I have 96 turbo, and the other day I replaced the plugs. I noticed in many of the wells on top of the valve cover, there was dark oil in them (only surrounding the middle three cylinders). No oil on the boots, or on the plugs themselves. Curiously, there was not a drop of oil on the plastic wire cover, which I would think would indicate the oil is slowly dripping from somewhere, as opposed to being forced out under pressure. I am not burning any oil between oil changes.

My buddy has a 95 turbo, and he was curious, so he popped his plastic cover, and lo and behold, he had oil around the middle three cylinders as well, and his plastic cover was also clean. He is burning about 1/2 a liter between oil changes.

Has anyone else run across this?
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'96 855 Wagon, 200k (and formerly 97 850, 120k)