Borescope inspection transmission in park or neutral (2017 automatic Tiguan)

[naimc]

My neighbors 2017 Tiguan is burning a bit of oil. On his last oil change his was missing 2 quarts of oil ! During covid he also let the same thing happen.

I offered to help him remove his spark plugs and inspect his cylinders with borescope to see if the walls are scored or still have the cross-hatch.

1. Question with the automatic transmission in Park is it fully "decoupled" from the motor ? or should it be in neutral ? ( I have always been manual transmission driver hence my inclination to put the car in neutral. )
2. To turn over the engine when the spark plugs are out, turn the crankshaft over clockwise ?

Thanks

 

[ctechbob]

Just leave it in park. The only thing you'll be turning is the torque converter. Won't hurt a thing for all the more you're going to rotate it.

The engine runs in park, so you turning it over by hand isn't any different.

 

[Audiman]

How many miles does it take to use a quart of oil?

Only turn the engine clockwise.

 

[atikovi]

Would be much simpler if he checked and added oil more often.

 

[LazyDog]

If the car has a turbo, this can also caused the oil loss.

 

[naimc]

So I got my neighbour to load up on Pennzoil Platinum Euro 5w-40 which he did a few weeks ago as it was on sale in Canada. Then I had to remind him a few times that for maximum efficient the oil had to be transferred from the containers into his engine !

Its almost winter here , cold so I got the heater, its nice to stay warm.

We drained his oil out, it was missing about 1 liter. the oil black, like a diesel engine, I think this oil was about 2 years old close to 10 000K, it was was missing 2 liters this september and the oil change was a I got to this soon, almost december still not done.

We then filled it with Castrol 5w30 mineral oil and with one can of BG EPR, let is run at 1200 RPM for about 25 min.

Drained the oil, it was dark but not as dark as the 1st drain. But we also saw entire clumps of sludge in our drain pan !

out came the plugs , the 1st one from the left side , was foiled with oil.

close-up of the plug 1. My neighbors did not let me turn his engine over and do a full borescoping,

Cylinder 1 clearly had oil in it, puddled on bottom.

Different cylinder , Not sure if that is a puddle of oil or fuel ?

I wanted to do the full scoping of each cycler turning the engine over but "owner" was not interested , Oh ok.

The valve cover also had leaks all over. We put in new spark plugs. On a positive note the engine no longer sounds like diesel after we filled it up with a the new Pennzoil and new oil filter.

My job as a good samaritan is done here. Owner has got a 3 more cans of the BG EPR which he should be using at each oil change, he also wants to change the PVC valve as a preventive measure ( or test the current one and replace it if it's defective)

 

[sloinker]

A bad oil separator/pcv causes oil ingestion and can lead to a rear main seal failure. Change it.

 

[naimc]

A bad oil separator/pcv causes oil ingestion and can lead to a rear main seal failure. Change it.

Yeah we started watching Youtube on the topic of this complex PVC / oil separator and wow is it every complex.

Last week on when the owner had the car on idle I removed the oil cap and according to video I saw there should have been a suction force pulling the cap down, it was the opposite rather poof poof poof of air trying to escape.

Today we just opened the the top and replaced the diaphragm. is was not cracked but it was stiff.

With the new one in place on idle the oil cap is sucked down by the vacuum so that is a positive change. We degreased the engine and light pressure washed it so in a few months if the engine is still leaking it will visible.

 

[The_Eric]

The oil on #1 piston was probably from a leaking rocker cover gasket or whatever seals engine oil out of the spark plug wells. Your arrow is pointing to oil on the coil, which is an obvious sign of leakage and unless you vacuumed the oil out prior to removing the spark plug, it's all going to go in the cylinder. To me, the porcelain of #1 plug looks similar enough to the rest which wouldn't indicate any sort of major oil burning issue.

 

[CarDoc66]

The oil on #1 piston was probably from a leaking rocker cover gasket or whatever seals engine oil out of the spark plug wells. Your arrow is pointing to oil on the coil, which is an obvious sign of leakage and unless you vacuumed the oil out prior to removing the spark plug, it's all going to go in the cylinder. To me, the porcelain of #1 plug looks similar enough to the rest which wouldn't indicate any sort of major oil burning issue.

Absolutely, that plug in the picture is covered in oil externally. Spark plug tubes are filling with oil.

 

[CarDoc66]

Its almost winter here , cold so I got the heater, its nice to stay warm.

Nice ambiance for your oil change!

 

[naimc]

Owner was driving today and he encountered a slight momentary power loss / hesitation at highway speeds.

The Check - Engine came on

I did a scan with Blue Drive and its P0327 - Knock Combustion vibration Sensor 1 circuit low Bank 1 , Confirmed code which we cleared but another one is pending ( same PO327)

I told owner that a "knock" can be cause by bad gas, this car calls for premium fuel.

Owner uses regular and today it was close to empty and he put in 10 liters of regular at a random gas station. I would tend to think its bad fuel and I recommend he fill up with tank of premium again.

We opened the hood listen to the car at idle and its fine, we still have the slight vacuum pull on the oil cap when we try to pull it off.

Edit , Starting to think that loss of power might be been caused by the car going in limp mode, because it lost contact with the Knock Sensor, I think that's what P0327 means. Now after replacing the PVC diagram we did pressure wash the engine, Light pressure washing with a plastic bag over the alternator. I bet that water got in the knock sensor connection causing a bad connection, got to find it , open it and spray it down with WD40.