Misterious rod on Turbo engine rear side

[TB2]

So I went to the MOT recheck last week and while I took care of everything they had said the first time, that bastard found yet another thing to nag about. So I'll have to go a third time... The reason was a bit of oil on the back side of the engine. Great. I didn't have time to take care of things but today I crawled under the car to have a look:



There's this rod covered in oil. It seems to me that it just holds that big lump of metal (the one in the top right of the picture - what is it?) to the engine together with a second rod further up. But it seems like oil's coming from around there as further up the engine is clean. How come? I looked in the repair manual but couldn't find any clues. There's another screw just next to where the hydraulic pump is located which also is slightly oily.

This whole MOT thing is costing me so many nerves (and moneys)... It's a 21 years old diesel for gods sake, of course it's oily....

[mat_fenwick]

That's the stud which holds on the exhaust manifold. There is a spacer (piece of tube) between the nut and the manifold.
The oil is probably coming from the cam cover gasket, they all tend to leak slightly and is IMO nothing to worry about unless you are leaving oily patches behind you.
The reason the top one isn't showing signs of oil is probably because the lower one may be vertically underneath where the oil will drip from.

[DavidRutherford]

is IMO nothing to worry about

Unfortunately in some countries (most noticeably Germany, but some others too) an engine oil leak is an MOT fail.

I'd have it thoroughly steam cleaned and then nip back for the re-test before any leak shows!

[TB2]

Thanks guys. I'll just try letting someone steam clean the engine and retry.