on it.



Cause- AC line from compressor to condenser "weeps" oil and the air filter sucks up the oil. weeps right next to air box
where its crimped (rubber line to metal)

I have wondered this cause almost since it was a new truck.


Fix- discharge ac replace line and charge up

other than finally seeing an oily line/ and die i would have never found the true source of oil
as all areas are oil free

 

[crabman]

I replaced my air filter today and noticed that the pleats had a black oily residue on them. I was wondering where it came from too. So I it would seem that my ac line is "weeping" too. Is that line a dealer only part? Do you happened to have the part number for it? If not a dealer only part, where did you purchase yours?
Thanks!
crabman

 

[CKelley1]

I think you guys are smoking weed. that is oil from other cars. some filter makers attach a foam pad to the bottom to catch the oil so as to not block the filter as fast

 

[crabman]

I took my vehicle to have the a/c serviced today. I explained to the owner that I suspected the a/c was leaking and showed him the air filter that I had replaced. He said that the air filter was not a normal looking dirty air filter. Picked up the vehicle later and he said that I was correct in my assumption. The schrader valve had a small leak and the oil was traveling down and misting into the air where it picked up small particles of dust in the air, which in turn was sucked up by the intake. The a/c stuff is normally green in color but the dust particles that it pick up made it look black on the filter.
I attached a couple of photos.

 

[JFought]

ck it was oil from my ac system. it just has taken nearly 130k miles to leak to a degree for me to find and determine.

i bought all parts from rock auto. fit was ok, not perfect. I even bought the full ac o ring kits for the entire system (metal oring spacers included)


my filter was at least 2 times more nasty (oil) the then pictures above

I am not saying it all due to the ac leak. But my WAS

(i originally thought about the oil in the air from other vehicles, but then why does my other vehicles NOT have a drop of oil in the same location??????)

 

[CKelley1]

ok you guys convinced me or at least the pix did.

 

[JFought]

lol
i spent lots of time wondering and pondering where the oil actually came from.
But after finding the extremely oily hose with a slight green dye color with the uv light. I still did not realize it till a day later that it has been the cause of the oil in the filter.

Glad u joined the crack heads. lol

 

[ZBrooks]

I'll be checking on this tomorrow. My air filters look worse than the one pictured when I change them out.

 

[JFought]

fyi in previous years the ac line was just dusty/ dirty not oily till recent (and loosing refridgerant in a month)

and my filter was like 4 times dirtier than the pic above lmao it drove me nuts

 

[leaky gasket]

For comparison here is my filter with 9699 miles of service. I have no oil or A/C leaks. I believe most of the oil comes from the blow-by tube and traffic.

 

[JFought]

bend the filter so u can see all the way into the bottem of the plete you will probably see more oil

BL go pop open your other vehicles air filter and see the lack of oil in it. As my wifes acura

by the way blow bye tube is on the other side of the engine bay (driver side at almost back of the block on the 06)

not trying to say i know it all- but until i found a crap ton of oil and dirt i thought the same

 

[rscurtis]

Keep in mind that your wife's Acura is moving but a fraction of the air that the Cummins is. For those that subscribe to the oil leak from the AC system, how was the system working while it had this oil leak?

 

[AH64ID]

I don't have an a/c leak and my filter looks like that (or worse). I am going to call that road grime, and not a/c oil.

The opening on the air filter is on the wrong side of the airbox to pull that air in, if you were pulling that air you would also be pulling hot air off the engine and if you watch the IAT you know that is not the case.

It all depends on where the rig pulls the air from, when it rains the OEM setup will get wet road grime air up towards the box pretty easy.

A leak that takes 130K miles to get to the point of being noticeable is not a leak that you can see accumulate on anything, the system just doesn't hold that much and would make a big mess all over the engine bay to get that much on a filter pulling from the fender.

 

[JFought]

if its road grime- then it would be more prevalant in my wires acura as it sits way closer to the ground and sucks air lower than our trucks (lower in the air column- ought to have more particaltes/ oil water in the air)

i understand the quanity of air used on our motors- thus the aucra should have some proportional amout of oil/grime (as i cant hardly detect any oil on a 18k mile filter i forgot to change)

if its road grime then why haven't the guys with BHAF that are oiled mentioned any similar things as the grime accumulated should be much higher than the dry filters/factory filters

My factory air box- i have drilled holes in the bottom to act similar to the snorkel tube that dangles below the box
the foam that used to seal it to the fender has been missing for a long time as it was very cheap pores foam

and fell off


Ad not trying to argue. i Do respect your opinion very much

Does any one have this oil on the filter issue That HAS NO EXAUST brake?

 

[AH64ID]

I think it's where the intake pulls from and how the fender directs the air.

The filter in my wifes 4runner doesn't get dirty, but the one in my VW does. As you said the airflow is MUCH higher on the truck, I am sure someone could do the math on a smaller gas engine but the stock 5. 9 turbo moves around 800 CFM at full tilt.

The filter looks normal, and I think people don't say anything because it looks normal. I will be curious how this effects it.

I have a 3" PVC home depot CAI on my truck and most my air comes thru that and I still get a very grimed up filter. The holes on the bottom will increase the air pulled from the engine bay (and based on testing that is HOT HOT air), but still for as dirty as the filter gets the entire passenger side of the engine bay would be the exact same after 130K miles, IMHO.

The exhaust brake won't have an effect that far into the system, air is still moving thru the motor just a lot slower, especially with the stock cam. With my aftermarket cam that has a bit more overlap than stock (enough that I see the IAT temp rise a few degrees with the EB On) and when I pulled the intake plate last spring the soot from EB reverse flow is only at the #4 cylinder (straight shot to the EB) and only a couple of inches. There isn't enough back-flow to get anything to the air filter. The air only goes backwards for a few degrees, then flows normal again.

 

[cerberusiam]

Does any one have this oil on the filter issue That HAS NO EXAUST brake?

Yep, that is what my filter looks like after about 10k. I have holes in the bottom of the box and just figured it was typical for what is floating around under the hood. If I did not wash my engine down frequently it would look like the filter.

Now you have me wondering because my truck will slowly lose the AC charge over a year and nobody has found an obvious leak yet.

 

[mfurrh55]

I don't have oil all over mine like that and i do have an exhaust brake,and 118,000 miles

 

[HHhuntitall]

FWIW, I've replaced several of those lines that run behind the air filter box... . they'll rub either on the fender or on the AC box, and end up with a hole. I recently did one on an '06 that had never been touched, but it lost charge in just one day..... I pressurized with CO2 and found the leak behind the box. I work on a lot of these things, and looking for wear areas in the AC lines is one of the things I look for. Just a simple piece of rubber, a slight tweak to the line, or a wrapping with plastic protectant can go a long ways to keeping it going.....

Also, just so you guys don't miss it, there is a quick connection behind the air box. There are actually two lines that run from the firewall to the condenser in front of the intercooler... ... One is all aluminum, the other has a short section of rubber hose in it... ...