Just seen quite a few posts about peoples turbos going, so thought id share mine.

Turbo decided to let go the weekend, totally loss of power, smoke billowing out from drivers front wheel area(turbo side) stop the car and checked under the bonnet and there was oil every where. Oil had kind of exploded everywhere, directly above turbo there was a large splat of oil. some oil had be thrown towards the radiator some how. lower Strut brace and everything around the turbo is soaked in oil. Had a quc=ick check underneath and all the oil feeds lines look intact, cant see any holes in anything. Turbo does sound fubared. Car did have a service earlier that day and the mechanic told me that the oil filter was basically blocked. :wonder:

so could the fresh oil and filter have anything to do with the turbo going? could the turbo of been under to much pressure?

Any ideas why there is so much oil everywhere?

:no:

Are all the air hoses still attached?

Are all the air hoses still attached?

yes as far as i can see. I had a hose pop off on me last week, but that was sorted straight away.

Mechanic also popped down to have a look and he cant understand why there is oil eveywhere. There is no oil showing at all on the dipstick, so its tottally emptied itself. There is no oil in the exhaust but there is oil spread down the drivers side of the car and up the back of the car.

yes as far as i can see. I had a hose pop off on me last week, but that was sorted straight away.

Mechanic also popped down to have a look and he cant understand why there is oil eveywhere. There is no oil showing at all on the dipstick, so its tottally emptied itself. There is no oil in the exhaust but there is oil spread down the drivers side of the car and up the back of the car.

Turbo oil seal failure, it's probably burnt most of the oil in the exhaust. Oil splatter could be any one of a number of things. Split oil feed pipe at the Ferrel union on the turbo, split boost hose joint.

Blocked oil filter is strange, should have thrown up oil pressure warning light. If car has been serviced on schedule, the only reason the filter would be blocked, is swarf debris from engine. (Assuming decent filter and correct oil has always been used.)

seems all that happens on these forums anymore is turbo failure :wonder: anyway mine just went and have upgraded to a garrett now (supposed to be better) give turbo technics a ring did part ex on mine for £500 ish. Its an expensive do getting a turbo replaced.

seems all that happens on these forums anymore is turbo failure :wonder: anyway mine just went and have upgraded to a garrett now (supposed to be better) give turbo technics a ring did part ex on mine for £500 ish. Its an expensive do getting a turbo replaced.

It's seasonal if you look at the old posts. Winter, fuse 15 and no wipers, PAS problems, bent wishbones from kerbing sideways. Spring/Summer, Turbo failure, as cars get booted after slower winter driving. Wait 3 months and the aircon posts will start to flood in

seems all that happens on these forums anymore is turbo failure :wonder: anyway mine just went and have upgraded to a garrett now (supposed to be better) give turbo technics a ring did part ex on mine for £500 ish. Its an expensive do getting a turbo replaced.

Any model number i need to quote to turbo technics?

is that a PD130 Turbo then or different turbo?

Any model number i need to quote to turbo technics?

is that a PD130 Turbo then or different turbo?

i just told them my car reg and that i wanted a garrett turbo. Its the pd130 garrett.

So many turbo failures, so little response from SKODA / VAG !!!

I currently own a 2006 Skoda Octavia 1.9TDi PD Ambiente which has only just completed 41,000 miles.

It has a FULL SKODA DEALER service history, the timing belt was replaced at 36,000 miles, everything

has been done EXACTLY as Skoda recommend.

The car has NEVER been thrashed or driven in anger.

I used to regularly get 60mpg over a tank of diesel.

3weeks ago whilst driving home, at a busy motorway junction, I was pulling out onto the roundabout and

suddenly, without any warning, noise or indication the car lost ALL POWER, engine dead, electronics alive,

but no engine, no brakes, no steering!!! It could have killed me!

Fortunately the oncoming vehicles managed to avoid my car and eventually some people pushed me to safety.

I have AA cover, so they assisted but the OBD2 laptop didn't report any engine fault codes whatsoever?

The engine still wouldn't start and some smoke was coming out of the turbo air-intake ducting as the AA

turned the engine over. He couldn't fix it at the roadside, so the car was taken to my nearest Skoda dealer,

the same place it goes for all services, timing belt exchange e.t.c.

After 2 days they diagnosed that:

(i) Turbo seized

(ii) Catastrophic turbo failure - turbine/fans disintegrated

(iii) Metal parts from turbo ended up inside intercooler

Their recommendation, to replace turbo £1200 + intercooler £500.

Cannot guarantee this will completely resolve issue, meatal parts may have reached engine!!

Also THEY ARE UNABLE TO CONFIRM THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE TURBO FAILURE!

