I think my turbo is maybe dying?

[cnut]

About a couple of months ago my turbo when into limp mode, I assumed this was caused by sticking turbo vanes as the logs were indicating an overboost. I managed to clean the turbo with Mr Muscle turbo cleaner and this has 100% cured the limp mode problem.

One thing that concerns me since the turbo problem is the exhaust has been blowing a grey/white smoke with a blue tinge on most cold starts that gradually disappears as the car hits 90 degrees. It seems to come on when the turbo hits boost but can also be sometimes seen when the car is idling.

The car is not lacking in performance in any way and the turbo sounds quiet. Interestingly I took the car out for a long hard drive a couple of weekends ago and this completely fixed the problem only for it to return a few days later.

I have a gut feeling the turbo seals are leaking oil into the intercooler which then gets burnt off during driving and then it starts leaking again once the car is left overnight hence the recurring problem. Does this sound feasible?

I will note that the car is not using an excessive amount of oil and the coolant level has remained the same. The EGR is leaking oil slightly but this can't be cause can it?

Any suggestions guys?

 

[barkclark]

I have no suggestions but I've had the same problem getting white/blue smoke for the past 4/5 days on cold startup in the mornings, then it's fine after that. I've not cleaned the turbo yet but I'm going to do that. My car doesn't get to 90 but I'm getting a new CTS and thermostat! My oil and coolant level hasn't changed!

 

[Springer*]

My car is on just shy of 128000 miles and does exactly this too.

I've had the EGR and Intake Manifold completely cleaned out professionally and I've also blanked off the EGR to stop it gunking up again.

Due to its age the EGR valve does seem to be leaking oil somewhat.

The car drives absolutely fine but is smoky on cold starts upon firing up and this usually clears within a few seconds. I just look at it as being an older generation diesel without any form of DPF or EGR in place, hence the smoky starts and puffs of smoke under harder acceleration.

The car doesn't really smoke at all during normal driving, even when its cold.

I have always found that diesel cars burn off unburnt fuel upon cold start ups and you always get a plume of diesel smoke. Its a bit unsightly but its gone within seconds so it doesn't bother me too much. I just make sure the kids are nowhere near the back of the car when I fire it up so they don't breathe all of that lot in.

I'm not sure of exactly what causes it, but I'd be tempted to get your EGR either cleaned up completely or replaced, blank it off and then get the intake manifold completely cleaned out too. The car will run a lot cleaner.

Of course you could get the turbo cleaned up too, but seeing as you have already done that recently I'd leave it for now.

J

 

[cnut]

My car is on just shy of 128000 miles and does exactly this too.

I've had the EGR and Intake Manifold completely cleaned out professionally and I've also blanked off the EGR to stop it gunking up again.

Due to its age the EGR valve does seem to be leaking oil somewhat.

The car drives absolutely fine but is smoky on cold starts upon firing up and this usually clears within a few seconds. I just look at it as being an older generation diesel without any form of DPF or EGR in place, hence the smoky starts and puffs of smoke under harder acceleration.

The car doesn't really smoke at all during normal driving, even when its cold.

I have always found that diesel cars burn off unburnt fuel upon cold start ups and you always get a plume of diesel smoke. Its a bit unsightly but its gone within seconds so it doesn't bother me too much. I just make sure the kids are nowhere near the back of the car when I fire it up so they don't breathe all of that lot in.

I'm not sure of exactly what causes it, but I'd be tempted to get your EGR either cleaned up completely or replaced, blank it off and then get the intake manifold completely cleaned out too. The car will run a lot cleaner.

Of course you could get the turbo cleaned up too, but seeing as you have already done that recently I'd leave it for now.

J

My car is on 118K so slightly less than yours. I think the difference between our cars is that mine does smoke during normal driving until it's reached 90 degrees. My partner was following me in her car on Saturday and she said it was smoking quite a bit and then I floored it and it was bellowing a light grey smoke until it eventually cleared, the car was around 70 degrees at the time. The smoke is never dark grey or blackish like a lot of diesels without a DPF do when you floor it.

What colour smoke is yours?

 

[cnut]

I just want to add as well that the problem seems to intermittent. Some days it won't smoke at all whilst other days it can be quite bad.

 

[Springer*]

I'm not too technically minded with this so I'm not sure. I know that upon start up mine kicks out a lovely plume of diesely black/blue smoke. This clears more or less instantly and so whilst its a bit embarrassing if people can see me fire it up, it is gone before you know it and the car drives fine.

I find that the temperature of my coolant gauge has little bearing on the amount of smoke my car puts out. On cold mornings its a little hesitant until its warmed up but I believe this to be that the engine is electronically limited by the ECU until its warmed up. After that its fine and smokes just as much when cold as when its warm.

