How do you drain oil out of an intercooler?
Intercoolers and charge air coolers frequently accumulate pooled oil and oily water that cannot be reached with standard vacuum pumps due to kinks in the boost pipes. This trapped fluid can freeze in cold weather and disrupt normal vehicle operation, such as preventing the car from shifting into higher gears.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Attempting to thread a vacuum pump through the boost sensor hole
- 2Removing the front bumper to physically access and remove the intercooler
- 3Using a mixture of Simple Green and water to slosh around inside, followed by water rinses and isopropyl alcohol.
- 4Using Purple Power HD for degreasing and a final rinse with distilled water.
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I can't get to the intercooler to drain it, and I've tried threading a vacuum pump through the boost sensor hole but it can't make it past the kinks in the boost pipe”source ↗
“Installing a catch can on my Chevy Cruze so I’m thinking it’s probably a good idea to remove the charge air cooler and clean it out.”source ↗
“On 2nd gen Chevy Cruzes it’s pretty common for the charge air cooler to be full of oily water. The last 2 winters I’ve had no 6th gear for months as it freezes up inside and doesn’t let the car shift into 6th gear to keep rpm’s higher.”source ↗