B6 A4 turbo burning oil?
#1
02-03-2019, 05:30 PM
B6 A4 turbo burning oil?
Hello all
So recently we had replaced the cylinder head to my b6 a4 due to the timing belt snapping and the valves getting bent. It’s been just about a week since (I’ve had no problems with the car running) but just this morning when starting it up I smelt burning. Checked under the hood and see exhaust leaking from the down pipe. Thought it was just bad gasket and could replace it later. Soon after I started driving I realized when I would put the clutch in while approaching a stop my rpms would struggle to keep the car from stalling. And when I put the pedal in I would have to nearly floor it for the rpms to go over 2000. I thought it was possibly due to the car being cold so I drove around the block a bit to warm it up and the smell got worse and I started noticing the smoke pouring out the back. I instantly drove home and shut off the car. Now I’m wondering if this could be due to a possibly bad turbo as when we took things apart for the cylinder head my buddy commented saying he doesn’t know how healthy my turbo is as there is oil in places it normally wouldn’t be (can’t remember off hand). So now I’m wondering if a bad turbo could be causing something like this to happen.
Please let me know if this post is in the wrong place as I’m not used to posting on forums often.
thanks!
So recently we had replaced the cylinder head to my b6 a4 due to the timing belt snapping and the valves getting bent. It’s been just about a week since (I’ve had no problems with the car running) but just this morning when starting it up I smelt burning. Checked under the hood and see exhaust leaking from the down pipe. Thought it was just bad gasket and could replace it later. Soon after I started driving I realized when I would put the clutch in while approaching a stop my rpms would struggle to keep the car from stalling. And when I put the pedal in I would have to nearly floor it for the rpms to go over 2000. I thought it was possibly due to the car being cold so I drove around the block a bit to warm it up and the smell got worse and I started noticing the smoke pouring out the back. I instantly drove home and shut off the car. Now I’m wondering if this could be due to a possibly bad turbo as when we took things apart for the cylinder head my buddy commented saying he doesn’t know how healthy my turbo is as there is oil in places it normally wouldn’t be (can’t remember off hand). So now I’m wondering if a bad turbo could be causing something like this to happen.
Please let me know if this post is in the wrong place as I’m not used to posting on forums often.
thanks!
#2
02-03-2019, 05:49 PM
Hi,
To me it sounds more like a dropped or badly sealing valve considering you've just done work on the head... did you put all new valves in - exhaust and inlet?
When you say leaking from the downpipe, where exactly? Cat to downpipe joint? Or around the Turbo joints?
If its your Turbo then I think it would be the oil seal in the Turbo itself and you could get away with a Turbo rebuild kit instead of a new Turbo. Maybe ask your friend where he saw oil in the Turbo. If there is a lot of oil in the pipe work to the intercooler then it does sound like the Turbo oil seals.
To me it sounds more like a dropped or badly sealing valve considering you've just done work on the head... did you put all new valves in - exhaust and inlet?
When you say leaking from the downpipe, where exactly? Cat to downpipe joint? Or around the Turbo joints?
If its your Turbo then I think it would be the oil seal in the Turbo itself and you could get away with a Turbo rebuild kit instead of a new Turbo. Maybe ask your friend where he saw oil in the Turbo. If there is a lot of oil in the pipe work to the intercooler then it does sound like the Turbo oil seals.
#3
02-03-2019, 08:34 PM
Hi,
To me it sounds more like a dropped or badly sealing valve considering you've just done work on the head... did you put all new valves in - exhaust and inlet?
When you say leaking from the downpipe, where exactly? Cat to downpipe joint? Or around the Turbo joints?
If its your Turbo then I think it would be the oil seal in the Turbo itself and you could get away with a Turbo rebuild kit instead of a new Turbo. Maybe ask your friend where he saw oil in the Turbo. If there is a lot of oil in the pipe work to the intercooler then it does sound like the Turbo oil seals.
To me it sounds more like a dropped or badly sealing valve considering you've just done work on the head... did you put all new valves in - exhaust and inlet?
When you say leaking from the downpipe, where exactly? Cat to downpipe joint? Or around the Turbo joints?
If its your Turbo then I think it would be the oil seal in the Turbo itself and you could get away with a Turbo rebuild kit instead of a new Turbo. Maybe ask your friend where he saw oil in the Turbo. If there is a lot of oil in the pipe work to the intercooler then it does sound like the Turbo oil seals.
didnt replace any of the valves just replaced the entirety of the cylinder head. The leak appears to be on the car to down pipe joint. I’m currently putting in an order to see if that may help resolved the issue. Along with some exhaust gaskets as that may help ovoid future leaks since I’m going this far as well.
Thanks again!
#4
02-05-2019, 05:34 PM
Few things to add to this
I also wanted to mention that all the gaskets (Head gasket, valve cover gasket and everything in between) Were replaced with brand new gaskets. As well as about a week of driving with everything put together and nothing came up. It would warm up like usual and drive like normal. So I'm not sure if there is just some other thing I'm missing that may be causing this issue.
#5
02-05-2019, 09:07 PM
Ok, if it were me and you had a 'large amount' of blue smoke burning like you say along with such a loss in performance, I would get under the car and disconnect the Intercooler pipe - it's the largest rubber hose around 2 1/2" diameter and see if there is a lot of oil in there i.e. if it's virtually running out of there, that would indicate Turbo oil seal leak. You would have to remove the under tray to get at it - but that's all.
Failing that I would think valve seals -
Lets hope someone else comments with any other thoughts...
Failing that I would think valve seals -
Lets hope someone else comments with any other thoughts...
#6
02-06-2019, 03:38 PM
More thoughts,
Thanks for more info. I believe he had mentioned seeing some oil in the areas you mentioned and that’s what my buddy had mentioned when he said he wasn’t sure about the life left on the turbo. I’m planning on bringing the car to a local shop as I personally am not wanting to work on a car in -40c. We are also gonna take a Vag Com to it just to see if there is anything notable before bringing it in.
Thanks for the help once again!
Thanks for the help once again!
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