signs of blown turbo

my car goes through oil quite quick but i drained the inter cooler but did not drain the piping and im not sure if alot came out or if its normal but it was about 7-10 teaspoons hard to estimate. The car blows white smoke at start up quite a big cloud for a bit but i dont notice white smoke while driving. before ordering turbo i want to make sure its the trubo is-there a way to diagnose a bad turbo. i know it need actuator because the boost is laggy.

White smoke is unburned fuel. The turbo may well be bad but it's probably not the cause of *white* smoke.

I have had catastrophic turbo failures in the past; they were all prefaced by a fairly loud pop and then a constant cloud of white smoke wafting under the hood while sitting idle. When I tried to drive away after stopping, my engine attempted to runaway so I killed the engine and waited for a tow truck.

Genesis said:

White smoke is unburned fuel. The turbo may well be bad but it's probably not the cause of *white* smoke.

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What would cause white smoke ? Car seems to run fine no miss or hesitations.

One cause can be a bad injector or cylinder that is very low on compression and thus that one hole is not firing until the engine runs a bit. The concern here would be if you have an injector that is bad and either not sealing properly or has a poor pattern it can wash down the cylinder and that causes excessive wear in that bore.

A puff of white smoke is also not uncommon on a cold start with these engines, especially in colder weather, if one or more glow plugs is not working. It's normal in that instance (the cylinders without working plugs don't fire on the first few revs) but will also throw the MIL light as the glowplug circuit is monitored. That's not something that has to be immediately fixed unless you're in a location that does emissions testing (the MIL light will fail the car, so you have no option but to fix it in that case.)

Genesis said:

One cause can be a bad injector or cylinder that is very low on compression and thus that one hole is not firing until the engine runs a bit. The concern here would be if you have an injector that is bad and either not sealing properly or has a poor pattern it can wash down the cylinder and that causes excessive wear in that bore.

A puff of white smoke is also not uncommon on a cold start with these engines, especially in colder weather, if one or more glow plugs is not working. It's normal in that instance (the cylinders without working plugs don't fire on the first few revs) but will also throw the MIL light as the glowplug circuit is monitored. That's not something that has to be immediately fixed unless you're in a location that does emissions testing (the MIL light will fail the car, so you have no option but to fix it in that case.)

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I see I have zero engine codes I know my car's always smoked white at start up but I've never really lost any oil. I just drained the intercooler again I did it yesterday and there's oil in it again.

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I'd say you probably have a turbo problem EXCEPT for the white smoke on start. That would lead me to check for the other possible source before tearing the turbo off.

That's the PCV puck and grossly-excessive blowby that it can't collect. It vents into the intake tract. To check for that drain the pancake pipe and then temporarily route the PCV hose to a vented crap can (plug the hole going into the intake plumbing as otherwise unfiltered air will be drawn in!) If the oil now shows up in the crap can and NOT in the pancake pipe then you've got internal engine problems producing large amounts of blow-by -- this can also lead to white smoke on a start...

If you DON'T get the oil in the crap can and it is in the pancake pipe after a couple of days driving then it's gotta be the turbo since that's the only other oil source.

Isolate before spending money and tearing things apart but if it's the turbo change it soon -- if it's leaking oil that badly it doesn't have long to live.

i took a look at the turbo absolutely zero play i didn't look on exhaust side because its a pain to get off it. i think im just going to get it checked out by a mechanic i took that puck off and there was only little bit of oil on the sides, nothing crazy and dripping out also the pancake pipe seemed to be oil free just a little oil misting on the sides aswell.

Normally if the turbo is leaking oil excessively the pancake pipe will have quite a bit in it; it's a "low point" between the outlet of the turbo and the intercooler.

Genesis said:

Normally if the turbo is leaking oil excessively the pancake pipe will have quite a bit in it; it's a "low point" between the outlet of the turbo and the intercooler.

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I installed a catch can now to track down where this oils coming from but no oil in the catch can just vapour. The odd thing is my dipstick shows full again since I put a catch can in I'm not sure what this means but it's weird. I'll check intercooler tommrow to see if there's oil in it. Also what pancake pipe are you talking about ? The one that i unclamped to check the turbo ? I know at the bottom where it clamps to the turbo it had a mist of oil in it but I did not take it out to see if it's got oil siting in the pipe wouldn't their be oil on the intake side of turbo ?