Now, given that the car is only 5.5 years old, has only done 41,000 miles and has a FULL SKODA DEALER

SERVICE HISTORY, I would expect that Skoda would take some responsibility for this PREMATURE TURBO FAILURE.

However, they are saying that as the car is out of warranty (only 3 years with Skoda!), they are not

willing to pay anything towards the £1700 repair costs! The car is probably only worth £4000, so basically

it's half the value of the car!

I have heard that this particular Volkswagon Audi Group (VAG) turbo design has a known design fault, but

VAG are not admitting to it. The design fault is this:

The turbo relies entirely on engine oil to spin freely, it has no additional bearings, just oil.

The problem is that engine oil is fed to the turbo via a single braided pipe.

If the turbo is starved of oil for just 1 or 2 seconds it will seize and/or destroy itself.

It is easy to imagine that the likelyhood of this happening is fairly high, just a kink in the pipe,

some oil sludge or air bubbles is all it would take!

THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE! There is no warning at all, then complete loss of engine power, brakes &

steering.

I would like to know if anyone has experienced similar issues with early turbo failure.

I personally would NEVER buy ANY VAG car again!

David.

Turbo oil seal failure, it's probably burnt most of the oil in the exhaust.

If that was the case, smoke would've been pouring out the exhaust, OP doesn't mention that.

OP, fill car up with oil, and run it again on idle, it sounds like you've popped a oil line somewhere, if it's on the inside of your bonnet. Turbo will sound FUBAR'd as it's just been ran with no oil lo.

So many turbo failures, so little response from SKODA / VAG !!!

I currently own a 2006 Skoda Octavia 1.9TDi PD Ambiente which has only just completed 41,000 miles.

It has a FULL SKODA DEALER service history, the timing belt was replaced at 36,000 miles, everything

has been done EXACTLY as Skoda recommend.

The car has NEVER been thrashed or driven in anger.

I used to regularly get 60mpg over a tank of diesel.

3weeks ago whilst driving home, at a busy motorway junction, I was pulling out onto the roundabout and

suddenly, without any warning, noise or indication the car lost ALL POWER, engine dead, electronics alive,

but no engine, no brakes, no steering!!! It could have killed me!

Fortunately the oncoming vehicles managed to avoid my car and eventually some people pushed me to safety.

I have AA cover, so they assisted but the OBD2 laptop didn't report any engine fault codes whatsoever?

The engine still wouldn't start and some smoke was coming out of the turbo air-intake ducting as the AA

turned the engine over. He couldn't fix it at the roadside, so the car was taken to my nearest Skoda dealer,

the same place it goes for all services, timing belt exchange e.t.c.

After 2 days they diagnosed that:

(i) Turbo seized

(ii) Catastrophic turbo failure - turbine/fans disintegrated

(iii) Metal parts from turbo ended up inside intercooler

Their recommendation, to replace turbo £1200 + intercooler £500.

Cannot guarantee this will completely resolve issue, meatal parts may have reached engine!!

Also THEY ARE UNABLE TO CONFIRM THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE TURBO FAILURE!

Now, given that the car is only 5.5 years old, has only done 41,000 miles and has a FULL SKODA DEALER

SERVICE HISTORY, I would expect that Skoda would take some responsibility for this PREMATURE TURBO FAILURE.

However, they are saying that as the car is out of warranty (only 3 years with Skoda!), they are not

willing to pay anything towards the £1700 repair costs! The car is probably only worth £4000, so basically

it's half the value of the car!

I have heard that this particular Volkswagon Audi Group (VAG) turbo design has a known design fault, but

VAG are not admitting to it. The design fault is this:

The turbo relies entirely on engine oil to spin freely, it has no additional bearings, just oil.

The problem is that engine oil is fed to the turbo via a single braided pipe.

If the turbo is starved of oil for just 1 or 2 seconds it will seize and/or destroy itself.

It is easy to imagine that the likelyhood of this happening is fairly high, just a kink in the pipe,

some oil sludge or air bubbles is all it would take!

THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE! There is no warning at all, then complete loss of engine power, brakes &

steering.

I would like to know if anyone has experienced similar issues with early turbo failure.

I personally would NEVER buy ANY VAG car again!

David.

Turbos need driven hard occasionally to keep everything working especially the vanes which can coke up over time from slow driven and cause it to seize. A good run now and then helps clear the crap out

I would like to know if anyone has experienced similar issues with early turbo failure.

I personally would NEVER buy ANY VAG car again!

Turbo's fail on all makes/models of car, you can't blame the VAG group, some fail, some don't, there are plenty of VAG cars with 150k + miles runing faultlessly.

I have heard that this particular Volkswagon Audi Group (VAG) turbo design has a known design fault, but

VAG are not admitting to it.

The VAG group don't 'design' the turbo, turbo design is done by the actual turbo developers (Garrett and KKK for VAG examples).