I've never had light grey smoke to be honest and so I'm sure its something different. It could be that the turbo isn't happy but it could also be head-gasket related. Might be worth getting this checked out.

J

 

[DieselJake]

Mine smokes pretty much all day and night, I win.

 

[AudiLeon]

Mines on fire. Beat that ladies!

 

[cnut]

I have just managed to get to go into limp mode again by driving it very hard. Does this sound like the vanes are still sticking? and if they are could this cause smoke??

 

[ruffrida]

I have just managed to get to go into limp mode again by driving it very hard. Does this sound like the vanes are still sticking? and if they are could this cause smoke??

Sounds like i to me fella, had the same problem with me A3 8L, dont know where you are based but the is a great farm in Skelmersdale, send your turbo to him £260 later its brand new (well re-con)

 

[cnut]

Sounds like i to me fella, had the same problem with me A3 8L, dont know where you are based but the is a great farm in Skelmersdale, send your turbo to him £260 later its brand new (well re-con)

Thanks mate, do you have the name of company? I'm down in Devon so I would have to post it.

 

[ruffrida]

Im sure the is loads of people closer to you bud,
But this is them Reconditioned Turbo Chargers - Turbo Chargers - Turbo Charger Repairs Skelmersdale | AC Turbos top blokes, if you send them everything, turbo, actuator, manifold, it will all come back looking like new

 

[Icarus83]

I have just managed to get to go into limp mode again by driving it very hard. Does this sound like the vanes are still sticking? and if they are could this cause smoke??

From experience of my turbo dying over the xmas holiday, but from a 200k mile car, I had a couple of incidents of hard acceleration when joining dual carriageways forcing it into limp mode, a simple ignition off and on once I had pulled over seemed to cure it, no ECU error codes though.

My turbo had been slowly dying over time, the miles had taken their toll but the main problem was the oil deprivation as the narrow oil feed will get clogged.

Main symptoms were the limp mode, an odd rattle on lift off (accelerate from 1k rpm to 2.5k then let off, or short changing up the gears, noise was like a loose heat shield for a few seconds when I came off the accelerator) and blue/light grey smoke on startup & under hard acceleration when pulling out of junctions etc and overtaking.

I did find that a weird spike of torque would spin my clutch in 4th and above (the car had been mapped - Revo). Since I've had the turbo replaced its solid in all gears, I'm assuming that the bad turbo was overboosting causing a spike.

When it finally gave up I obviously had no boost/power, and it made an awful howling noise as it was trying to spool up. The garage showed me the turbo once it had been removed and it had about 1mm gap between the vanes and the body of the turbo and the edges of the vanes were damaged. The new one had almost no gap like you would expect. The oil deprivation had allowed the bearings/shaft to wear and allow the cartridge/core to wobble and eat away at the sides of the body till the bearings collapsed.

It was recommended to me from several sources to replace the turbo, intercooler, oil feed pipe; have my EGR cleaned out, and an engine flush. Most of the new parts were to remove any deposited metal fragments from the disintegrating turbo's death entering my engine and new turbo causing any damage. Was also recommended to give the engine another flush in 2000 miles, but I'm planning on doing it sooner as its due and oil change service.

Turned out expensive for me (£1300 inc labor) but in my opinion a worthwhile investment in a car I intend keeping for a good while.

Fingers crossed yours is not so poorly!

Regards,
Rob

 

[cnut]

From experience of my turbo dying over the xmas holiday, but from a 200k mile car, I had a couple of incidents of hard acceleration when joining dual carriageways forcing it into limp mode, a simple ignition off and on once I had pulled over seemed to cure it, no ECU error codes though.

My turbo had been slowly dying over time, the miles had taken their toll but the main problem was the oil deprivation as the narrow oil feed will get clogged.

Main symptoms were the limp mode, an odd rattle on lift off (accelerate from 1k rpm to 2.5k then let off, or short changing up the gears, noise was like a loose heat shield for a few seconds when I came off the accelerator) and blue/light grey smoke on startup & under hard acceleration when pulling out of junctions etc and overtaking.

I did find that a weird spike of torque would spin my clutch in 4th and above (the car had been mapped - Revo). Since I've had the turbo replaced its solid in all gears, I'm assuming that the bad turbo was overboosting causing a spike.

When it finally gave up I obviously had no boost/power, and it made an awful howling noise as it was trying to spool up. The garage showed me the turbo once it had been removed and it had about 1mm gap between the vanes and the body of the turbo and the edges of the vanes were damaged. The new one had almost no gap like you would expect. The oil deprivation had allowed the bearings/shaft to wear and allow the cartridge/core to wobble and eat away at the sides of the body till the bearings collapsed.

