My car is bleeding oil pretty badly. I need about a quart of oil every time I fill up. It coming out everywhere on the turbocharger. It leaks on the inside, and from the banjo fitting that feeds oil into the turbo. So I thought it was a blockage in the oil return line. I just dropped that part out today and It is clear. Now what? Does anyone have any experience with leaky turbo chargers? This turbo leaked internally since the day it was replaced. The turbo boosts fine and seems to be in good running shape. It just leaks oil like mad.

 

Assuming the oil feed line isn't cracked,you may just need to replace the copper washers on the banjo bolt.Those copper washers are a one time use part.
The pcv system is vented on the intake side of the turbo,just behind the amm.If the oil return in the oil trap/breather box becomes plugged up,it will push a excessive amount of oil into the turbo,especially under boost.I would clean or replace the breather box first,and be sure to clean the flame trap nipple,and check the vacuum line that goes to the nipple.
After the breather box has been cleaned or replaced,get the car out on the road and find a nice long incline,try to keep it in boost for as long as possible.(watch your speed) Look in your rear view mirror,if there's any blue smoke coming from the car,turbo could be bypassing oil through the seals.
If the turbo was just recently replaced,the seals should be okay,breather box is probably plugged up.
What is the mileage on the car?Engine could just be tired and have a lot of blow by.


Dan

 

The whole pcv system breathes freely. I've checked that multiple times just to be sure. The turbo was replaced 50K miles or more ago, but we've taken really good care of it since then. I'm pretty sure it's been leaking internally for most of the time after. It was a new turbo, but maybe it was defective. There's no oil tracer line from the pcv main vent line in the intake hose to the turbo. I never undid the banjo fitting, that's why I'm surprised it leaked. I took it off and it wasn't too tight so I cinched it down a lot. I'll see if it makes a difference. I'll pick up some new copper washers if this doesn't fix it. So by what you say, it looks like the turbo seals are just not doing their job. Do you think I could rebuild the turbo without needing to rebalance if I put it back together the way it's put together, just with new seals? the car has 217k on it, but compression checks are pretty good. One more thing about the pcv system, if I place a one way valve in the line of the small pcv line to prevent boost pressure from flowing into the crankcase do you think that would help keep the pressure down and maybe prevent oil from exiting at the turbo?

 

Look at the pic,what is hose #1 attached to?I need to know this before I answer your other questions.

(If you could take a pic of where the hose attaches)

Dan

 

That line is attached, there is some oil build up on the inside but it breaths plenty easy. Here are those pics plus one of where it leaks from. Normally there is a lot more oil around the leak. I'm going to put it back together and see what happens. I'm thinking now that the internal leak and external leak are separate problems.

 

I put it back together and it still leaks from the top banjo. I went to NAPA and picked up some new copper washers. No difference. I tightened it pretty hard, but I'm afraid to go any further. Do you know the torque spec for the banjo bolt? Maybe my oil line is cracked somehow, but that doesn't seem too likely?

 

I don't know what the banjo bolt torque's at,I'll look it up in the service manual tomorrow and post it.If the bolt is over torqued it will crush the line and cause a leak.


Dan

 

Well, the bolt breaks first if you over tighten it. I found out. Now I have a new one and have tried to make it seal, but it still leaks the same. There's got to be a flaw with the fitting. Removing the whole line should be fun since it is hidden behind the oil filter boom thingy. The thing is, the top side of the fitting and the rest of the oil line looks fine. I don't see why it would fail.

 

The only way for a banjo fitting and crush washers to leak is for a surface imperfection to be on any of the sealing surfaces.
When you have it apart, carefully file the sealing face where ever a copper washer sits, on the banjo fitting itself and the turbo housing. You need a fine file, just take your time, get the metal shiny across the whole surface.

Regards, Andrew.

 

So I flattened all the surfaces on the fitting and still, it leaks like I did nothing. I has to remove the oil cooler adapter and lots of fun stuff to get that line out. I flattened them with fin sand paper backed up with the flat side of a wide chisel. It seemed to work really well. Imperfections became clear and then disappeared. I finished it with 2000 grit stuff, so it's smooth. I did not work on the turbo side of the connection. I can't afford to get filings into the hole. Do you have a suggestion on this? I may find a bolt and cut the head off and slot it so I can plug it, vacuum it and then remove it.

 

I'm pretty sure that the line's fittings are in good flat shape, so I unbolted the line again modified a file to file the turbo side housing flat. It still leaks, but I think less now. I did not finish the file job with fine emery cloth. I think I'll do that. To protect my turbo from metal shavings I made a plug out of a 12mmX1.5 bolt. It worked well. I think I need to hit the surface with my 2000 grit emery to make a better seal. The last picture below shows the complete state of the filing when I reassembled it.

 

So with the 2000 grit emery cloth it got to the point where I could see my reflection in the casting. Then I fired it up and a few seconds later as it has been doing, it was leaking again. I'm baffled. Could there be a tiny crack? I don't think that it's likely that the fitting is warped. I'm going to pickup some new copper washers (I've been flattening the last set with emery, partly to check and see how well they seal). Any comments, experience with this sort of problem?

 

I'm pretty sure I've found the leak. It's in a weird spot to give out. The oil line fitting where it makes joins the tubing seems to be the culprit. When I had the line out I inspected it well for a problem like this, but not well enough. It must be a tiny hole. I've never heard of this. Below is an representation of how I used a shop towel while the car was running to check where the oil was leaking from. It's rubbing the underside of the tube. So now I have to remove it again and I guess do some brazing.

 

So here are some pics of the test and what I did to fix the leak. There was a crack in the silver soldering that joins the fitting to the tube. So I got a tiny bit of silver solder from a ring shop, mixed borax with water to make flux and re soldered around the leak. You can see a picture of my setup for finding the leak by air pressure and water. All in all I'm happy it's back to normal.

 

Did you ever find out what the proper torque is for these banjo bolts? I'm having a difficulty finding specs.

 

I never found a spec, but I just tighten good and snug and check to see if it leaks. Really you don't need it any tighter than that. But I couldn't find anything.