Help! Bust Turbo??

(Manual J-spec TT6, approx 38.5k miles)

OMG my beloved Supe is having a bad weekend!! Please help me guys!!

1st Prob

I'm getting clouds of blueish smoke when I floor it from a standstill, only seems to be after the car has warmed up and sat in traffic for a few minutes. This happened once yesterday but I couldn't make it happen again. It's since happened 2~3 times today!

2nd Prob:

The 2nd turbo doesn't seem to be working any more!

I get a slow build to 0.7 bar boost on the first turbo, then it dips at 3,500 revs (as normal), but then only gets back up to 0.7 bar again, at about 4,200 revs (instead of what I was getting: 0.7 bar almost immediately as I put my foot down, small dip at 3500 revs, then a solid 0.8bar from 4000 onwards.

Are the two related? I was assuming that the 2nd prob is a blown/split/popped-off hose, but the clouds of blueish smoke... please tell me my turbos are ok!!

TIA

Steve

at 38.5k miles highly unlikely unless the car has not been looked after, (oil starvation, little oil change) but from what you describe it sounds like the turbos,

are you lossing oil? if so how much?

is it smoking blue on idle?

any whining noise from the turbos? (not the usual whistle noise)

Good luck mate, keep us posted. plenty of help on here and solid advice from others.

blue smoke on idle when warm stem seals ????

check you vacum lines could find if you are not hitting boost on the second could be one of i would start at the small pipes come off the boost piping on top of the turbos

There is no smoke on idle that I can see, and no burning oil smell when I go round the back and have a quick sniff.

No whining from the turbos that I've noticed, and I'm paranoid about noises coming from cars, so I think I'd have noticed - plus I've bene paying extra special attention since I saw the first cloud of smoke.

There doesn't seem to be much oil loss, problem is I haven't checked it for about 500miles - it's about 2/3rd of teh way down from "F" to "L" at the moment, but I'm not going to drive it till it's fixed, of course.

As far as I can tell, it's had 1 owner in Japan, it's in mint condition (no mods, bar boost guage and turbo timer - which I use also (and I never boost until it's warmed up for a good 10 mins)) so I'd be surprised if it's been abused - even Jurgen said it pulled at least as well if not better than all the other stock TTs he'd imported - it did for me too until today!

Tell me what to check guys... and what the £££ damage might be.

P.S. I'm hoping to send it to Chris Wilson for a full service & check over soon too BTW - I planned this before the problems arose, just to be sure it's got all the right fluids & plugs etc in the right places, and so on.

Thanks guys,

Steve

if you are going to see chris wilson then he is the best man do have a look and then you can take it from there

if you are going to see chris wilson then he is the best man do have a look and then you can take it from there

i twos that, it may be nothing mate, when your paranoid you see and hear thing which arent really there, i went through the same when i first got my soop.

ok well, I guess it can sit in the garage till I can afford the service, lol!

There is definitely blue smoke tho... (and deffo down on power - not only can I feel it but I have a boost gauge and can see it) and I have to admit I'm worried!!!

If anyone else has any ideas or help in diagnosing the problem, or a likley place to look for bust/popped-off hoses, please let me know!

The only thing the blue smoke makes me think of is an early manifestation of the valve stem seals - but the car seems too low a mileage and in good nick for it to be that... Odd.

The slow turbo boost sounds like a leak of some sort. It's the tedious check-all-your-hoses job for you

-Ian

Sorry to hear your having problems Steve But as Ian says, sounds like a leak of some sort. Check out the hoses, specially around the top and bottom of the turbo pipe work in the engine. I'm sure Chris will be able to shed some light on the smoke. Fingers crossed for you mate.

Wow, thats such low mileage!

check all your pipes mate , nismo lp had one of his coil paks come loose and was really paranoid when it lost performnace and smoke a little took it to local garage and bingo sorted, loose coli packs, your may be split or lose piping deffo not turbos

OK I feel a little better now, thanks guys I'll take a magnifying glass into the garage with me tonight and have a good look round...

Will keep you posted - thanks for the replies

Oh and - valve stem seals - are they expensive to get fixed if they have gone?

Wow, thats such low mileage!

yes, very low indeed.

At such low mileage all small hoses will be nice and soft, nothing like the cracked and hardened original hoses of our high-mileage examples.

They do seem nice and soft, I might take each one off in turn and give them a clean & thorough checking-over (if I can get to both ends with a screwdriver in my 10 thumbed hands!)

Trying not to think about blueish smoke,

Steve

Going to get this done over the weekend I hope (I'm also being shown how to replace a head gasket on my orion runabout - doh! lol).

Quick question tho - how do I get to all the hoses I need to get to - I assume the intercooler is accessible by removing the airbox, or can I get to it from underneath? Where the flip are the other hoses?

My car is completely stock BTW.

Thanks in advance (again!), you chaps rule!

Have a look:

Here for the plumbing

And here for turbo woes

Some useful stuff here as well

-Ian

Wow!! Thanks Ian, you're a star

Hope you find its nothing to serious mate

steve have you changed plugs yet mate

(Thanks Martin, me too!! )

No dude, haven't done anything to it yet.

I plan to check the hoses are all where they should be (I'm pretty sure I've popped/split one), and not drive it at all until I can get it to CW for a full checkover and full service, as originally planned.

Winter is pretty much here already (at least that's what I'm telling myself )so I wasn't planning on driving it much at this time of year anyway.

The smoke has only happened a 3~4 times, and always been when I put my foot to the floor.

fingers crossed nothing serious, as if its not using oil, revs ok in idle, it just needs a service and u may have popped pipe at worst case.

Will keep thos thread updated as I work on the beast over the weekend. It has certainly used some oil, but I'm not sure if that has been gradual over several hundred miles, or something that has just started.

Anyway... this weekend will hopefully reveal all.

If the second turbo had gone pop, would he not get a reduction in boost to around 0.3/0.4 bar? Could be a VSV or something I suppose.

Right, the weekend dissapeared changing the head gasket on my 2nd car, although I did check out all the hoses that you can get to from the engine bay and they'll all like new now - they were just dirty before but now they're all clean shiny (and flexible and feel like they're welded in place!).

So... how do I get to the intercooler itself, is it from underneath by removing the engine undertray? Or am I on a wild good chase?

Fixing this lack/reduced boost thing would be a good plan before I drive it all the way to CWs for a full service (nearly 100 miles at a guess) I think - even if I try to drive it off-boost? :|

TIA, Steve

is the car drivable?? is it smoking loads??? or has it just lost a little power if so i think a trip to c.w will do no harm but if it car dling funny and smoking like a trooper then its something big but i think it just needs a service dont worry man