Hello all ,i'm in need of some advice please, I've bought a A3 2003 quattro tdi and noticed that there was a dab of oil on my drive, so i investigated by removing inner wheel arch cover,to find that the intercooler pipe upto the turbo had black oil in it which had ran down to intercooler and was dripping from gasket...Do you know if that means turbo's on way out or is it normal.....Drives normal no smoke or loss of power but car has done 140k mostly motorway miles.....Any advice would be appricated,as saving for wedding........

 

It's natural for you to have oil in the intercooler on a TDI. But, that much oil seems extreme. Do you baby that engine all of the time, or do you get on it and bring it to redline at least once a day or once a trip? That will help send the oil that bleeds over from the vacuum pressure on the turbo and blow it out through the engine. I would drain all of the oil out of the intercooler and check the seals on the turbo and the vanes for wear. If everything looks good, just make sure you drive it like you stole it at least once daily.

I imagine you'll see a little black smoke come from the car for a while under heavy load until it gets all of the extra oil out.

Cheers!