What blew up?

A friend called me today who has a 2013 Passat TDI (DSG) and had it since new with 112,000 miles on it. He is an insurance agent and kept the car rather than sell it back to VW. He had the "fixes" applied and loved the car.

Yesterday as he was driving 75 MPH heading to a meeting, he said the car sped up by itself for a few seconds, then shuddered, and slowed down to a stop with smoke billowing out of the hood area. He had it towed to the local VW dealer. This is what they saw:



The car has been serviced regularly since new. Sees only diesel with no additives, and recently had a fuel filter change and a valve cover gasket replaced. He does not abuse this car as it's his business vehicle.

The techs at the shop were scratching their heads guessing that the fuel rail exploded. He was told VW will be sending in a head tech to evaluate the damage. This is the only picture he had. They gave him a loner.

Any guesses?

Boy that sure looks ugly and expensive. Hopefully the extended warranty after the fix will cover the bill. Keep us posted please and good luck.

Skimax said:

Boy that sure looks ugly and expensive. Hopefully the extended warranty after the fix will cover the bill. Keep us posted please and good luck.

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Yes, I will keep this updated.

Looks like maybe the crankcase overpressurized for some reason and blew out from around the oil cap.

my guess is the turbo blew, both external and internal oil leakage (see the right side of the oil fill cap) and it fed the engine with a ton of oil myst that it used for fuel- ECU seen the problem and shut the intake throttles, why it effected the cover is beyond me- maybe turbo parts ?

Ah, the turbo theory sounds good. Maybe the turbo passed so much oil it hydrolocked the motor and blew out a glowplug or injector. Or maybe a bad injector caused a hydrolock/ parts ejection.

I’d like to know also, that does look ugly. Speeding up on its own sounds like oil sucked into the intake and a runaway situation of some kind. I wonder if the intake is in one piece?

turbobrick240 said:

Ah, the turbo theory sounds good. Maybe the turbo passed so much oil it hydrolocked the motor and blew out a glowplug or injector. Or maybe a bad injector caused a hydrolock/ parts ejection.

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good point about the injector, the gen2 had first revision of solenoid injectors that could do multiple injections per combustion process. I think if there's an issue with them the just stick open and flood the combustion chamber usually causing more power and then hydro lock then, bam launch an GP or injector prob bent rod as well.

I'm thinking that or turbo, but I hope the dealer can easily diagnose a failed turbo.

Def keep us informed with what the dealer finds.

Saw owner this morning. He will be going to visit the car later today. He did say the dealership is very small and not that sharp on diesels. i'll keep this updated.

Owner went to the dealership and the car has not been touched. I guess they are waiting for the expert tech to show up, but friend removed part of the cover and snapped this picture:



Is that an injector I see sitting there?

I wonder if this car had an injector serviced or replaced at some point and the tech re-used the single use bolt. There are two bolts that hold the four injectors.

Looks like the injector blew out. Strange.

According to the owner whom I spoke with today, the techs at the dealer said the injector hold down bolts broke (quickly looking at it). The car was serviced recently after the "fix" and he had a valve cover gasket replaced and an oil change.

He said he never asked for or was told the car needed any injector service. He had the car since new and I have seen it almost daily (we have coffee most mornings with a group of friends). Anytime the car needed anything, or if he thought it had an issue, ge would ask me before going to the dealer for service. He didn't trust them and the car being used as a company one, he wanted 100% service documentation.

and the question is, do those hold down bolts need to be removed during a valve cover gasket? He was lucky that thing wasn't in regen when that happened!

IBW nailed it. They either did not replace and/or did not properly torque something.

Let's hope the injector clamp bolt threaded hole in the head is not damaged.

I wonder what caused the car to speed up for a few seconds. You'd think you'd just lose power immediately if all that happened was a bolt backing out or breaking.

Maybe this is the symptom, not the actual problem. Like there was a runaway or hydrolock from a blown turbo or something, and the pressure in the cylinder was so great it blew the injector out. Seems doubtful, though, as you'd think that would happen more often when plenty of instances of rods bending occurs without anything like this.

He (the owner) will be trying to get additional pictures today with the engine cover completely off.

I went with the owner to the shop and took these pictures. Clearly the small clamp bolt broke. I've never seen one of these clamp bolts new and I am wondering if the "neck down" in the failed area is caused by stretching?






Now the real guess is what will VW do to fix this car? Will they try to remove the broken bolt and install the injectors and clamp after they check out the cylinders and injectors?

Will they decide that a new head is in order and new injectors and other parts and repair it that way?

Thoughts?

I hope they make it right for him. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that a whole new engine might be needed. It sure looks like oily residue on the cover in that first photo. Like the turbo failed and passed enough oil to hydrolock. Then got pushed out when the injectors popped out.

Must have made one hell of a noise. Wake you right up.

Wow! Hope he gets a new engine out of that!

turbobrick240 said:

I hope they make it right for him. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that a whole new engine might be needed. It sure looks like oily residue on the cover in that first photo. Like the turbo failed and passed enough oil to hydrolock. Then got pushed out when the injectors popped out.

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I have to agree. My first thought was turbo failure and hydrolock since he said it definitely sped up on him before the big shudder and smoke.

Given the fact that these VW dealer shops don't "repair" anything, I'll bet he gets a new engine.

I'd hope the dealer would be looking at other places to cause the issue than focusing on this symptom as Oilhammer pointed out.

From the description how it went down def sounds like hydro lock/stuck injector.

The verdict is in:

The verdict is in:

Blown turbo.......and resultant damage. All to be fixed under warranty.

good to hear they are warranting it.

clean diesel turbo failures are not just our problem, I have friends with this same issue on big rigs to small. mostly caused by extreme heat during regeneration- make sure to run top quality oil, keep it changed and never shut down in regin as even the best oil's cannot fight 1200F soaking heat, nor can the seals.

aja8888 said:

The verdict is in:
Blown turbo.......and resultant damage. All to be fixed under warranty.

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Any idea how extensive is the damage?

oilhammer: When a VW CRTDI blows a turbo, how often will it cause this extensive amount of damage? Would there have been some alarming sounds prior to the turbo breaking?

We don't yet have the whole story here. Might never.

tdiatlast said:

Any idea how extensive is the damage?
oilhammer: When a VW CRTDI blows a turbo, how often will it cause this extensive amount of damage? Would there have been some alarming sounds prior to the turbo breaking?

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The VW tech is going to start digging into the engine after the holidays. I doubt they will pull it apart very far. They will probably order a new crate engine, but if I see or hear anymore, I'll post it.