Smoking, low oil pressure and no power whatsoever

[dazzygee]

Hey guys,

Just hoping you can confirm something for me more than anything.

I was out in my A3 (8pa sportback) 2005 with 180k on the clock last night. I was accelerating up to speed when i felt/heard a pop. Looked out my rear window and i was covering the road in smoke. i got a warning on my dash board saying "low oil pressure" and immediately stopped the car.

I assumed i had blown the clutch however. upon stopping the car i checked the oil which appeared now to be virtually empty (was fine 3 days ago), i took off the oil cap and it was smoking, the car then wouldnt turn over, it started to crank and stopped.

I added about a litre of oil waited 20 minutes and the car started again all be it a very very rough idle, the turbo has been making a "hooting owl noise" at both idle and low revs for the past year, however i didnt notice any power loss and the mechanic i got to look said it should be fine, its potentially just a noisy turbo as it was a recon.

I'm waiting for the mechanic to call but he seems to think it smelt like the turbo, from what ive described does this sound likely? Is there anything else it can be? and how much am i looking at for a repair roughly?

Thanks

 

[audismart]

Sounds like the turbo has gone kaput.

 

[Gazwould]

Yeah , turbo gone .

 

[dazzygee]

Sounds like the turbo has gone kaput.

Yeah , turbo gone .

Just got off the phone with the garage, you guys are correct, exhaust side has gone which is apparently common? £600 for replacement and fitting.

 

[hollows wife]

buy one cheaper and do it yourself is the other option.

 

[audismart]

buy one cheaper and do it yourself is the other option.

Or buy 2nd hand one from scrappy and buy 2 rebuild kits, get it re balanced replace and rebuild and balance the one you take off, keep as spare or sell on.

 

[dazzygee]

I wish i had the know how to do this myself probably would have been faster as he reckons its going to take him a week!!

 

[dazzygee]

Okay so the saga continues, I spoke to my mechanic yesterday who said he had fitted the new turbo, just had to do an oil and filter change and it should be ready to collect. He then called my back an hour later and claimed. he had taken the car on a test drive and the new remanufactured turbo from euro carparts had detonated, shattering the turbo housing. He said he was in first gear at around 10mph.

Whats the likelihood of this happening and has anyone ever heard of this before? to me it sounds like he has either done it incorrectly, or he hasnt finished and is trying to buy more time? What do you guys think

I know reman turbo's are essentially recons but i was led to believe that they were heavily tested and any potentially faulty parts replace?

Thanks

 

[audismart]

Who bought the turbo? If he bought then he replaces simple.
If you bought it? then it gets a bit tricky as he might charge you again to remove and fit.

 

[dazzygee]

Who bought the turbo? If he bought then he replaces simple.
If you bought it? then it gets a bit tricky as he might charge you again to remove and fit.

he bought it because i wanted him to cover if it failed, according to a phone call not that long ago, he spoke to euro who have told him to drop and the oil sump, replace the intercooler and flush the exhaust system. They seem to think that there were bits of the old turbo in the intercooler which blew up the new turbo.

He asked me to take the day off work tomorrow and go to his garage to help him out, so it basically sounds like he is trying to add up extra costs

 

[audismart]

Replace the intercooler? never heard that b4, will need a good clean out though as you may have some oil in it, at worst is the cat may be gunked up and need replacing, but most of that will burn off with a few good runs.
If he didnt clean out the system before the new turbo going on then all the oil would go back through the system again and any bits of the old charger that blew up.
You will need to clean out the throttle body and system too with some intake cleaner..

 

[SootySport]

To be honest £600 is too cheap for a new turbo, oil service and remove any metal fragments that have circulated around the I/Cooler and sump. The garage didn't do this and should have known the procedure for replacing an exploded turbo. It's their problem to redo all this work.
My old A3 derv cost £1600 for a new OE turbo and the necessary work at AMD at Thurrock.

 

[dazzygee]

My old A3 derv cost £1600 for a new OE turbo and the necessary work at AMD at Thurrock.

Yeahhhhh £1600 is a little out of my price range, infact the car probably isnt worth it if it was going to cost that much to repair.

The "mechanic" (and im using that term loosely) has said he should have it done by today, hes dropping the oil sump to drain all the oil and to make sure that theres no old turbo fragments in there. For some reason he is also swapping the intercooler, although as audismart mentioned, this seem pretty pointless. Given the way that air flows through the intercooler, and fragments would surely just sit in there?

I'm hoping to have it back tonight because i want a car over the weekend, but im full expecting him to blow up another turbo and have to put it in another garage.

 

[dazzygee]

Now expected to be waiting till next week to get my car back. hes sent me the picture below. Surely he's doing something wrong, from memory the turbo is at the back of the engine...

 

[dazzygee]

So just turned up the garage to see how he is getting on, he's hoping to have it finished by the end of the day today,

Whilst there i checked out the intercooler which was absolutely full of shredded turbo blades, he also showed me the first replacement turbo which ive added below. The entire housing of the turbo has completely shred it housing.

hes cleared all piping, hes swapped the intercooler, hes swapped the turbo (again), hes gotta fit the oil return line, fit up the bumper, do an oil change and then give me it back. nice little £740 bill assuming it all works

 

[SootySport]

Now you know why the I/Cooler should be changed. All that work for £740 is good for you, hope your loosely termed Mechanic has learnt his lesson too. He'll be quoting a little more for the next Audi blown turbo job.

 

[audismart]

Going a bit off topic here, But has anyone ever drained there I/C to see if there was any oil in it, I've also seen some videos of screws being placed at the bottom cooler inlet and outlet pipes for yearly servicing of the I/C?

 

[dazzygee]

Now you know why the I/Cooler should be changed. All that work for £740 is good for you, hope your loosely termed Mechanic has learnt his lesson too. He'll be quoting a little more for the next Audi blown turbo job.

He tried to get me to pay him in cash and then told me if it blows up on the way home, dont bother calling him again...fantastic "mechanic" haha. On the plus side it seems to have burnt all the oil residue out the exhaust and has stopped smoking once it gets to temperature, So i FINALLY have a useable car again

 

[SootySport]

Hooray!

 

[Gazwould]

Cash get out , shame on him .

 

[SootySport]

I think @dazzygee has only paid once anyway.