Has my turbo gone?

[DiseasalDriver]

Long story short, on my commute this morning I was accelerating up a gentle incline, nothing major, nice and slowly from around 30 to 50 with a view to merging on a dual carriageway. All of a sudden something seemed to give way. It stopped accelerating.

I was at around 40mph and couldn't gain any speed whatsoever.

Kickdown did drop a gear but all it seemed to do was struggle to accelerate. It was just like I was driving a very, very slow car in a good that was too high for it.

I drove slowly to work, it wasn't easy, it was almost like it was in a limp home mode.

There were no lights on the dash and everything else seemed normal, it was just massively down on power.

It's a pre-facelift 2006 120d auto with around 80k miles on it. Serviced regularly, 1 owner from new, never missed a beat before now.

[clarkey]

It could be something cheap to fix like a split intercooler hose, it may not be expensive.

[DiseasalDriver]

It's in the work car park at the moment and I'm scared to go out and see it.

[Baz Tench]

clarkey said:

It could be something cheap to fix like a split intercooler hose, it may not be expensive.

Could be, but I would have thought the sudden loss of pressure would have thrown up the engine management light at least?

[RobCrezz]

Yeah I would check for boost leaks first before writing off the turbo.

[gowmonster]

if it has gone it's likley that it will be spitting oil out the exhaust (assuming oil cooled and the seals have gone), is that happening? if not it's probably a boost leak between the inlet mani and the turbo/intercooler.

[twink]

Baz Tench said:

Could be, but I would have thought the sudden loss of pressure would have thrown up the engine management light at least?

If it's a boost leak, depends where it's leaking from. Can you hear the turbo spooling up still?

[J4CKO]

DiseasalDriver said:

It's in the work car park at the moment and I'm scared to go out and see it.

I find that if I do some research online and go and look at stuff I can usually come up with a diagnosis, it may be as said, simple and obvious, man up and go and have a look !

[Robatr0n]

RobCrezz said:

Yeah I would check for boost leaks first before writing off the turbo.

[y2blade]

gowmonster said:

if it has gone it's likley that it will be spitting oil out the exhaust (assuming oil cooled and the seals have gone), is that happening? if not it's probably a boost leak between the inlet mani and the turbo/intercooler.

good post

(As I posted in another thread about the same thing on an Audi)

y2blade said:

also bear in mind
You might not see a split while the hoses have no pressure in them, one of the hoses spilt on my old Audi 80 TDI...all looked fine at tick-over but when revved the Hoses swell and the split was clearly visible.

just a thought

turns out, in this case it WAS a spilt hose.

[varsas]

Can you connect a laptop to it and ask the ODB2 what the boost pressure is?

[mattmoxon]

Could also be a stuck wastegate (or something to do with the wastegate like the actuator), happened on my focus ST (albeit it stuck closed rather than open) that threw no warning lights at all.

[scoobster999]

I had a similar experience in my Alfa 147, the massive loss of power etc was the engine going into limp home mode which made getting home an experience - it would get up to 70 on the M1, it just took a long time and planning to overtake etc. The culprit in my case was a sticky EGR valve which was cleaned up and the management system reset and it has been ok since.

[BlueEyedBoy]

Generally in my experienc (depending on the which pipe has gone if that is the case) would mean the difference between boost not getting high but still drivable or the car struggling for breath and dying at the side of the road.

Never had a case when its just very slow.

[Matthen]

BlueEyedBoy said:

Generally in my experienc (depending on the which pipe has gone if that is the case) would mean the difference between boost not getting high but still drivable or the car struggling for breath and dying at the side of the road.

Never had a case when its just very slow.

Agree... Sounds more like the EGR getting stuck in recirculate mode... Although I have no experience with BMW diesels. I'd try an Italian tune up first... Could be difficult in an auto though, does it rev freely in neutral?

[Megaflow]

Generally turbo failures are accompanied by copious amounts of smoke, not always, but normally. As others have said, pipework from turbo through the intercooler to the engine would be more likely for a sudden failure.

Also, maybe a collapsed cat / dpf substrate

[DiseasalDriver]

Thanks guys, I just went for a quick look in the basement. No noticeable oil leaking from the exhaust and when I drove it around the car park I can hear the turbo spooling and the usual hiss noise when you come off the pedal. It's just not going anywhere and it sounds like its struggling.

I don't know whether to risk taking it home or not...

[DiseasalDriver]

Also, didn't see any smoke when the power was lost and I presume it would be pretty difficult to miss?

Also during the cold weather I had a problem similar to this...

http://www.bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26...

Lumpy idle then a puff of smoke and all was right again.

I hope this doesn't end up expensive.

ETA: I put that down to the glow plugs.

[frosted]

I wouldn't drive it home, it's not worth the risk. Drive it to a decent garage in the area if you know any

[odyssey2200]

Check the pipe that goes to the waste gate actuator for kinks/splits.

Check all the high pressure hoses and intercooler for leaks.
Change the fuel filter.
Change the ait filter.

If the turbo had gone you would not be able to see the cars behind you.