Should I worry?

[R2D2]

Where the ducting from the airbox meets the inlet side of the engine it is held by two large silver bands that tighten. At my last service 6000 miles ago we noticed that the bands and that area seemed to have a thin deposit of Oil (?) around it and that muck was sticking to the area. Whilst checking my oil this morning I noticed that it was getting slightly messy again even though it had been cleaned with some aerosol at the service. Is this just normal engine bay muck or a problem. There have been no oil leaks as far as I know and the car doesnt drop oil or seem to use too much, just its normal service interval oil changes?

 

[Satch]

Power Steering reservior or similar anywhere nearby? Used to get same effect on a Vectra and eventually worked out it was a small amount of fluid seeping out from under the cap and being blown back over the engine.

Does not take a lot to create a nasty oily road dust coating

 

[jimmy]

If it is around the air inlet pipe then it is probably coming from the engine/crankcase breather, this is ducted into the air inlet so that the engine sucks in and burns the oil vapour. Not unusual to get some oil around the joins, you could check and tighten the jubilee clips.

 

[R2D2]

Cheers Jimmy, thats kind of what I hoped it was going to be. I'll retighten the clips and clean it up again and keep an eye on it. Thanks again