Lost a liter of oil, oil in intercooler piping, catastropic failure?

My TDI has been such a good little car until a few days ago. Heres what happened:

I was driving on the highway for a long time. Just about to hit 800km for the day. Coming down a big hill i heard a buzz, never heard it before and never thought anything of it. Kept driving then a few moments later at the bottom of the hill, the oil light came on. Then the buzzer again. I immediately put it in neutral and shut the engine down and coasted to a stop.

I get out, pop the hood, look around. And there is a huge puddle of oil underneath the car. Near the backside kinda below the turbo. At this point I wanted to cry, I closed the hood and did what I had to do, call a tow truck. Luckily I was almost back home again.

So the car sat in the driveway for a few days until today when I decided to investigate. Only the backside of the engine and turbo are coated with oil. So I suspect the oil came from there somewhere. I can't tell exactly where it is coming from. At first I thought it was the oil line because I stupidly reused it when I had the exhaust mani off changing gaskets. Then I took the intercooler piping apart and found a ton of oil inside of there too. What does this mean? Is my turbo toast? How hard is it to change just a turbo?

I understand that there is a number of places where the oil could come from. Blown turbo seals, blown head gasket (I doubt this one), main seals? Oil line?

The thing is though, the oil came out crazy fast after I stopped. Looked like about at least half a liter under the car. And I walked back down the road and saw oil drops everywhere, though the road was wet so it could have made it look worse than it was.

I ended up adding just a liter of oil and it brought it back up to where it was supposed to be. Ugh, Im just so sad now. My poor TDI!!! Someone hold me...

OK, update.

I sucked it up and decided to go start the engine and search for a leak. I can't see exactly where the oil is coming from, but I'm almost certain that it is the oil line that feeds the turbo. I could hear a squirting noise and oil was pouring out from behind the intake. I shut the engine down then stuck my fingers down where the oil line connects up with the turbo and I felt nice fresh black oil. So I think I found the problem!

At first the oil wasn't squirting out. But I gave it a few quick shots of throttle and thats when it started. But the oil light never came on. Im going to assume that when the problem initially occured, the turbo would have still been getting at least some oil. So hopefully no damage was done.

But what about this oil in the intercooler piping? Is that a concern? Should I take that all apart and clean it up? I've read about how it is normal to have oil in there, but given the circumstances of my problem, it does worry me a bit. And what about checking the freeplay in the turbo and checking the fans? Can I do all this without much problem? And changing the oil line, how hard of a job is that in itself?

Im going to wait to hear at least a few responses before I go ahead and order a new line. But Im getting warm feelings again. I missed the smell of diesel. Starting the car up and smelling the exhaust just put a smile on my face

Nah, after a certain amount of time you'll end up with oil in the intercooler piping and a bunch in the bottom of the intercooler itself. Since the intercooler is the lowest spot in the system, any oil that blows into the system will gravitate toward the intercooler. Pull that thing and be impressed with all the oil that pours out! I got five or six ounces when I pulled mine a couple of months ago.

When you replace the turbo oil line, make sure that both support clamps on the oil line are in place and secured. If not, vibration will break it again.

How do I know that the mechanic who worked on my car reinstalled them? What do they look like? And where do I buy them?

I did see a piece that was wrapped around the line, but it looked like a clamp, but it was broke. Im goin gto go look at it now to see if I see anything...

Diesel Fumes said:

How do I know that the mechanic who worked on my car reinstalled them? What do they look like? And where do I buy them?

I did see a piece that was wrapped around the line, but it looked like a clamp, but it was broke. Im goin gto go look at it now to see if I see anything...

Click to expand...

There should be a rubber wrapped metal clamp bolted to a bracket from the exhaust manifold, and the same clamp bolted to the metal bracket at the end of the head.

It's not unusual for mechanics to either leave these off, or not bolted up because "they're not needed".

ok, so im going to attempt to install the new line tomorrow. I've read that it is *possible* to do without removing the intake. I can't find good information or tips on the install in general. Can anyone here give me some pointers?

Diesel Fumes said:

ok, so im going to attempt to install the new line tomorrow. I've read that it is *possible* to do without removing the intake. I can't find good information or tips on the install in general. Can anyone here give me some pointers?

Click to expand...

Anythings possible. Sure is easier with the intake off. I've done it both ways, and prefer to spend the 15 minutes pulling the intake. You have to pull the intercooler pipes anyway, so.........

paramedick said:

Anythings possible. Sure is easier with the intake off. I've done it both ways, and prefer to spend the 15 minutes pulling the intake. You have to pull the intercooler pipes anyway, so.........

Click to expand...

really only 15 mins to pull the intake? Wow, ok, i'll just do that then. I'm sure I can find good information on how to do it.

Actually wont be doing this until next week. Had to put an order in for some extra parts. Washers, screws, etc.

Diesel Fumes said:

really only 15 mins to pull the intake? Wow, ok, i'll just do that then. I'm sure I can find good information on how to do it.

Actually wont be doing this until next week. Had to put an order in for some extra parts. Washers, screws, etc.

Click to expand...

That's 15 minutes for me. I've done a lot of them, and have the proper tools to make it easy. I use 6 mm long shaft ball end socket, wobble extensions, swivel ratchets, and 6mm short ball end socket. I also have backups and bolt outs in case something strips or breaks.

Diesel Fumes said:

really only 15 mins to pull the intake? Wow, ok, i'll just do that then. I'm sure I can find good information on how to do it.

Click to expand...

Don't even begin to think you will get the intake manifold off in 15 minutes. On a perfect day with the perfect car and with the perfect tools and with many previously removed as practice, some folks might be able to do that. A newbie will take 2 hours or so to remove it.

ninedee_golf_tdi said:

Don't even begin to think you will get the intake manifold off in 15 minutes. On a perfect day with the perfect car and with the perfect tools and with many previously removed as practice, some folks might be able to do that. A newbie will take 2 hours or so to remove it.

Click to expand...

And that's 15 minutes after the intercooler piping is removed.