# Ariens EFI oil leak



## BTM4 (Feb 12, 2016)

Hoping to get some feedback. Purchased an efi platinum 24 last year from a dealer. The dealer assembled and prepped for me. I never ended up needing to use the blower last winter, so in the early spring I ran the machine dry with some sea foam treated gasoline. Fast forward to today, I moved the snowblower from one part of my garage to the other, so I could charge the efi battery, as the manual suggests charging every 3 months during storage. After the charge was completed, I started to move the snowblower back to where I store it, but realized there was an area on the floor where the snowblower had leaked oil onto the floor while it was sitting for about 24 hours while the battery was charging.

I am not mechanically inclined, so I wanted to see if anyone knew what might be the cause. From the best I can tell, it looks like the breathe tube that attaches to the exhaust valve (I think that's what it is, could be wrong) has some wetness where the tube enters the valve. It looks like maybe the oil was running down the outside of the breathe tube and onto the floor. Is this normal after moving the snowblower around? I had never seen any oil previously, although I store the snowblower on a black rubber mat so I may have overlooked it. 

Here are some pictures to help show what I am talking about:


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## BTM4 (Feb 12, 2016)

One more thing. When I unhooked the efi battery cable connection so that I could attach the cable to the battery charger, I noticed there is brown gunk inside the plastic connector. This is urelated to the oil leak, but could this be another issue, my concern is why is there gulk in there and could it prevent he battery from working? Attaching pictures to help show what I am talking about.


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## jtclays (Sep 24, 2010)

The


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Agree with JT, the "stuff" on the electrical connector is likely dielectric grease.
The oil leak is odd, I'm actually surprised that they "vent" it to the atmosphere. The latest OHV engines I've seen have that "tube" connected to the air intake assembly. I'll check my new Honda and Yamaha engines (just for my own curiosity).


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## BTM4 (Feb 12, 2016)

Just checked the oil level and that looks right where it should be. I kept a white shirt under the snowblower to see if I spotted any more leaking and no oil has leaked since I charged the battery. The only other thing I noticed was the "non removable plastic plug" (had to look at the engine diagram to see what it was) that connects to the cyl cover, looked like it was somewhat wet or greasy. I rubbed the white shirt over the plug and a little bit of fluid did get on the shirt. Not sure if maybe this plug isn't on completely tight, or maybe this was just some sort of grease.

I guess if I can't duplicate the oil leaking onto the floor, I will hope that it was just something that happened from me moving the snowblower around in my garage. It's just strange because its not like I was tipping the machine over or anything, simply tilting it back so the bucket was off the ground and directing it to the other side of my garage.


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## jtclays (Sep 24, 2010)

BTM4 said:


> "non removable plastic plug" (had to look at the engine diagram to see what it was) that connects to the cyl cover, looked like it was somewhat wet or greasy. I rubbed the white shirt over the plug and a little bit of fluid did get on the shirt. Not sure if maybe this plug isn't on completely tight, or maybe this was just some sort of grease.
> 
> 
> > Gotta


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## BTM4 (Feb 12, 2016)

jtclays said:


> BTM4 said:
> 
> 
> > "non removable plastic plug" (had to look at the engine diagram to see what it was) that connects to the cyl cover, looked like it was somewhat wet or greasy. I rubbed the white shirt over the plug and a little bit of fluid did get on the shirt. Not sure if maybe this plug isn't on completely tight, or maybe this was just some sort of grease.
> ...


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## jtclays (Sep 24, 2010)

Ahh, t


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