Oil residue on intake boot

[Nankumar Seewdat]

I noticed my 2002 Toyota echo seems to be burning a bit more oil than usual (I assume it’s burning it because its not leaking, I have checked everywhere) and when I was cleaning the throttle body I notices an oily residue on the rubber intake piece between the throttle body and the air filter, residue seems to start about a quarter way through where the pcv hose connects to it, could it be a bad pcv valve? It hasn’t been replaced since owned.

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[Andrew Phillips]

A little oil residue is normal in that location when there is oil vapor in the crankcase air that the PCV is venting.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Burning oil on an older vehicle like that is normal. Also the residue that you observed is not uncommon on an older vehicle like that due to the PCV system as suggested.

There really is little you can do beyond keeping an eye on the oil level and topping it off when necessary. I’ve written about this issue here.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/finding-and-fixing-leaks

Hopefully that provides some insight for you.

Keep us posted of any new developments and good luck.

[Nankumar Seewdat]

Thanks for the quick replies guys! I did not know that a bit of oil residue is normal (you learn something new everyday I guess) since we’re on the topic of oil, my echo burned alot of oil, I had done an oil change in which the oil was at the full mark, my dad drives about 500 kms a week all on highway. Came back the weekend with almost no oil in the pan, had to basically refill the whole thing. However now I notice the oil is staying constant with a little bit of burning. Could that be an internal problem?

[Andrew Phillips]

Clean any wet oil off of the engine and keep an eye on it for the next few days. If wet spots reappear, examine in those areas for signs of leakage. One often overlooked source of oil leak is out the end of the oil pressure sender/switch. Occasionally these will develop an internal fault and oil will leak right through them and out onto the ground. It usually only happens when driving, and doesn’t leak when parked, so no puddles show up under the car. You can see if this is a possibility if the wiring connected to the sender/switch is oily. Interestingly the sender/switch still works in the majority of cases.

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