Hi, last month I posted on behalf of a friend of mine who drives a SEAT TOLEDO 1.9 TDi 110bhp.

His car went bang while driving on a motorway resulting in billowing black smoke. The AA guy told him it was a common problem on the VAG TDi engine for the oil seal/s to go and leak oil into the engine.

Fearing the worst he looked at a recon engine and even approached a notoriously dodgy engine replacement outfit in Heathrow.

However today he started the car and it started OK but was billowing white smoke out the exhaust!

He now thinks that the problem may not be as serious as he first thought but he has asked me to post on here to see if there are any mechanical bods out there who may know what this problem may be and how straight forward it may be to put right.

It does appear to a novice like myself that an oil seal has gone somewhere but it would seem that this is a common problem on higher mileage TDi's and hopefully because of this something someone out there would know about.

I can get more details about the fault, what happened when it first happened etc if necessary but I hope that there may be enough information here to give a good idea of the problem.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

IIRC white smoke is turbo related and not good

Check the pipes to the turbo are all connected.

I'd suggest that the turbo might well have given up and oil etc is leaking past the seals in this. That is replaceable for not a huge amount compared to the cost of a new engine.

A decent indy garage would be able to help there. Failing that Alards etc could put a bigger turbo etc on it and remap it for not much more than a main dealer turbo replacement

Whatever you do don't drive it as if the impeller in the turbo does give up and shatter it's going to cost a lot more.

agreed , probably a turbo fault , i would suggest that he doesn't run the engine again until the fault has been correctly diagnosed , as all that is happening is the engine oil is being pumped out of a turbo seal , it will do this until the engine runs out of oil , not a good thing to happen

excellent advice and thanks to you all for your replies. I'll pass this information on to my mate for him to take further.

Much appreciated.

Thanks Again