Hi I have had a burning smell in my cabin for a while now. I took it in and was told it was my passenger turbo. I just had them replaced 2 years ago! Their is no smoke coming from my exhaust and not a noticeable drop in oil level. The smell and smoke is coming from my passenger side right near the turbo. The lines coming from turbo have oil residue on them and surrounding areas do as well as the tranny has oil dripped on it. I feel that the oil is coming from above and dripping onto a hot turbo or something and burning off. I have read several places that the cam seals leak and could leak down onto other hot parts and burn off. Also, is it even possible for the turbos to leak externally, but function fine?

 

ya bro get a mirror and look .. valve cover gaskets and cam seals and cam adjuster seals all go bad.. id definitely look into them as the culprit..

 

Thanks for the response, would those seals and gaskets leak enough to drip all over turbo and burn up everytime the car is run? If the turbos would fail, is it possible for them to leak externally? last time they went (20k ago) they were pouring out smoke from the exhaust. Thats why I really am leaning towards your suggestion. Thanks again!

 

you're turbos are fine, its your cam plugs like bigern was sayin. i had the saammme issue as you, oil smell in the cabin, smoke comin up from the passenger side turbo. i thought it was my turbos too but i as well just had mine replaced about a year ago. i made a little diy on here about a month ago if you can find it. its not to hard, just a little tight squeeze. check it with a mirror too as suggested before, you may need to replace your valve cover gaskets and cam adjuster seals too so its best to just do it all at once. theres diys for that too. its not hard, just time consuming

 

Unfortunately I discovered worst case scenario today. I pulled my intercooler pipes today and there was about a .25-.5 qt of oil. All signs are pointing to turbos, but I am sure there is some other leaks, drips as well. The weird thing is the oil in intercooler was real dirty which I assume means it was there for a while. There is no smoke in exhaust at all, how can this be? Thanks for responses, and thanks for any future responses.

 

i asked my reputable mechanic about that cuz i do too and its all old oil from before your turbos. its just residue thats accumulated or that was in the intercooler that didnt get drained

 

I too had this issue. Pulled off carrier assembly. Oil in charge pipes, air intake, all through the system. Decided, with 45,000 miles on the new hybrids turbos...and getting ready to turn this into a track sled, might as well pull the motor, do piggies, rebuild the turbos, put in FMIC, brake upgrade.

I really like this thread because all too many of us always fear the motor pull/turbos and if it was a bit simpler, i would have saved about 700 curses.

really got to know my car though, pulling the motor, and reading all these threads on how to do piggies.

My question for the group: HOW CAN I DO AN A/C DELETE most elegantly?

 

well might be difficult finding a belt, so are you doing it to save weight?? what is the actual issue.. weight reduc or compressor locked up or just low on freon??

 

1. Same symptoms as on this thread
2. pulled motor, pulled off turbos
3. From rear of engine, you can see oil around the cam seals, worse on driver side
4. other threads suggest Breather Assembly failure, causing too much oil pressure, causing oil blow by in turbos, causing oil in charge pipes, and i guess also enough pressure to pop a leak in the cam seals?

seems to all make sense. No turbo rebuild=goodness but jesus, the motor pull was a pain in the ****.

pics:





But turbos look healthy inside, no real wobble....no noise, no loss of power.

thoughts???

 

camshaft plugs was my problem with the s4