Hi gang,
I have an 08 SS (5spd)with 3K miles on it, and no mods. I discovered an oily residue leaking out of the air pipe from the outlet side of the turbo. The leak is at the joint at the front of the engine where the plastic pipe connects to the intercooler inlet hose. There was enough residue that it was running down the hose onto the frame and had a drop waiting to drip off. I am suspecting either oil leaking from the turbo bearing seal, or possibly from the PCV system.
Has anyone else seen this? I suppose it could be assembly oil or something, but it was enough to run down the pipe and down the frame. If it's leaking out of the pipe, I wonder how much is actually going into the intercooler and engine. My exhaust pipe seems quite black, but I haven't noticed any oil smoke when the car is running. I haven't seen a significant consumption of oil.
I took it to a dealer and they concluded the usual- no problem found. They put some dye in the oil and told me to run it another thousand miles so they could check and see what happens.
If anyone's car has had the same symptom, I would like to hear about it.
Thatch Seattle

 

You did the right thing taking it to the dealer, but I have no idea. My guess would have been the turbo bearing seals as well. The black in the exhaust is common on DI engines and not an issue.
I am curious to what the others say?

 

It's normal. We have the same thing in the PT turbo and the Neon SRT-4. We install a catch can between the pcv valve and the intake manifold. I have a Greddy catch can and empty it every 6k or so. You'd be surprised how much oil gets trapped in the catch can. This is a catch can on my '03 PT GT. It's the round blue thing in the middle of the pic. This catch can is actually used with compressor air lines to trap moisture in the lines. It is around $15 at Walmart.






This is a web page of the Greddy catch can that I have though mine is a little different cause it's older.

http://www.optionimports.com/oilcatchcan.html

 

Good post. I've seen lots of catch can setups. But do they have any performance benefit? Just keeping the head from getting all gunked up, maybe? That's one thing I've never researched.

 

Keep the intake manifold, intercooler hose and intercooler gunk free. I've seen several ounces of oil come out of a intercooler hose

 

Catch can coming soon!

 

Oh No, one more mod I have to make
Can anyone explain where to hook it up? Did you simply cut the line from the PVC valve (I assume we have one of those?) and put the can in line?
Anyone else use the moisture separator for compressors?

 

Inline. I've used both the moisture separator and the regular catch can. You have to empty the separator more often. I had to use this on my PT GT because there was absolutely no room for the Greddy catch can. I'm using the catch can on my Neon SRT-4 because I have the room and I don't have to empty it nearly as often.

 

Lets see if a vendor can get a group buy together...

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/general-hhr-4/catch-can-group-buy-18875/

 

Thanks for the replies. I think the catch can is a good idea. I wonder if there should be a drain bottle of some kind at the low point in the system, such as at the outlet of the intercooler.
I haven't actually heard anyone else say they have seen the same thing on their HHR. Are other people seeing this, or is there something different about mine? IT was literally dripping down the hose and onto the frame. Maybe my connection needs to be tightened.
Thatch