Tjap

Today was a nightmare, a bad dream.
I drove my Cayenne Turbo 955 (2005) for 2 years, and I always knew it could break down in a way I would not be able to fix it.
I enjoyed every minute with it. And secretly hoped my Cayenne was special, and not vulnerable in the way I always read about, in this forum.
The 2 years I drove it, I had some troubles with it, but was always able to fix it, or to find some one who could fix it for me.
My girlfriend left, the Cayenne stayed.
To compensate for losing her, I put all my free time, energy and money in the Cayenne.

Till today. A rude awakening happened today.

I drove past a motorist, and saw him waving at me, he was trying to point me at something, and I instantly knew, it had somethimg to do with the car I was driving. I instantly knew, this was the end, that today would be my last ride with it.

I went straight to the side of the road, to check if I could visibly see, what the motor driver was trying to tell me.
But even before being able to stop safely, I smelled something, burning oil, and then I saw smoke from under the hood.
Then I stopped, and backed up into a parking lot in less then 15seconds. Engine out. Smoke. A quick check outside, and yes, the bad dream I dreamt about, was becoming reality: Loads of engine oil around me.
Another quick look around me, taught me nobody had seen me, or was looking at me:
A strange feeling of embarrassment overcame me.
Back in the car. Smoke a sigarette and calm down, before taking action. First call my mum, I was on my way to her, I would not make it to her house today, I realised..

Tjap

After clarify to my mom, why I wouldn't come to her house today, I called the towing service.
Because I had been able to park the car in a safe spot, it took them a full hour to come.

During the wait, I cleaned the oil around and under the car with a towel I had in the car. What a mess.

I had the plan, not yet to investigate the problem: It was bad, that was enough to know for that moment. The plan was to let the car being towed to my house, and start right away with removing my 1-week-old 8Gb/128Gb android car stereo, and replacing the stock PCM.
Damage control, before a potential old iron/scrap dealer would pick her up today or tomorrow for a few hundred euro's.

The towing company came, and brought us home, and towed it into a public parking spot, next to my house.
I felt happy, I made it home, and had her next to my house, a spot where she could stay for months, if necessary. A spot close to my tools, so I could investigate, the moment I would feel ready for that.

That moment didn't take long. Went into my house, and had 2 cans of Heineken. That's all it would take:

First observations I made:
-Car was not leaking anymore, probably all the oil was out already.
-Although when it happened, lot's of smoke, but engine never got overheated. I stopped in time, all temp gauges in the MFI were normal temperature.
-No alarms in MFI, no DTC's, or signals from the car there was anything wrong.
-It all happened within a minute, first signs of smoke, and me cutting off the engine, BUT.. In that minute, the engine started making a ticking sound, which confirmed in my thoughts, a cilinder gasket had blown.
-Opening up the engine hood: Oil has blown to the inside of the hood, above bank 1 cilinder 4.
A big oil mess, it must have been with quite some force.
I dismantled all beauty covers under the hood, and the airfilter&housing and the gascover housing.
-The oil had blown to the enginehood from what seems the vacuum pump. The 2 simular big devices under the hood, those are the vacuum pumps, am I right?
It was installed with 3 long screws, a electrical connector and a rubber hose. The hose I did not remove, I put the pump to the side.
-another little pump I saw, I believe this is the high pressure gasoline pump. Also oil on that, but I did not uninstall that.
-I removed the covers under the car. Loads of oil everywhere. All at the bank 1 side, but everywere from front to back, which concerned me.

One moment I thought I might be lucky, a broken rubber hose or something. Till I saw the underside of the car. So much spread all over, I think it can't be just a hose.

I left it at that, tomorrow I will investigate further...
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reachme

Feel so bad for you right now. Take pictures once you get it cleaned up.
Still holding out hope this is not as bad as you think it is, good that you reacted quickly

targa72e

So the two items on the back of the engine are a emission only device. The pump extra air into the exhaust on start up. They have no connection to anything with oil. There are lots of oil lines outside a turbo engine. They are almost all stainless steel so not likely to break.Also cylinder head not very likely to blow oil passage to outside engine. Typically head gaskets blow from cylinder pressure so more likely to have oil mix with coolant or get sucked into combustion chamber. I would check the oil level and if low fill to full. Then check if the engine will run and if leaking figure out where its coming from. First thought of where to check is all the plastic hoses that are part of the emission system as they are prone to fail and will leak oil all over the top of the engine. Unless you ran the engine very low on oil (there is a sensor for oil lever) you probably just need to fix the leak and continue driving.

john

Avec

Before signing the death certificate, Clean up the oil and see where it is coming from. It sounds like you had a catastrophic hose failure somewhere. As for the new noise, with the loss of oil pressure, your lifters may be the issue, which may be remedied once they have oil pressure again.

Klaird928

Well told story. You should pursue a writing career. I was on the edge of my seat. The final chapter should read, I filled with oil to the full level, fired it up and saw where the leak was coming from. I replaced the hose or gasket and me and the CTT lived happily ever after. The Cayenne is not dead. You stopped soon enough. You did the right thing. I really did enjoy reading the story.

ekstroemtj

It’s not the time to give up. Could be one of the many hoses which get bad. Like previous member wrote. Clean as good as you can. Check oil level. Fill up oil what is necessary. Check if it leaking with engine starting. Start the engine. Listen for unusual noises in the very first Moments. If there are some. Stop the engine. Maybe you can cover the engine with a white piece of material. Be carefully that this will not be catched by the belt in front of the engine. Maybe if you cover the top of the engine, oil it will not spray around and it’s more easy for you to spot the place where it’s coming from

TRINITONY

I read it very late last night after having a few adult beverages, and thought it was a drama movie (saw snowman the day before) or book I was reading.... I was going to respond but decided I'd wait to see what others had to say...lol.