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The "pancake pipe" is named that because it's sort of flattened. It attaches to the hose that goes to the turbo outlet on one end, and to the intercooler inlet on the other.

If you're bypassing oil on the PCV system it usually is continuous and pretty obvious immediately, so that's not likely where the problem is -- and points toward the turbo. But the pancake pipe WILL have oil in it if the turbo is leaking badly.

Genesis said:

The "pancake pipe" is named that because it's sort of flattened. It attaches to the hose that goes to the turbo outlet on one end, and to the intercooler inlet on the other.

If you're bypassing oil on the PCV system it usually is continuous and pretty obvious immediately, so that's not likely where the problem is -- and points toward the turbo. But the pancake pipe WILL have oil in it if the turbo is leaking badly.

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Alright ill check that pipe tommrow. so I can take my catch can out then the guy was saying it could be just my ccv puck causing issue.

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I was that guy, and yes, it can be, but if it is it's not the puck, it's the engine and it's in BAD shape! The puck just happens to be where the blowby (and oil) GOES.

I've not seen a TDI enough of a mess internally to cause that sort of thing but I *have* seen it on other vehicles (needless to say if the blowby coming out of the valve cover is that bad your engine doesn't have long to live!) I just hate to see things torn apart without knowing you're tearing into the right part of the car.

Genesis said:

I was that guy, and yes, it can be, but if it is it's not the puck, it's the engine and it's in BAD shape! The puck just happens to be where the blowby (and oil) GOES.

I've not seen a TDI enough of a mess internally to cause that sort of thing but I *have* seen it on other vehicles (needless to say if the blowby coming out of the valve cover is that bad your engine doesn't have long to live!) I just hate to see things torn apart without knowing you're tearing into the right part of the car.

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alright so my car somehow filled back up with oil after i put the catch can in now today it shows low again.i still have my catch can in still no oil in it. i checked the pancake pipe no oil in it not even a drip but there is oil in the intercooler another stream of oil came out. im really confused on why the oil went up then back down i didn't add any. and i really dont know if the turbos bad or whats going on.

Let's hope the oil really did not go up and then back down, because if it did that's not oil -- it's either coolant (and is obvious it is) or FUEL.

The other possibility is you're not waiting for drainback sometimes and are at others, or the car is (fairly severely) un-level when you're checking it sometimes and not others.

Oil doesn't magically reappear and there's no way for it to get back into the crankcase once it goes into the intercooler.

Genesis said:

Let's hope the oil really did not go up and then back down, because if it did that's not oil -- it's either coolant (and is obvious it is) or FUEL.

The other possibility is you're not waiting for drainback sometimes and are at others, or the car is (fairly severely) un-level when you're checking it sometimes and not others.

Oil doesn't magically reappear and there's no way for it to get back into the crankcase once it goes into the intercooler.

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i drain the intercooler on ramps as i cant reach the screw. as for checking oil i check it with the car off in the same spot in my driveway its not the most even spot. im not missing any coolant car still runs great it also only has 256000km. i do know my actuator on my turbo is not working properly but i dont think that would cause the issues.

Well the facts remain facts. Oil doesn't disappear from the crankcase and then magically reappear. If the stick level is low either (1) you didn't allow it to drain back after shutting down, (2) you measured it on an incline and thus didn't get a true level or (3) it's gone. If the level later goes UP then either (1) you measured it wrong the first time and it wasn't actually gone or (2) you have something contaminating the oil and all the "somethings" are very bad news.

I'd figure out which is the case before you start throwing money around.

Genesis said:

Well the facts remain facts. Oil doesn't disappear from the crankcase and then magically reappear. If the stick level is low either (1) you didn't allow it to drain back after shutting down, (2) you measured it on an incline and thus didn't get a true level or (3) it's gone. If the level later goes UP then either (1) you measured it wrong the first time and it wasn't actually gone or (2) you have something contaminating the oil and all the "somethings" are very bad news.

I'd figure out which is the case before you start throwing money around.

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It must of not drained down after I shut it off. I checked it straight away and didn't let it sit. I'll keep an eye on it for meantime and take it to a shop if I can't figure it out. Thanks.

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Give the engine a few minutes to drain back after you shut it down. ~5 minutes (enough time to fill the car with fuel) is sufficient for most of it to drain back.

I agree^^^ get car as close to level as is possible and wait 5 minutes before checking oil level.