I've seen threads about the various symptoms of blown turbos, and the range seems to be excessive smoke to all the oil pouring out and ruining the engine. I am contemplating a long road trip (3500-4500) miles and I know there has been a slight oil leak on one of the turbos for 15-20k miles. When I started the car up this weekend (it had been sitting for about a month), I thought I could hear a very faint "dentist drill " noise. Of course, there is always bearing noise from the power steering pump and gear noise so maybe it's my imagination. However, if I am far from home and a turbo goes, is the car still driveable? I can deal with loss of power as long as I can limp home.

 

It will really depend on how it fails. Also I would cross post this in the A4 forums as they are more active over there.

 

Jeff is right.

From my own experience, my Range Rover Sport blew the turbo while I was in Europe, but I continued driving on left lane doing about 80-90kmph. I ended up driving 430 km before taking it to the service station. One thing, I called the service station guy when I blew the turbo, and he said as long as I drive with light foot and won't press the engine too hard, I should be fine.