OP...good luck on getting it sorted out!

hatchetf15

OP - Tough break. Clean off the oil and take a peak at a couple of spots: 1) intake manifold supply at top of oil pump and 2) lines coming off the oil system heat exchanger. Hot oil under system pressure will get everywhere. So all is not lost. Odds are good you’ll find the problem soon after you start meticulously cleaning the engine bay.

Tjap

All, thank you so much for your responses to my melodramatic written topic..
People close to me, don't understand why I would be emotional about a car: "It's just a car", is their response, ever since I own the car.
Well, to me, it is not just a car. She stood by me and stayed "loyal" to me in "bad" times. This car and the house stayed, while everything else in my life left and/or changed.
I kept going, till the day before yesterday, Cayenne also gave me "The sign", she wants to leave😢
It opened my eyes, it woke me up: Since this moment, I start to "feel" again, realizing that the other stuff is not "solved" yet. Trying to not think about things, doesn't equal to "having coped" with it..
Or maybe I should first loose everything, including Cayenne, before I can start "build" again, and I should let her go, also.
But not without a fight!!
So on topic:
Today I have time. To further investigate, to change the outcome of this chapter in my life.

Where to start..
-Cleaning the oil on her "insides". But doing this, without water-shorting the electrical connections.

-Filling her up with oil, till normal level. And starting her, to discover where the oil leak has its origin:
I already bought the oil, and for sure it will start, but not looking forward to the mess it will give..
After filling and starting her, she will "Bleed to Death" again, I am pretty sure about that, even if I cut off the engine right after starting it.
But I do realise, this is the only way for me to find the cause of the oil leak.
Stupid question: I have to reconnect the airfilter&housing, and the gas throttle housing, even when I start her for 20 seconds?
I guess the answer is "yes"

I am also in dubio if I should first remove the plastic wheel cover, to get a better sight of things..

The top of the engine is covered with oil, but also a lot of oil on the oil cooler(the steal ribbon device next to the oil filter?).
If the oil cooler is the cause, would it be able to cover the top of the engine? I would think not, but not sure.

The day before yesterday, when it happened, I made a picture of the oil cooler:
It seems, a blue plastic pipe was connected to it, which is not there anymore?

Edit: For extra photo+info.
Behind the vaccuumpomp, the plastic pipe, over there it seems to have sprayed the inside of the hood. But there are no oil lines there, only air lines?
Also it's far away from the oil cooler, which is very wet of oil also!?


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Avec

If the "leak" is high enough, and in front, it will get blown everywhere by the coolant fan. Hot oil has the viscosity of water. It will mist out like one of those cooling fans at the zoo

As for cleaning, get a couple cans of the engine degreaser - foaming will be best - and spray it down and hose it off. The electrical connections will be fine. I occasionally do this to just clean things up, and have never had an issue

Tjap

Ok, I cleaned her op as good as possible, and put the parts back together.
Tomorrow morning, when light again,
I will put oil in it, and give it a start. I did find some vacuumlines, with so much oil on it, I suspected them of being the cause. Somebody wrote to also check the vacuumlines,
but I can't understand how they could blow oil around..
Also made some pictures, it looks like when we see the oil on the katalysator, the oil is coming "from above" and dripping on it:



The Vacuumlines I suspect:


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BamaScoot

Just throwing this out there, could be completely wrong but...

If the vacuum pump seal gets blown out completely, oil would pour out the back side of the passenger head, correct? Because isn't the crankcase pressurized? And if there are other failures in the vacuum system (like the air-oil separator) then more oil would be coming through the crankcase?

I don't know that this would explain the massive amount of oil at issue, tho, but it sure looks like the problem is in that area.

Either way, I would absolutely not, under any circumstances, start the car until ALL the oil has been cleaned from the engine bay (regular engine degreased and a hose down with unpressurized water should work fine). Then I'd fill with oil and let sit overnight to see if the oil leaks while not pressurized. If it doesn't, then have a friend start the car while you look for leaks, and shut it off immediately when a leak is located or a nasty sound detected.

You can do this!

Tjap

I took you guys on my story, so I feel I need to tell you the progress I made.

Today I filled her with about 2 liters of engine oil, and fired her up for 3 seconds.
She started right away, she seemed happy to show me she was still alive.
After 3 secs I shut her of, had a quick peak above the engine, no oil, and quickly I went under the car, to see what was happening over there.

She was bleeding heavily, the oil was dripping out intensely.
I spent 30 minutes under the car, trying to pinpoint the source. About to give up: It seemed to come from the fan, which is not possible, and it seemed to come from a few coolant hoses, so not possible also.

I was about to give up, in an act of desperation, squeezed my hand in. This went easily because of the oil around, then I felt a hard plastic pipeline, with so much oil on it, I couldn't see it before.

With air bubbles on it.. Touching it, made it dripping oil, first time I felt happy to see that happening.
I really really hope I am not celebrating too early, but I have a good feeling about this :-)
This tube is well hidden behind lots of coolant lines, therefore very difficult to pinpoint.

I tried to make a picture of it, in the picture my finger touches it, also I put a red arrow towards it:


I had a good look, it is close to the rightside wheel, I will be able to access it after removing the wheel plastic fender/cover.

First a beer now. I was lying there in the full rain, people were running to their cars because of the pouring rain, they must declare me crazy🤭

Ps: Excuses my english, I am dutch, normally I don't speak English every day, let alone writing it.
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user 8298308

Keep us updated! This thread is the optimism I needed this week. Thank you for sharing.