Disaster with my allroad yesterday, went up country, had a spat of driving in limp mode and an audible change to a louder drone from the exhaust, eased off and it cleared so carried on for 3 hours. Parked up had a full day shooting, got back in the car at 5, drove off, all good.
Hit the motorway same spat of limp mode and same sound, a louder drone, eased off, it cleared, so I carried on.
5 miles from home BLUE SMOKE, bitch... not bellowing out but noticeable.
Dropped my friend off, still smoking even on idle.
Got home, plugged in, no fault codes.
Left it overnight, started up next day rough idle. I have just changed my exhaust manifolds which lead me to check the turbo. So I took off the exhaust side and stated her up. The wheel is badly coked and the chattering was quite severe.
I have taken the turbo off, there is play in the shaft and there was a clip missing which holds the actuator arm in place, however it was still attached. It is now off to adam at tdi turbos.
When I first put the manifolds on I took it for a spin and forgot to put the vacuum pipe back on from the n75 to the egr, this was quickly rectified as I heard the same audible drone.
I have checked the egr and it's fine.
I have checked the pcv that is fine too.
Oil feed to the turbo is fine and I have just serviced too, oil level was spot on.
So I'm looking for causes, if anyone has any ideas?
also wondering is it ok for me to start the engine without the turbo in place (obviously making sure the oil feed goes into the return) to rule out valves or piston ring wear.