It was recommended to me from several sources to replace the turbo, intercooler, oil feed pipe; have my EGR cleaned out, and an engine flush. Most of the new parts were to remove any deposited metal fragments from the disintegrating turbo's death entering my engine and new turbo causing any damage. Was also recommended to give the engine another flush in 2000 miles, but I'm planning on doing it sooner as its due and oil change service.

Turned out expensive for me (£1300 inc labor) but in my opinion a worthwhile investment in a car I intend keeping for a good while.

Fingers crossed yours is not so poorly!

Regards,
Rob

Thanks for the reply Rob, I'm hoping too! My doesn't sound quite as bad as yours yet but that's not to say it won't end up heading that way!

The "blue/light grey smoke on startup & under hard acceleration when pulling out of junctions" concerns me because that is pretty much what I'm getting at the moment. In fact I would stay it's worst when pulling out of junctions. Mine is however perfectly silent and the only way I can get it going to limp mode is when I drive like an absolute loon.

It's funny because when I first got the car my father and I followed it back to the dealership and my father mentioned that it was smoking slightly then, he immediately said it's probably the turbo seals. The dealership had the turbo inspected and it was apparently all fine... This was 2 years ago and nearly 20k earlier. If I find that the turbo is failing it just goes to show that you can't trust car dealers! and they will be on the receiving end of a ranty email from me.

 

[cnut]

I have added a clip I took of it after I took it for a quick blast: http://candidaalbicans.co.uk/Video/1.mp4

As you can see there is no grey smoke at all just the usual black smoke you would expect to see from a diesel. Would a dodgy turbo be this smoke free when hot?

 

[cnut]

Update, the last few days the car has hardly been smoking at all. I'm beginning to doubt it's the turbo, surely if it was it wouldn't be an intermittent problem? I changed the air filter in the car and I don't know if it's helped but it's certainly pulling harder now. I have neither the time or money at the moment to get it properly diagnosed but I do have a 400 odd mile round trip coming up in a couple of weeks which I have the feeling the car is needing so I will see how it's behaving after that (that's if I make it there and back!)

 

[ruffrida]

I have added a clip I took of it after I took it for a quick blast: http://candidaalbicans.co.uk/Video/1.mp4

As you can see there is no grey smoke at all just the usual black smoke you would expect to see from a diesel. Would a dodgy turbo be this smoke free when hot?

Defo not turbo that, it would b smoking its bag of, i get more than that !!

 

[ruffrida]

Update, the last few days the car has hardly been smoking at all. I'm beginning to doubt it's the turbo, surely if it was it wouldn't be an intermittent problem? I changed the air filter in the car and I don't know if it's helped but it's certainly pulling harder now. I have neither the time or money at the moment to get it properly diagnosed but I do have a 400 odd mile round trip coming up in a couple of weeks which I have the feeling the car is needing so I will see how it's behaving after that (that's if I make it there and back!)

best way i found to check it is, find a nice gradual hill, motoways are usualy good, start at the bottom in a high gear but low revs, then plant it, it if the turbo kicks in and she goes into limp mode then yeh vanes are goin or gone in turbo, either that or a vac leak, how are ya brakes??

 

[cnut]

Defo not turbo that, it would b smoking its bag of, i get more than that !!

Yeah, I'm beginning to think it might be something else...

 

[cnut]

best way i found to check it is, find a nice gradual hill, motoways are usualy good, start at the bottom in a high gear but low revs, then plant it, it if the turbo kicks in and she goes into limp mode then yeh vanes are goin or gone in turbo, either that or a vac leak, how are ya brakes??

I'll have to try that when I get a chance. I have only managed to get it in limp mode when driving flat out shifting from 4th to 5th (don't try to work out the speeds!) but even then it doesn't do it all the time. The last time I thought I got it in limp mode a couple of days ago, I have the feeling I was wrong as there were no fault codes when I scanned the car this time. I most likely just had it in the wrong gear and wondered where the power had gone!

 

[cnut]

Another update, last weekend I took the car for a 400 mile round trip mainly on motorways and fast a-roads, rarely dropping under 80mph if I could help it. The car went into limp mode twice for the first 50 or so miles and then it was fine, the more miles I did the smoother the car felt. The car is no longer smoking at all and it is still pulling well.

So what do you think? I think the car may have had a partially blocked oil line which was causing the issues and since the high speed cruising this has unblocked itself?

Or is it more likely to be because the turbo was badly sooted up and it has now burnt all the soot off which was causing it to stick and run smokey?

Either way I'm reluctant to get the turbo reconditioned as it's running perfectly at the moment apart from the airbag light which decided to come on during the trip!