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TDI Turbo issues - lots of smoke


Mulvv
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Hi Guys,

apologies if this is in the wrong section. I have a Y reg TDI with 150k on the clock and on the motorway comign home from work yesterday the turbo completely stopped boosting and the car started pouring white smoke out the exhaust. I was about 5 or 6 miles from home so after pulling over to check for any really bad sounds I carried on home and now the car wont start. On the drive home the car was fine apart from the smoke and the incredible sluggishness. 

Other than that the issue is with the turbo I haven't got a clue what the issue could be, has anyone come accross this sort of issue before? I noticed a previous thread on here someone having the lack of boost but there was no mention of the massive plumes of smoke and inability to start up afterwards. The turbo appears to be spinning up but it sounding a lot more whiney than normal. 

I'd love to keep the car going which I'm sure anyone who has ever driven a TDI will appreciate.  Assuming it is just an issue with the turbo does anyone have an idea of how much it would cost to replace? Are there any other things that may have been damaged by the turbo leaking oil into them?

Thanks

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Get the codes read with vcds.

Check static timing is right and that it hasnt jumped a tooth as white smoke is usually unburnt fuel so timing issue or duff injectors but can be head gasket as said above, you need to smell the smoke to find out which but that's tricky if it isnt starting.

Take off the cam cover and make sure the injectors are seated right and cam lobes etc look normal.

Remove turbo pipe and manually check the shaft for play in / out and radially and that it spins without obstruction.

Compression test. Would be 2nd choice in the list but likely you wont have the tool and it will cost money.

 

Edit: did your oil light flicker or come on at all on the drive home?

 

 

Edited by Sausage
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Hi guys, thanks for the help!

smoke was white/greyish but smelt very much like burning oil. Oil light came on and it burned through quite a bit of oil in the 6 miles home and the oil light beeped and came on just before I pulled over.  After it wouldnt start I topped the oil up and let it sit and managed to get it to start on its own again with yet more smoke but now all I'm getting is the starter motor chugging over. 

Another thing worth noting is that I've since realised the car has done 25k since the last oil and filter change (less than 9 months, I just do a lot of miles) which I know could have clogged the turbo full of crap and worn away at bearings. 

When it was driving it had the same flat and sluggish response as my father in laws Golf SDI which leads me to believe the fault lies purely within the turbo. 

I work full time and don't have the daylight ours or an indoor workspace to start taking the engine apart (plus the last engine I took to bits was a rover K series so I'm pretty sure a TDI would completely pickle my head) so was going to take it into a specialist to get looked at but don't want to be forking out a fortune, does anyone have any idea of how much a new/reconditioned turbo would be fitted? 

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Probably turbo but no point buying another until confirmed unless the time argument counts for more than having a spare turbo siting about if it isnt that.

Ecu can kick it into limp modes which feel exactly like very little or no boost so you cant just assume it is tbh.

Bought a Mondeo tdci with no boost years ago, compressor seemed all right for play, but despite that turned out to be snapped turbo shaft, that was a year old recon unit with 1K receipt, you must prime oil feed before starting engine on replacement turbo otherwise it will have a short life.

Top end will need inspection if it got low on oil anyway before spending out.

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check for oil in the intercooler if it has one or oil in the air inlet manifolds, its not uncommon to see it looking oily there there are issues if you can get a cupfull out of it, white smoke is possibly unburnt diesal vapour, if the turbo is failing then your getting less air into engine resulting in overfueling, sometimes it can get really bad and start knocking sounding like big end bearings have gone

to cheer you up heres my turbo, or whats left of it from a 1.9 polo

 

Turbo.jpg

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Ok guys thanks for the replies.  Decided that I'm getting the car back on the road no matter what but its probably going to take a while so went out and picked up a MK4 Golf TDI over the weekend to keep me moving until I can get this sorted. 

I spoke to Turbo force in Preston and they dont have any remanufactured turbos in stock for the lupo tdi but recommended a couple of local garages who may be able to identify the issue and send my current turbo in for a rebuild with them if it needs doing.  Not even gonna attempt to do any work on the turbo myself, theres a good 70k of life left in my lupo so don't want to bugger anything else up. 

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I said 70k left as anything after 220k I'd take as a bonus, I know they do go higher although I wouldnt like to have to rely on any car above 200k as a daily driver.

At the minute my biggest restriction is time and space, car is currently parked up on my parents driveway and my only real opportunity to do anything on it is evenings where I'd have about an hours light. Now I've got a car for now I'm gonna try and get the turbo off when we start getting longer evenings and try and work out the issue, although I am quite tempted to try getting a second hand turbo, cleaning it up a bit myself and just doing a swap to see if that could fix it. 

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Unfortunately for me its a number which is directly proportionate to the number of 25k oil change intervals and speedbumps that didn't get spotted until its too late which my car is subjected too.  Hopefully now I've got the golf as a workhorse I'll be able to just use my lupo as a funmobile when its up and running again. 

Bit of an update, I'm now in the process of completing purchase on a house with a decent garage space, so will have a decent space to start dismantling cars within a few months if all goes well. I'm assuming I'll be back on here a lot when the time comes! I had a quick look over the weekend at my parents and got the engine running again and aside from the plumes of steam/smoke coming out of it and the weird noise the turbo was making it seemed OK, I'm pretty tempted to try and get a second hand turbo from a scrappy and swap em over to see. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 31/03/2017 at 1:47 PM, Mulvv said:

I said 70k left as anything after 220k I'd take as a bonus, I know they do go higher although I wouldnt like to have to rely on any car above 200k as a daily driver.

At the minute my biggest restriction is time and space, car is currently parked up on my parents driveway and my only real opportunity to do anything on it is evenings where I'd have about an hours light. Now I've got a car for now I'm gonna try and get the turbo off when we start getting longer evenings and try and work out the issue, although I am quite tempted to try getting a second hand turbo, cleaning it up a bit myself and just doing a swap to see if that could fix it. 

Don't give up on it yet. My lupo Tdi's on 260k now and still bang on. It looks like an absolute wreck now but it's purely for munching up motorway miles and it does that well. It's brilliant because it's worth bugger all and costs basically nothing to tax. I fit the cheapest of the cheapest tyres to it, i think i paid brand new, £22 per tyre, fitted, and i get 20k out of of the front ones, they are Revolo branded or something like that?

If your after a new Turbo for yours then buy one on Ebay cheap. You could fit one yourself for £100.

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