hi all- just looking for a bit of advise..

checked my oil the other day (wife said oil light had beeped!) oil was very low and black and sluggy.. made mental note to flush and drop oil.. fast forward a week and half- forgot to get around to oil change.. accelerating up a big hill to overtake, car loses power.. pull in and oil buzzer comes on. stop engine check oil- oil level low but ok. restart car.. starts fine oil light out all ok- start to accelerate off- power drops off, hell of a whining noise.. pull over, check oil etc- ok- try to start car, engine takes ages to start, starts and dies.. feels partially seized :(

managed to tow car home- started on drive (cranked for ages) really noisey and loads of blue smoke- my guesses is that turbo is u/s -so gonna strip down and check tommorow.. my only worry is that ive damaged the engine by sucking in broken turbo bits or running with no/low oil pressure..

any thoughts on the subject? looking at ebay, turbo's seem to be around the 300 mark- expensive outlay when it may not solve the problem :(

any advise would br greatly appreciated.

cheers, steve

Sounds like you've starved the engine of oil, while accelerating up a hill gravity would of been your enemy, even going round corners. What color was the warning light? Amber or red? If it was red than that's the oil pressure warning not the low oil light

red not looking good- although it still cranks and eventualy starts? :S

looking on ebay second hand engines are massively expensive- car write off prices :( :( this is so not looking good.. bad day :(

red not looking good- although it still cranks and eventualy starts? :S

Think you would be very lucky if it was just the turbo, I won't be surprised if the engines damaged, the part about having to crank it over would point to that. The turbo wouldn't effect starting m8. Really do hope I'm wrong m8, do diesels have the oil pick up pipe problem like the Vrs? Sounds more like that problem than just low oil

...do diesels have the oil pick up pipe problem like the Vrs...

They have exactly the same pickup, but it is extremely rare for one to get blocked.

update-

spent day removing turbo- completely ruined.. removed head- pistons all ok , no signs of damage- valves all ok bottom end turns silky smooth..

when removing turbo oil feed pipe- no oil present (last time i removed one had noticeable dribble of oil) dropped oil- black and manky, removed filter- partially colapsed and full of black solid gunk :(

it looks like the oil has never changed? even tho i changed it last year (admittedly longer than i should have left it.. ) the inside of the rocker cover was 1/2 inch thick with this oily black crap..

are the tdi engine prone to excessive gudge build up in the lubrication system?

so from what i can gather, looks like a replacement turbo :( headgasket set, bolt set, timing belt kit, oil change.. oh and before i do those things maybe drop the sum and try and degrease all the crap from the oilways :(

an expensive oil change :( :( :(

Yikes good and bad news i suppose

Edited 6 April, 201214 yr by BigJase88

i did the elephant mod about a year ago? blanked egr valve.. seems really strange- as if it went from nice clean 'ish' oil to black grease in approx 1 month :( im thinking in future oil change and flush every 6 mths?

Diesels turn oil black in 5 minutes not like a petrol engine at all

Great news m8, and a lil bad. Id change the oil pump to be on the safe side if I was you. What oil did you use?

Great news m8, and a lil bad. Id change the oil pump to be on the safe side if I was you. What oil did you use?

+1

and chain

5-30 syntec vag stuff.. :S

whereabouts is the oil pump on these engines? at the very least i will flush it, if not replace it.. isnt it usually a mare of a job to replace oil pumps? full engine strip down? :( hope to avoid going down that route if i can help it.. last time i stripped an engine, ended up replacing everything.. pistons rings all bearings etc- ended up very expensive.. plus the car is a bit of a workhorse, so dont really want to spend mega bucks sorting it.. :no:

The oil pump is in the sump.

i'll pop the sump off tomorrow and have a look/clean

cheers for all your input always a nightmare these scenario's..

Err chain? What's that for? Dunno about diesels

Err chain? What's that for? Dunno about diesels

Drives the oil pump - same as the petrol. If the pump has been trying to pump 'treacle' the chain can stretch.

Thanks didn't know about that

treacle is being optimistic.. more like plasticine :(

Out of interest how many miles has the engine done? How many miles since you last changed the oil?

engine has done 80k.. done about 10k over 14mths.. :(

Mostly short journeys?

no- mainly motorway miles? very strange.. im gonna run diagnostics on it before spending any money- just in case any 'nasty' faults are stored as the difficulty starting is playing on my mind.. :(

Sounds strange, would of expected what you found on a short trip not ever serviced car.

Any oil leaks? Or lack of oil from day one when you last changed it? Could be that that wore the oil out really quickly.

no- engine nice and oil tight, not burning/leaking any oil.. oil level was up to the mark.. the only work carried out since last oil change was to remove and clean the turbo (about 9mths ago) been going fantastic since.. cant really explain it- seems that the oil just decided to solidify :(

in future, im gonna keep a very careful eye on it, change it every 6mths/6k and use oil flush.. im debating on removing the oil catch/ breather thing ontop of the rocker cover and connecting a hose and an oil catcher?

ive owned 'other manufactures' turbo diesels for the past 15 years and have never seen anything like this.. strange.. perhaps a cheap/ inferior quality oil filter- thats the only thing i can think of..