I have a 2002 XC70 with 90k miles which seems to be passingoil through the turbo into the intake. I noticed oil on the inside of the air pipe coming off the turbo recently when changing the spark plugs, and it seems to loose about a quart every 3,000 miles. It never leaves any oil puddles in my garage and doesn't seem to be leaking oil anywhere else.

I did have a problem the first year I had the car where the turbo would surge under hard acceleration. It would give a huge burst of acceleration, then would make a noise like a loud kiss, loose some power, then another hugh burst of acceleration. While the huge burst of acceleration was exciting, it was obvious that something was wrong. When I finally got around to troubleshooting it, I found the intake pipe between the air filter box and the turbo was not clamped down on the turbo side, so it would easily pop off and back on. After clamping the pipe securly, all surging went away and now it always has smooth and steady power. (I also gained about 4-5MPG! ) I understand that the turbo on this car was designed for light pressures, so this apparent overboost must have damaged the turbo.

After that long story, what I would like to know is if the car is safe to run with the turbo passing oil, or if I should rebuild it as soon as I can.

 

I would inspect the PCV system. If it is clogged it will allow oil to get into the system.

 

I took a closer look and I do see oil around the vacuum lines running from the inlet side of the turbo. This isn't the PCV system I've seen in the past (allon non turbo cars) and it looks like a rather involved fix. This is my daily driver so I don't want to tear this thing down to find I need a part I can't get for a while. What parts should I have on hand to do this job?

 

I would buy the PCV kit from FCPgroton.com and change it all.

You will need to pull the intake to replace the parts.

 

I would plan to tear into it on a weekend (just me though)

 

I can't find a PCV kit for my car on FCPGroton. I asked them if they had a kit and they told me they dont. Is there another source (besides the dealer)?

 

Then buy the vent box and seperate it will still be way cheaper than the Dealer.

 

If you're still considering re-building the Turbo - an alternative to save down -time for the car would be to buy the Turbo-Rebuild Kit for the Mitsubishi Turbo/ use a Parted out or Junk Yard Turbo to Re-Place the seals etc./and then remove and replace your Turbo with the one you re-built

I ordered a Turbo Rebuild Kit from "united Turbo.com"[Price was around $70.00 + OIl Return line another $14.00 from nother source]

 

I think I will do some work on the PCV system to see if that stops the oil leak. If that works, the turbo still feels strong, so I probably won't rebuild it.

 

I finally got around to replacing the PCV components. I couldn't find the turbo breather tube for my car on fcpgroton, so we left the old one on. My brother in law did most of the repair, and wasn't very gentle with the breater tube when removing the intake manifold. He ended up breaking the small plastic hose that runs to the banjo fitting. That was a good thing, since it was plugged up anyway. We replaced that section of hose with vacuum line.

Everything going into the block and the oil trap was plugged up pretty bad. I can see why this could cause problems.

The car seems to run the same, so we didn't screw things up to badly. Time will tell if the oil loss stops.