Hi everyone,

I was out for a drive today, flat through 3rd and I hear a loud pop/whoosh noise, look in rear view and there's some black smoke also.

Car still ran but with no power, I can't hear the turbo spooling but it's not making any strange noises. I drove home and got it on the ramps where I found a hole in the pipe that connects directly to the turbo, all other pipes and connections look fine.

As a test I wrapped the hole in duct tape and refitted, with the aim of purchasing a replacement pipe should it fix the problem. However when testing there is still no power, and the CEL light has came on.

Any ideas what could be up with it?

I was thinking blown turbo but it's not even attempting to spin and there's no odd smoke out of the back. What I did notice is that the vacuum box on the O/S wing now makes a short buzz when the car turns off, could this be related? There seems to be a vacuum pipe runs from this to the turbo.

Edited 14 May, 201115 yr by Gaverick

possible that the boost pipe has blown but the reason for no power with the tape round It maybe the car has been put Into limp mode or something? Just a thought dude, hope It Isn't too bad!

Stuck in limp mode, or the hole in pipe was a turbo blade making a hasty exit.

The hole is about 2mm diameter, not sure what caused it, but wouldn't say it was a fan, touch wood. There are no rattles or whines, car runs just as normal at idle and up to about 1900rpm. How can I unstick the car from limp mode?

Thanks for the help so far guys. If the turbo was blown are there any obvious things I would notice?

Wud sound like a police siren. There a dude on here who took a vid of it

Duck tape is not really the correct thing to use, the smallest of air leaks will put the car into limp mode, so you'll have no turbo and limited power. Find someone with VAG-COM to read the cause of the CEL, I expect it to be boost pressure related.

Or,

Part of the turbo came off and this is what punctured the boost pipe.

I agree. You need to run some diagnostics for any good indication.

You can reset the limp mode and then try replacing the pipe (Go scrappy's for a cheap one).

If this fixes the problem, you are in luck.

I've checked the VNT by sucking on the vacuum hose, the mechanism moves freely under vacuum and then falls back to it's start point when the vacuum is released, so I can rule out the VNT as the problem.

I can't source a replacement pipe anywhere today, all the scrappies are shut and all of the dealers are shut too. I can't even get hold of anyone with VAGCOM so I'm a bit stuck at the moment.

I replaced the hose today but there has been no difference.

When replacing the hose there was a good few hundred ml of oil came out of the intake, which to me points to turbo failure, would you guys agree?

I can't think of anywhere else so much oil could have got in to the intake apart from the turbo seals.

Anyway, I'm planning to replace the turbo at the weekend with a friend, is there any critical advice that must be followed i.e. bolts that are one use only, gaskets that have to be replaced, cleaning of oil from certain components?

Thanks for the help guys, hopefully I can get this fixed fairly cheaply.

Any more advice on this guys, thanks.

I just replaced a turbo, suprisingly easy actually. Biggest tip: just have confidence and get stuck in!

I replaced all gaskets: turbo to exhaust, exhaust manifold and intake manifold (you have to take the intake mani off (6x6mm allen bolts) to get at the bolts for the exhaust mani annoyingly. I re-used all bolts and nuts. I'd also strip out all pipework and airbox too as some bolts can be a fiddle to get at; having a good socket set with a universal joint adaptor to hand was a god-send.

Other that that its pretty straight forward. You might as well also clean out your egr valve and intake manifold while you have them off so grab some carb cleaner from a motor factors before you start.

Good luck!

Edited 11 May, 201115 yr by Medium

I just replaced a turbo, suprisingly easy actually. Biggest tip: just have confidence and get stuck in!

I replaced all gaskets: turbo to exhaust, exhaust manifold and intake manifold (you have to take the intake mani off (6x6mm allen bolts) to get at the bolts for the exhaust mani annoyingly. I re-used all bolts and nuts. I'd also strip out all pipework and airbox too as some bolts can be a fiddle to get at; having a good socket set with a universal joint adaptor to hand was a god-send.

