Hey gang, I've been working on the teardown portion of my repairs and I've discovered something that I'm not happy about.

Oil in the piping between turbo and intercooler.


So what exactly does this mean for me? Is it a simple leak I could stop? This would explain why the car eats a quart per thousand miles. The turbo felt like it had very little shaft play, I could move it back and forth very slightly, less than one half milimeter I would estimate, but it spun fine and it seemed normal.

Also, now that I've inspected all of this, do I need to clean it in any particular way? I've been keeping it covered, but I worry that some small particles of crap on my hands might foul things.

Thanks in advance!

 

how much oil are we talkin? if its just residue, i wouldn't worry too much, its common. If we're talking a quart, you have other issues...

 

Enough to flow into a small puddle. It was pretty wet, but not a significant amount.

 

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/sho...=oil+in+intake

 

also, check some of these threads out, the appear more helpful than that last one i posted...
https://www.audiforums.com/forum/sea...archid=1065559

 

Just found a ton of metal shavings in the turbo to intercooler hard pipe that runs under the car. Thats definate bad news eh?

The oil was only a few ounces, sounds like an acceptable level.

 

Well, no shaft play, no smoke, and I dont think I hear a drill sound. Definately no WHOOO WHOOO sound. The turbine looks aight to me. I think the shavings may be from the previous turbo. The guy I bought it from said he had the turbo replaced. Is this likely?

 

definitely possible, i dunno about likely though. given the condition that you said your current turbo is in, i very much doubt the metal is from that.

 

So where do you think the metal is from? Also it seems oil is coming in from the pancake valve? This larger, flat cylinder with a couple ports. There's oil on that side of the hose from airbox to turbo. Is this the recycled oil fumes piping?

 

Yeah i feel like the oil is normal. Might think about plumbing in a catch can though. As for the metal i'm at a loss. If you're right about the turbo being replaced on the car, the original must have died a terrible, terrible death for there to be that kind of shrapnel in your IC piping.