Turbo ****ed?

[greggy50]

Hello

I have recently picked up a Mk4 Golf GTI and have had a couple of problems with it...

Basically recently when I come off boost the car appears to be kicking smoke out of the back intermittently and it appears to be a blue colour.

I also get a low oil pressue warning light stop engine appear intermittently as well and again this seems to happen more when I come off the throttle as when sat at a cruise back home at 85mph last night it never appeared for the whole 100 odd miles until I got into town and started stop/start traffic.

Oh and the car has burned 1 litre of oil in 2000 miles

Does this sound like a fubered turbo?

Or could it be something else the car seems to pull just fine still and is not lacking in power is just kicking st out when I lift off/change gear and it is the oil warning light that bothers me more.

I hope it's a cheap fix as don't really want to spend a lot on the car as to be frank it’s the worst car I have owned by a long way and have had more problems with this car in 2000 miles than I did in my clio over 22,000 I knew I should have steered clear from VW’s after my Dads experience with the brand

[greggy50]

Car us on 100k miles full service history and is running a stage 1 rtec map and forge dv apart from that is is standard just to add that info

[greggy50]

Also if I rev the car when it is sat it doesnt seem to kick out any smoke at all :S

[Yertis]

To be honest, if I'd bought a 100,000 mile car with an aftermarket chip I'd expect a few problems, VW or otherwise. Why don't you Google around? Plenty of stuff out there on knackered turbo symptoms.

[8bit]

Does sound like turbo, yes. My Leon Cupra R had similar symptoms when its original turbo was borked. If you can, take the intake pipe off and check the shaft of the turbo for play. It shouldn't move side to side or in/out of the housing any more than a fraction of a mm.

[greggy50]

Yertis said:

To be honest, if I'd bought a 100,000 mile car with an aftermarket chip I'd expect a few problems, VW or otherwise. Why don't you Google around? Plenty of stuff out there on knackered turbo symptoms.

It was only chipped at 95,000 miles by RTEC and was given a full health check at the time so not been chipped for long and always been ran on super unleaded etc... with receipts to prove it so it was well looked after.

I have googlged but seems to conflict each other on different sites... Friend said if it was the turbo it would always smoke and not just off boost ocassionally...

[pad58]

I have the same golf as you on 93k Stage 2 remap without the problems you mention so I'll follow this thread,just incase.

[greggy50]

8bit said:

Does sound like turbo, yes. My Leon Cupra R had similar symptoms when its original turbo was borked. If you can, take the intake pipe off and check the shaft of the turbo for play. It shouldn't move side to side or in/out of the housing any more than a fraction of a mm.

Okay I will try this tomorrow as busy after work today

I may also add the problem only seems to occur once the car is up to tempreture as well...

[shtu]

greggy50 said:

I also get a low oil pressue warning light stop engine appear intermittently.

Check

the pressure switch, just fit a new one.
the engine wiring loom for any damage.
the sump contents. Take the sump and pickup pipe off, and clean them out.

edit -

the oil level. (Just in case.)

[greggy50]

shtu said:

Check

the pressure switch, just fit a new one.
the engine wiring loom for any damage.
the sump contents. Take the sump and pickup pipe off, and clean them out.

edit -

the oil level. (Just in case.)

I have checked the loom before don't think it would be that as it only came on recently so doubt it will be an electrical fault with the loom

I will look at changing the pressure switch do you know where abouts this is?

The car is due an oil change soon so I will try dropping the sump then and clean it all out what is best to use to clean it out? I may also try putting some slightly thicker 10w40 instead of the 5w40 it uses currently and see if that solves any of the problems.

I am also going to try and check the play in the turbo as well. Mine is on a 51 plate so should it be a KO3 or K03s after the R TECH map it was running 195bhp 245tq so I presume it would be a K03?

[8bit]

Yertis said:

To be honest, if I'd bought a 100,000 mile car with an aftermarket chip I'd expect a few problems, VW or otherwise. Why don't you Google around? Plenty of stuff out there on knackered turbo symptoms.