Other that that its pretty straight forward. You might as well also clean out your egr valve and intake manifold while you have them off so grab some carb cleaner from a motor factors before you start.

Good luck!

Thanks for that. I have all of the tools you mention so hopefully all will be well. My only worry is coming up against seized nuts and making sure I do the oil pipework properly.

Where did you get your gaskets from? I was thinking of reusing the originals with some mylomar gasket sealant as I have done this on the Puma rally car I'm building and it has sealed well.

I got the gaskets through a garage who are a friend of a friend; I'd replace rather than use instant gasket. I'm sure any local garage (or even Skoda parts dept.) will be able to get hold of gaskets for you.

The oil piping is straight forward really: spanner on the feed pipe and 2xT40's on the return from underneath (bit of a pain to access, but weren't on too tightly).

None of my bolts were in the slightest bit siezed and mine is a 54 plate. such a pleasure compared to the bangers I'm used to working with.

Coincidentally I'm building a Puma engined fiesta track car at the minute; that thing has been a pain of siezed bolts and worn out components, and I did use instant gasket too, however I care a little moer about my Fabia, so tried to do things properly; fully cleaned all intake piping and intercooler along with intake manifold and replaced all gaskets.

Got the old turbo off today, this is what I was greeted by!

It has well and truly destroyed itself.

I cleaned out all of the metal from the intercooler and pipe work then fitted the new turbo which I got for £225. I also changed all of the oil with some Castrol.

All seems fine now, huge puffs of black smoke when it first started, guessing it was all the crud in the exhaust clearing. I'll be keeping a close eye on it but all seems well now.

Not bad for £265 all in and the best part of a days labour, I'll be logging some data with vag com over the next few days to make sure all looks good.

Fair play for getting stuck in and doing it yourself bud =], what turbo did you replace it with?

Replaced it with a standard kkk. I'm due to sell the car soon so didn't want to pay extra for a Hybrid and a work college had this one going spare.

I'm having another problem now guys, there is oil leaking from the turbo on to the ground. I cleaned all of the oil up and let the car idle while I lay underneath and watched. The oil return is fine, no leaks there. The oil feed pipe to union seems fine too.

Where else could oil leak out of the turbo on to the ground? There is no oil in the turbo compressor side, and no white smoke from the exhaust so assume that there is no internal oil leak.

Could the oil feed union leak where it meets the turbo? I notice that there is a copper crush washer in there, could this need replacing?

I have a feeling I'm going to have to strip everything off again to investigate this.

it could be leaking under pressure when the car is under load.

You should have replaced all crush washers as a normal part of the process.

I would usually replace all crush washers, except in this instance I did not need to undo any connections which used crush washers so assumed all would be well.

However when talking to the person I got the turbo from, it seems when he removed the oil feed line from the turbo, it also loosened the union from the turbo. He tightened up the union again but I'm guessing that because the crush washer has been loosened, it will not seal up right even when retightened?

I'm planning to remove the union and refit it with a new crush washer, however should this fail, is there anywhere else oil could leak from on the turbo, apart from the feed and drain lines?

My thinking is that if enough oil was leaking to come out where the compressor bolts to the exhuast side, then it would also be burning in the exhaust and giving loads of smoke, but I have zero smoke.

Replace turbo oil feed and return lines. Ferrules tend to leak if re-used.

Is there a braided stainless hose that can be used as a replacement?

I've found this for the mk4 Golf TDI, but it appears to use banjo bolts, maybe the picture is not representative of the actual product?

http://www.brake-lines.co.uk/braided-turbo-oil-feed-hose-volkswagen-golf-tdi-mk4.html

I went to replace the crush washer today, when I removed the union from the turbo there was no crush washer on there, so I guess that was the source of the leak.

I refitted the union with a new crush washer and I seem to be leak free now. I will be keeping an eye on the oil level to make sure all is good.

Good job

Hope its trouble free from now on