B6 A4 1.8T Turbo Question

[mfallon]

So I have a 2005 A4 Avant with a 1.8t in it. I installed a GTRS eliminator kit from ATP and have been breaking it in for about 500 miles with absolutely no problems. Mind you it's still on the stock tune with no check engine lights or anything.

Long story short, after having no issues for the first 500 miles I went on vacation for a week and the car sat. I came back and started it up and instantly was blowing massive amounts of white smoke out of the exhaust that stayed stagnant around the car. After looking into it I noticed that my oil return line on the turbo was pretty much crimped and restricting flow back to the oil pan.

My question is what are the odds that just uncrimping or replacing the oil return line fixes the issue completely? Or are my seals in the turbo pretty much shot at this point too and I need it rebuilt? It's under warranty and I can send it back to ATP to be fixed if needed but it would be 4 wks to get it back and the car will be down in the meantime...I really can't afford to have it down.

Any help would be appreciated.

[5ktq]

I guess it depends how crimped it was, if there was still some flow maybe it's ok.


You do mean white smoke, not blue, right? Does it look like your car is vaping? That's antifreeze. Typically head gasket.. is there mud in the coolant reservoir or on the oil cap?


hmm the turbo coolant is just a jacket right? like it doesn't touch the spindle at all so it can't leak there...

[mfallon]

Yes white smoke. I don't think it's the head. No oil in the coolant and no coolant in the oil. Additionally compression is good as well. I was thinking that the oil backed up into the turbo and blew passed the seals and were mixing in with the coolant going through the turbo. Which is why it makes sense that the second the car starts it instantly starts blowing massive amounts of white smoke out. If it was a head gasket issue I would think it wouldn't be so instantaneous on start up. The turbo working in line with the exhaust makes much more sense to have the smoke so instantly.

Can anyone verify this?

[5ktq]

Yeah, thinking about it more the water in the turbo is just in a water jacket, only the oil contacts the spindle, seals, etc.

So to get water from the turbo the housing would have to be cracked.

Instantaneous on start up makes sense with a head gasket, it leaks down and you have a dram in the cylinder ready to go when you start it, afaik

[mfallon]

My cylinders all look good though, nothing like coolant burning off and making them look clean. and I don't have anything mixing in coolant reservoir or on oil dipstick.

[mfallon]

Update:

I disconnected the turbo from the exhaust manifold and ran the car for about 15 seconds. No smoke came out of the exhaust manifold so I ruled out the engine. I shipped the turbo back to ATP Tuesday. Since then I've been working on getting the stock turbo back in after work all week. I finished it yesterday and started it up and it blew smoke for about 10 minutes but not nearly as much as before. After about 10 minutes I'm guessing all of the oil burned off because I stopped getting the white smoke all together. I ran it for about 15 minutes longer and sounded great and no smoke.

So I get up Wednesday morning and go to start it and go to work and it won't start. No codes but just keeps cranking. So I disconnect the terminals and get in my other car and go to work. I come back after work Wednesday and hook up the terminals and try starting it and it starts right up. Ran it for about 20 minutes no issues and shut if off and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Tried starting it again no problem. Ran it for another 10-15 minutes and then all of a sudden it just died. Go to start it again and just cranks but won't start. I'm not sure if it has any codes at this point because I lent my scanner to a friend which I'm getting back tomorrow. I didn't bother driving it today to work but afterwards when I came home I couldn't get it started again. I went over my grounds and wires and didn't see anything real obvious but I did clean up the ground connections anyway. Not really sure what's going on at this point but I will update when I'm able to pull codes.