AFN, oil in turbo boost pipes

[lloydy]

Hi, have found on taking the boost pipes off to the charge cooler, that they have a coating of oil in them. They have only been on for 1000 miles, so not a massive amount of time. looking at the turbo there is oil around the air inlet from the air filter. What is the best way to tell if its the turbo leaking or if its coming from the breather assembly? I took the breather pipe off the mushroom thingy on top of the cam cover and the inside of the pipe has an oily feel, but not enough for me to think its enough to be dripping out the turbo inlet or being pushed into the boost pipes
When the engine was first fired up, oil leaked out of the turbo into the exhaust (actually dripping out of tailpipe) but once warmed up stopped and no longer does that.
So can the turbo leak itself into the boost pipes, i thought they leaked into exhaust when the seals failed? Can that mushroom thing on cam cover fail? Or any other options? Maybe it's normal???
cheers, lloyd

[syncroandy]

Sounds similar to what I'm seeing. I think its 'normal'. I did snag one of those oil separator thingys and will fit that. Then keep an eye on oil consumption and take further measures if needed.

[ninja.turtle007]

Same here, apparently it is normal.

[lloydy]

normal sounds good, was quite wet though... will have a proper look tomorrow. kept on popping boost pipe off on the way home, luckily now have the correct joiners with swages on to fit. so will have a proper check for amount of oil in there.

[jes*b]

Lloyd , my passat has had this for the past 80,000k miles, changed hose seals twice , no difference but not been a problem.

[lloydy]

Yeah, but after looking, they are properly wet with oil, routing of oil return won't be helping the turbo seals
(I thought gravity worked on a fall, not rise? )
Anyway, this and other more pressing matters to be updated on my build thread shortly..............

[AdrianC]

So can the turbo leak itself into the boost pipes, i thought they leaked into exhaust when the seals failed?

Depends which seal has gone, of course - if it's the one at the inlet end of the shaft, then it'll leak into the inlet.

My Saab 900T16 leaked oil from the turbo into the inlet pipework - if I cleaned the inlet pipes out, then they'd have a good coating within not-very-many miles at all. Turning the intercooler upside down could be entertaining. The oil level didn't need much topping up, though. Maybe a litre total between 5,000 mile changes - on a 200k+ engine.

[phil miller]

very normal this, all TDI vws and audis i do cambelts on have this, when you remove the pipe work i always put a bucket under the inter cooler its not much oil but they all do it