Engine has no power after pop noise while driving

[HercFE]

Hey guys. My wife's 2014 Sportwagen TDI had to be towed home the other day. It made a audible "pop" noise while she was driving it, then what she described as kind of an air escaping/pressure loss sort of noise followed by almost a complete loss of power. I suspected a boost hose had popped off, but after looking at all of them I can't they are all still in place, and I haven't found any cracks/ruptures anywhere. I've been all over it with a flashlight and mirror, pulled the intake box and have looked at everything all the way up to the turbo. I was also replacing the smaller electric fan so I pulled the nose of the car off and when I undid the lower boost hose at the intercooler on the drivers side about 2-3 cups of oil poured out! Was not prepared for that and made a huge mess. The oil is a bit low for what I'm used to when I check it. It's always right up at the full mark and right now it's halfway between add and full. It has never used oil in the past, and it isn't smoking at all.
The car has 190k on it, it's completely stock. I keep up on my maintenance. I pulled codes with VCDS and there weren't any.
Any ideas?

 

[P2B]

Undo the lower boost hose at the turbo and inspect the turbo. It should spin easily with finger pressure and there should be no axial play - but given the symptoms described and amount of oil found, I suspect the turbo is done

On the bright side, the oil could easily have led to a runaway taking out the engine.

 

[HercFE]

Thanks for the response P2B. I am also suspecting a bad turbo. Any idea how hard these are to change? Looks like it combines the exhaust manifold. Our car hasn't been in the rust belt so I'm hoping I will be able to get everything broken loose without having any broken studs/hardware.

 

[tjg]

you checked the intercooler as well?
I had the exact same thing happen to my MK4 TDI years ago and the plastic end on the intercooler had freed itself from the metal middle section.

 

[lemoncurd]

Thanks for the response P2B. I am also suspecting a bad turbo. Any idea how hard these are to change? Looks like it combines the exhaust manifold. Our car hasn't been in the rust belt so I'm hoping I will be able to get everything broken loose without having any broken studs/hardware.

turbo removal is quite easy, especially if you do not have a DPF

if you remove the turbo actuator from the turbo, the turbo + exhaust manifold slides right through the exhaust tunnel. that is exactly how i removed mine to do my upgraded turbo

you can install the replacement OEM turbo the same way, but it involves removing the turbo actuator... which is generally already calibrated. so if you decide to reinstall it this way, mark on the threads of the actuator where the current position is, so you can reattach it at the same spot on reinstallation

though, i think you may be able to remove / install the turbo from the top of the engine bay if you remove the windshield wipers + wiper cowl + upper section of firewall(the bulk head). the same stuff you remove if youre going to your ECU!
i havent been able to confirm this though

regardless, R/R isnt terrible. the worst part is dealing with the DPF if that is still installed.

 

[HercFE]

We unfortunately still have the DPF and all the factory emissions junk (ours throws codes for the dpf all the time). None of it has been touched before. We are trying to decide if it's worth it to replace the turbo and keep the car. If we keep it, I'd much rather pull the engine, do a full delete + replace the turbo, add tune and then enjoy it more, but that's probably going to set us back somewhere around $3k even if I do all the work. I put a call in to Rawtek to get more details from them but didn't get an answer.
If I can get away with just replacing the turbo myself for now, I'll probably go that route. But that really depends on if I can pull it from the top or not. I don't have a hoist/lift, just ramps.
I am also concerned with whether or not any of the exhaust manifold bolts/studs are going to break or any of the turbo hardware, as then I would probably wind up having to pull the engine to fix that.
As for the intercooler, I pulled/pushed on both ends of it to try to see if the ends had separated and I do not feel any movement. I am kind of concerned that it may be bad just based on the "pop" sound my wife heard.

 

[HercFE]

Well we decided to go full delete, tune and ordered a new turbo, turbo install kit and oil change kit. Delete kit won't be shipped until the 22nd, so it's going to be a bit before I can get everything back together and report back.

 

[Racerman27410]

I would recommend having some of this on hand to spray on those header/turbo bolts. It works way better than anything else out there. https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/free-all/free-all-0-95-lbs-penetrating-oil/fal0/re12

 

[HercFE]

Thanks Racerman. May pick some up. I work in aviation and we have a product called Aerokroil (https://www.kroil.com/product/kroil-original-penetrant/10-oz-can-aerokroil-ks102/) that works really well also. I'm hoping they all will come apart ok.

 

[Garrison]

You'll be good - just soak them the day before you plan to pull them and you should be fine. Even the old turbo manifold studs weren't too bad once soaked

 

[HercFE]

Thanks for that, definitely don't want any broken studs

 

[HercFE]

Finally got a chance to dig into this yesterday. Got the turbo, DPF, factory downpipe and resonator all off. The impeller in the turbo literally fell out in pieces, so pretty clear answer there.
All of the exhaust manifold nuts/studs came apart with no issue. Soaked them all before removing. So far the only thing that broke was the forward clamp at the exhaust valve.
Going to start reinstalling everything today, fingers crossed...

 

[MrCypherr]

Sounds like your car has been hanging around too many CKRA turbos haha. Tbh, Never seen a CJAA turbo break like that. Usually its all Passats.

 

[HercFE]

Got everything replaced. The turbo change was by far more work than doing the delete/tune. I took the turbo out the bottom. Just had to pull the passenger side cv axle. It's always nice to find a smoking gun on a repair. Hopefully the new turbo will last a long time.

 

[lemoncurd]

Sounds like your car has been hanging around too many CKRA turbos haha. Tbh, Never seen a CJAA turbo break like that. Usually its all Passats.

ive seen it before, it generally only happens for 3 reasons:

1: ran out of oil, either poor install or the car literally ran out / low on oil. (oil pump failure does this too)
2: wrong spec of oil, never really seen too light of an oil be the issue, but too heavy causes issues SPECIFICALLY on cold starts
3: bad tuning, malone / kerma are largely very safe for stock turbos. but stevenson tuning, MRtuning, and a few others kill turbo's like the CKRA does haha

 

[MrCypherr]

I've heard of some issues on facebook with Stevenson tuning and MR causing issues. Sort of like APR with the mk6/7 gasser tunes where people were saying it was killing engines from overfueling lol.

 

[MrCypherr]

Got everything replaced. The turbo change was by far more work than doing the delete/tune. I took the turbo out the bottom. Just had to pull the passenger side cv axle. It's always nice to find a smoking gun on a repair. Hopefully the new turbo will last a long time.

Did you get it replaced with a stock turbo or upgraded?