My car was on about 45k miles and wasn't remapped when my turbo started dying.

greggy50 said:

Okay I will try this tomorrow as busy after work today

I may also add the problem only seems to occur once the car is up to tempreture as well...

Pretty sure mine was the same, different turbo but otherwise essentially the same engine.

Your point about oil pressure - a few weeks before I started seeing signs of what turned out to be dying turbo I was out for a drive. Went to overtake someone and gave it some beans, as the revs rose I got the oil pressure warning. Baby-ed the car home and had it towed to a garage, turned out the sump was full of sludge, this was blocking the pickup and causing oil starvation at high revs. Fairly sure that's what killed my turbo.

VAG 1.8Ts before the TFSI engines are known for sludge build-up, I read somewhere that VAG changed the recommended oil spec a few times over the years as the earlier oils were more prone to this. The general advice on seatcupra.net for Leon Cupra/Cupra R owners that tune and/or drive their cars hard is to change oil every 3 - 5k miles and every second or third change have the sump dropped, inspected and cleaned. I've been using Millers CFS 5W40 NT since changing the turbo and had no issues since.

[greggy50]

Thanks a lot 8bit just reply I was looking for

Working away in glasgow next few days but will drop the sump next weekend and clean along with pickup pipe as well as an oil and filter change.

Will see if this fixes the oil light problem then. If clogged up I suppose its likely that this led to the turbo failing hence the smoke and oil consumption and woll have to replace that as well Looking a ko3 is about 250 so could be worse!

However do find it weird when stationary it kicks no smoke out at all... the oil change and clean etc may even solve the issues if I am lucky

[Mave]

greggy50 said:

However do find it weird when stationary it kicks no smoke out at all... the oil change and clean etc may even solve the issues if I am lucky

Yeah, but don't forget you're not really making any boost when stationary even if you rev it...

[greggy50]

Mave said:

Yeah, but don't forget you're not really making any boost when stationary even if you rev it...

Okay saw on vid i made bit of blue smoke under engine when revved stationary coming from turbo area I think it certainly fked...

I hope its a ko3 and not a ko3s currently as will be cheaper to replace!

[greggy50]

Actually realized mine is a ko3s as its a aum engine

FFS I fking hated this car even before it broke!

[greggy50]

Update smoke is getting worse off boost certainly the turbo is fked

I can get it rebuilt at the turbo centre for £100 + vat as long as it is just the seals with a 2yr guarantee and then my mate is going to give me a hand fitting it in a couple of weeks using a guide we found on the web...

[liner33]

its going to need more than seals to be repaired properly

[greggy50]

liner33 said:

its going to need more than seals to be repaired properly

Well they inspect it at the same time so I will be billed for how fked it is

£100 + vat is a basic rebuild kit with seals bearings etc...

[8bit]

greggy50 said:

liner33 said:

its going to need more than seals to be repaired properly

Well they inspect it at the same time so I will be billed for how fked it is

£100 + vat is a basic rebuild kit with seals bearings etc...

That seems unrealistically cheap. As liner33 says it will likey need more than just seals and bearings, if there's much play in the shaft then good chance the compressor wheel will have been turning against the cold-side housing so the wheel and housing may need replaced. When mine went I got quoted between £350 and £450 assuming it was economically viable to repair, if not then I could buy a new one for that sort of money as part exchange against my old one.

[greggy50]

8bit said:

That seems unrealistically cheap. As liner33 says it will likey need more than just seals and bearings, if there's much play in the shaft then good chance the compressor wheel will have been turning against the cold-side housing so the wheel and housing may need replaced. When mine went I got quoted between £350 and £450 assuming it was economically viable to repair, if not then I could buy a new one for that sort of money as part exchange against my old one.

I can get it evaluated and will see what the price is...

If it's too much will get it back and just rebuild it myself and pay someone to balance it for me as don't want to spend hundreds on this car as it's far too st for that!