Impending turbo failure?

Sounds like a boost leak to me, however if it is the turbo going - then there's only one thing for it... Stage 2 Hybrid :D
 
Well I haven't found anyone that can take a look before the 12th..
Is it worth pootling along for 2 weeks, or best not to drive it?
Or, drive as normal and wait for something to give.
 
mjt said:
Well I haven't found anyone that can take a look before the 12th..
Is it worth pootling along for 2 weeks, or best not to drive it?
Or, drive as normal and wait for something to give.
Click to expand...

You are better not to drive it as if you do have a leak the turbo will be getting hammered trying to produce enough boost to the intake. This is how a lot of turbos fail as by the time they can't produce the boost and the ECU drops to limp mode the damage can already be done.
 
But if I don't have a leak and it's just the turbo..? ;)

Either way, found another dealer that will have a look on Thursday. Anyone fancy a bet on them saying it's the turbo even if it's really a boost leak? :p
When I phoned my dealer to book it in, he seemed a bit irritated. He sounded adamant that it was the turbo and not any of the pipes..
 
Matt82 said:
just drive it gentle, keep off boost as much as possible. youll be alright
Click to expand...
I tried this, it's virtually impossible. Boost kicks in around 1500 or even lower, and keeping below this makes it impossible to keep with the flow of traffic, and unfortunately most of my journeys are in town.

Dangerous Dave said:
It could still be the turbo however the last thing you want is the impellor blade to break up and make its way through the intercooler and into the engine. You would have to be unlucky for that to happen but I always like to play it safe.
Click to expand...
It shouldn't get past the intercooler, but if the noise or smoke got worse then obviously I would turn it off there and then and call for recovery.

In layman's terms, why would a leak cause excessive smoke yet no reduction in boost?
When a pressure pipe blew off last year there wasn't any smoke, although it was the one between the air filter and the engine..
 
mjt said:
Yes
Click to expand...

Ahh, I always presumed it was a petrol turbo. Whoever put a Cupra badge and 4WD on a diesel wants shooting tbh... unless it's fairly tuned.

In that case, it could well be a boost leak. Petro turbos don't tend it smoke if there's a leak, diesels are another story.
 
mjt said:
In layman's terms, why would a leak cause excessive smoke yet no reduction in boost?
When a pressure pipe blew off last year there wasn't any smoke, although it was the one between the air filter and the engine..
Click to expand...
the turbo pulls in air pass the air flow meter

the computer calculates fuel and delivers that to the engine

the air flowed by the turbo is leaked.

lots of fuel. not a lot of air

smoke
 
mjt said:
Could too much oil cause turbo problems?
Click to expand...

it can do yes, but has to be quite a bit over.
turbo's are designed to have a freeflowing drain if the oil level is above where the drainage from the turbo meets the sump then you will be restricting the oil drainage in the turbo thus pressurising the oil seals in the turbo and causing them to blow oil into the intake, burning oil and producing smoke.

though for this to happen your oil level usually has to be quite a bit above maximum
Regards
Andy
 
I know that turbos need proper cooling after a spirited drive, but do they also need time to 'warm up', or is hard driving from cold only bad for the engine?

When the car was in Norway, it was mainly doing long trips of over 30 minutes of ~50 mph minimum.
Here, it's a lot of stop-go town traffic where the engine barely has enough time to get warm. Obviously there is more strain on the turbo as it's being used more, but is there more to it?

Unless, my lack of cooling the turbo after normal town traffic has ****ed it :o
 
mjt said:
I know that turbos need proper cooling after a spirited drive, but do they also need time to 'warm up', or is hard driving from cold only bad for the engine?

When the car was in Norway, it was mainly doing long trips of over 30 minutes of ~50 mph minimum.
Here, it's a lot of stop-go town traffic where the engine barely has enough time to get warm. Obviously there is more strain on the turbo as it's being used more, but is there more to it?

Unless, my lack of cooling the turbo after normal town traffic has ****ed it :o
Click to expand...

cooling the turbo after a run is not as important on a derv as petrol as the exhaust gasses of diesel are far less than that of a petrol meaning the turbo gets nowhere near as hot

Regards
Andy

edit: if anything the vnt turbos on diesels need to be driven quite hard regularly or else the vnt mechanism gets coked up and seizes, this is the dreded turbo failure that happens most commonly on modern diesels however if your handy with spanners you can strip the turbo down and clean the vnt system easy enough, Most garages will not do this due to time and its easier for them to charge you 1k for a new unit.
 
Last edited:
Could be that the previous owner didn't let it cool after his vmax runs on the autobahn.

It's always been quite smokey on startup, usually a nice cloud of light blue smoke.
Early warning signs perhaps..

I should able to get a rebuild for a few hundred, so I'll definitely investigate that route if it's not the pipes.
 
I didn't realise you had a derv.

I'd go with Matt.
Black smoke = over fuelling and how could that possibly be... boost leak!

Doesn't VAGCOM have a check for this though? Boost requested/boost received kinda thing? The garage would have had to take it for a drive with it attached to check, though.
 
Cheers for the advice, if anyone cares, there was a nice little rip in the pipe between the intercooler and the turbo ;)
Not sure how the dealer missed it first time, perhaps it was too fresh?

Anyway thanks to OcUK ;)

On another note, there's a fair amount of of oil around the pipe seals. Is this normal, the dealer seems to think so..
It's not using any, so I guess it's just sitting there..
 
Yeah it was black and thick, proper diesel smoke :D

It rarely does that normally, and it's never as thick.
It does blow out some blue smoke on startup though, warm or not.
Could that be the excess oil in the pipes? It doesn't use oil at all.
 
Ah, yea, no boost can = over-fueling.

Maybe there's some oil in the intercooler still? I've seen enough sit there for a derv to actually run on, and over-rev for a minute or so, completely out of control. Makes the workshop pretty opaque.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom