My dad is visiting NC from CA,he towed his TT out here and I was looking over his truck, a 1999 CTD 2500 24 Valve diesel and noticed oil all over the bottom of the engine. It seems to be coming from a vent hose on the drivers side of the engine. There is a round piece that has a vent tube that comes out of it and proceeds down the front of the engine and then stops. Should oil be coming out of this vent? What is this? It looks the power steering unit bolts to the back side of it but it is hard to tell. The part does have the engine's serial number and ID plate attatched to it. Is this some type of oil pump? I don't want him heading back to CA if something is wrong. By looking underneath it looks like the oiul is coming out of this vent hose and then blowing back over the entire lower end of the motor and even up into the lower part of the ps unit, but it is not ps fluid. It seems to be a lot of oil but it could be months of build up. I would sure appreciate some advice.
Thanks
Kevin
PS THE engine was not low on oil but he just got it changed when he got here about 300 miles ago. When he got it changed the guy said it was low 1 quart, but this was walmart the guy would not know 1 quart low on a diesel verses 3 quarts. Thanks again for any help.

 

That would be the breather hose for the engine. It is normal for a certain amount of oil to be come out of it. It is not normally enough to make a difference between oil changes, but it does make a mess. My 2001 has a bottle at the end of the hose to "somewhat" catch the drips, but it still makes a mess. Some have extended the hose closer to the ground so it does not blow back on the bottom of the engine and tranny.

Unless you are loosing enough oil that it makes a difference on the stick, you have nothing to worry about.

 

Is there a bottle attached to the end of the vent hose? There should be if no one has removed it.
When was that last emptied, it could be full and puking oil all over down the front of the engine.
Thats what I would check first.

 

Not to worry.
That hose is the crankcase breather vent. I imagine it has built up over time and yes it really can make a mess out of the front of the motor, the underside of the motor and it will even collect on the fins of the radiator which will cause overheating if it gets bad enough. There are a bunch of threads and postings concerning remedies for extending the breather hose and ways of cleaning up the mess. The following years they put a bottle on the end to catch any built up oil and now have moved it to the rear of the motor on the newer trucks.

 

Thanks so much. Ihave a PSD and got scared when I saw all that oil under there. My dad does not keep a clean motor so this could be months of build up. There is no bottle on the end of the hose so the oil is going everywhere. I will go over to the dodge dealer and see if I can get one. How does the bottle stay on? Again I appreciate all the help!!!!

 

The 99 didn't have a bottle on the end. It would probably be easier and cheaper to just extend the hose by running it toward the rear of the motor. The main thing with doing that is to make sure the extended hose dosen't have any low places that will collect oil, thus blocking the route to vent. Not sure on how the factory bottle stayed on as I never had one. Try doing a Search on Breather tube, breather bottle, etc

 

Click here for a bunch of results from the search
Happy reading!

 

Whatever you do, do not be a good samaritan and wash his motor. That is how 99.9% of the fuel injection pump and electrical connection damages occur. If you need to clean the mess, use a bit of diesel and an old t-shirt and wipe it down.

As far as a bottle goes, use an old plastic ketchup bottle. Just clip it on to the hose end with a chunk of wire so there is plenty of room for air to escape, and when it gets too cruddy change it for another.

 

Boy you guys are making this a tough deal...

Yes... It's the crankcase vent tube... If you applied you brakes hard to avoid hitting a car or animal is enough to make the breather bottle spill a big mess down the front of the engine.



This will take care of the mess. I've never had a drop / puddle on the floor of my garage from this tube. No I don't have a catch bottle. (More pics in gallery)

As for pressure washing the engine I do it every weekend. Everything gets washed. Engine, trans, etc... The body of the truck gets a soapy cloth and a garden hose. No harm it washing the engine. Still looks new under the hood.

 

Better check your link ... I got a screen saying no matches...

 

Yeah,
I guess you can't post links to search results with the new software. Just type breather tube into the Search box at the top of the page if you want to read some of the threads, but at least now you know it's not a big problem.

 

If you deside to use rubber hose beware that it might swell up or get soft over time.

Make sure you clean up the radiator too after your little spill.

 

if you do wash the engine make shure it is OFF, if cold water hits a hot injection pump you could siez it. And then throw it away! spend 1200 for a new one