ive been gone out of town for about a month since my work has been slow. but before i left i went and got a oil change from jiffy lube. cause i thought i was going to take my car with me but i decided not to us my car. so when i made it back in to town i wonted to drive my car to vw dealership to check out a new GTi. the dealer ship is only like 5-10min away from my house.

when i was driving my car home from the vw dealer and before i made it in front of my house, all of sudden there was lose of power. and white smoke stared to come out of the hood. so i pulled in front of the house and opened up the hood and there was smoke coming from the right side of the engine bay. i couldn't tell were the smoke was coming from but my turbo was ******* red hot. and i wasn't even running the car hard or evening driving the car for a long time. so i got in the car and check to see if i let the car run hot or something and the temp gauge read normal at this point i felt lost and didnt know what was going on. and i looked and under the car and there a lot of oil dripping from under the car.

so today i went and got some simple green so i can degrease the motor so i can find out were the oil was coming from first before i start taking everything apart. so i degrease the motor and there was oil shooting from where the oil filter connects to. so im like maybe they just didnt put the filter on right or something. so i stick my hand down in there the filter was loose. like they didnt even screw in the oil filter in all the way. i turned the thing about 4 times before it got tight. so the oil finally stop leaking.

so i check the oil and everything is fine. so i drove the car down my small street and back to see if there was oil still coming out anywhere else since the motor was cleaned up. and it was fine but the car still felt like **** and sluggish. when i opened the hood smoke starts to come from the right side of the engine bay again and the turbo is red hot.

so i come to found out that my brother had came back into town when i left. and hes X told me hes been driving my car instead of hes car. and my dad found out and so he checked my oil in my car and it was no oil on the dip stick . so he filled it back up because he knows that my brother treats cars like ****.

so im thinking maybe when my brother ran the car on low oil maybe the turbo didnt get enough oil so the turbo fucked up. cause it feels like the car is running on all motor now.

any ideas what it might be? i still dont know were the smoke is coming from. im guessing the turbo seized.

please bear with me i suck when it comes to typing and writing things out. i tryed looking for a DIY on removing the turbo but i couldn't find anything. i know removing shouldn't be that hard i just need to remember where all the lines and stuff go. but a guide would be a big help. im so pissed i wont to take a bat to my brothers e36 but anyways thanks for the help.

 

Sounds like someone misread the dip stick (easy to do) and dumped in way too much oil. That would explain the smoke, and oil getting past the valves and into the turbo/exhaust and causing the smoke and red hotness, etc. Jiffy lube is a serious NONO. I'm sorry if this sounds mean, but man up and buy the simple tools needed to do a damn oil change. Drain your oil, replace the filter, put in 4.25 qts and see how how it is after that.

 

yea thats my fault on the jiffy lube. i have the tools. i was just in a rush to get were i was going. i wasnt planning on anyone driving my car while i was gone.

 

It really sounds to me like there was way too much oil in there. So what has been done? Are you still driving it like that?

 

i stop driving in tell i can figure out what is going on. but why on the sudden lose of power? im new to the turbo engines.

 

Too much oil will kill the combustion process. Sort of hard to suck in fresh air and expell exhaust gas when you have oil passing through the valves- getting dumped into your exhaust. I'll be very suprised if your oil is not severly overfilled. If you have an automatic, hopefuly jiffy lube didn't accidently drain the tranny instead of the oil. It happens.

 

my car is a manual. the trans has been replaced with everything new about a two months ago and never had a problem with it. i really haven't had the car for to long. i just checked the dipstick and its lil bit more then half. but il try what you said and see what happens tomorrow. if its not the oil what else do you think it might be?

 

I might have misread. Is there still smoke? Any out the exhaust? Drivers or passanger side? If your car is stock, the sluggishness is normal, so is the turbo being visibly red hot at night. Maybe you are just freaking out.

 

If the oil filter wasnt on all the way it may have leaked air in enough to prevent the oil pressure from building enough to reach the turbo effectively, and warped it from heat exhaustion. Then he kept driving it that way, and now its fucked up.

 

yes i am aware on how slow a a4 1.8t is. this is are second a4 we have owned. my brother owned one before he got hes e36 m3. we never had this problem before with his and we had it about 3 years before he traded it. i know the turbo gets hot and glows at night time but in this case it wasn't. i have had the car for about 5-6months now and from the time i first had it entail a couple of days ago feels like two different cars. when i mean a sudden lose of power i mean lot of power is missing.

there is still smoke but no smoke is coming out of the exhaust. the smoke is coming from the passanger side of the engine. i really cant tell were its coming from because were im at now its really windy. il try to check to see were its coming from tomorrow.

the car is all stock expect for the suspension. never touched the engine mod wise.
trust me i wish i was freaking out. because that would save me time and money.

punkrocker what do you mean by fucked up. do you mean the turbo or the engine?