The turbo relies entirely on engine oil to spin freely, it has no additional bearings, just oil.

The problem is that engine oil is fed to the turbo via a single braided pipe.

If the turbo is starved of oil for just 1 or 2 seconds it will seize and/or destroy itself.

How is this different to most if not all oil bearing turbo's? There are ball bearing turbo's, but they aren't often used on run of the mill production cars (mainly rally/motorsport applications). Oil bearing turbo's are found in probably 99% of road-going turbo cars.

It is easy to imagine that the likelyhood of this happening is fairly high, just a kink in the pipe,

some oil sludge or air bubbles is all it would take!

Then the car should be properly maintained with correct oil change intervals obeyed, more frequently for turbo's with a harder life (remapped to higher pressure or people who like to drive like idiots), allow oil pressure to reach optimum before driving, let turbo cool and pressure fall before turning engine off etc.

True, sometimes they do fail for no apparent reason, same story for any product on any car.

For the OP:

The KKK used in the skoda's is reputedly not as good as its Garrett counterpart. If your re-mapped ask Turbo Technics for an S210; thats the PD130 Garrett hybrid, good for ~200bhp. I paid about £800 for a complete unit and fitting is suprisingly easy if your willing to get your hands dirty. Its not a mechanically tricky process, just involves remmoving a lot of stuff from your engine bay. Either way, good luck with it!

Edited 4 September, 201114 yr by Medium

So many turbo failures, so little response from SKODA / VAG !!!

I currently own a 2006 Skoda Octavia 1.9TDi PD Ambiente which has only just completed 41,000 miles.

It has a FULL SKODA DEALER service history, the timing belt was replaced at 36,000 miles, everything

has been done EXACTLY as Skoda recommend.

The car has NEVER been thrashed or driven in anger.

I used to regularly get 60mpg over a tank of diesel.

3weeks ago whilst driving home, at a busy motorway junction, I was pulling out onto the roundabout and

suddenly, without any warning, noise or indication the car lost ALL POWER, engine dead, electronics alive,

but no engine, no brakes, no steering!!! It could have killed me!

Fortunately the oncoming vehicles managed to avoid my car and eventually some people pushed me to safety.

I have AA cover, so they assisted but the OBD2 laptop didn't report any engine fault codes whatsoever?

The engine still wouldn't start and some smoke was coming out of the turbo air-intake ducting as the AA

turned the engine over. He couldn't fix it at the roadside, so the car was taken to my nearest Skoda dealer,

the same place it goes for all services, timing belt exchange e.t.c.

After 2 days they diagnosed that:

(i) Turbo seized

(ii) Catastrophic turbo failure - turbine/fans disintegrated

(iii) Metal parts from turbo ended up inside intercooler

Their recommendation, to replace turbo £1200 + intercooler £500.

Cannot guarantee this will completely resolve issue, meatal parts may have reached engine!!

Also THEY ARE UNABLE TO CONFIRM THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE TURBO FAILURE!

Now, given that the car is only 5.5 years old, has only done 41,000 miles and has a FULL SKODA DEALER

SERVICE HISTORY, I would expect that Skoda would take some responsibility for this PREMATURE TURBO FAILURE.

However, they are saying that as the car is out of warranty (only 3 years with Skoda!), they are not

willing to pay anything towards the £1700 repair costs! The car is probably only worth £4000, so basically

it's half the value of the car!

I have heard that this particular Volkswagon Audi Group (VAG) turbo design has a known design fault, but

VAG are not admitting to it. The design fault is this:

The turbo relies entirely on engine oil to spin freely, it has no additional bearings, just oil.

The problem is that engine oil is fed to the turbo via a single braided pipe.

If the turbo is starved of oil for just 1 or 2 seconds it will seize and/or destroy itself.

It is easy to imagine that the likelyhood of this happening is fairly high, just a kink in the pipe,

some oil sludge or air bubbles is all it would take!

THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE! There is no warning at all, then complete loss of engine power, brakes &

steering.

I would like to know if anyone has experienced similar issues with early turbo failure.

I personally would NEVER buy ANY VAG car again!

David.

The exact same thing happened to me last saturday. To be fair I did give it the beans and went to pull out at a roundabout and it just died. I was lucky I didn't stop completely at the junction.

Was hoping not to have to post about another turbo related issue, but here we go!

Here is a short clip from when I was out on track last Saturday. Making some interesting noises at the end of the session. The annoying thing is, it hasn't made this sort of noise since. Just the usual turbo whistle (Which has always been quite loud since I fitted the PD150 2 years ago).

Funny noises from 10.35 onwards

I am taking the car in tomorrow to have the turbo checked over, so will report back on their findings....

Then the decision of what route to go down! Can't afford another turbo yet though :(