1.6 TDCi - Turbo Oil Leak

[MindBlack]

Hi,

My Focus has had its turbo replaced over a year ago. Everything seemed to be fine until recently I noticed drops of oil on my garage floor. I've looked under the bonnet and the turbo seems to be leaking oil. Any idea what might be the problem here? Is the turbo failing again? I've also noticed my oil level is above the dipstick, could it be because of that?

Here are the pics: https://imgur.com/a/W6HFxhq

[TomsFocus]

The oil gets diluted by diesel running past the piston rings during DPF regeneration.  Eventually this will lead to a diesel runaway where the engine runs on its own oil until it explodes...so it's best not to let the level get too high.  A couple of mm over max should be fine.

As for the leak, it looks like it's just not sealed properly between the turbo and plastic intake pipe.  A bit of oil in the turbo and turbo pipes is normal from the oil breather.  

[MindBlack]

Hi,

So I have changed the o-ring seal that was on the plastic intake pipe. After that did not help, I noticed there was a crack in the plastic itself, so I got a second hand one and the leak is gone. However, I noticed quite a bit of oil in both the inlet and outlet tubes that are connected to the turbo. After looking around in the forums I figured its a common problem due to the oil breather, but should I be worried about this excess amount that is now being pumped into the intercooler instead of going outside the system via the leak? Is there anything else I can do apart from the suggested oil-catchers?

About the engine oil: I've reduced the oil level to two thirds of the dipstick, and after just over 200 km its almost back up to full dipstick, any advice there?

[TomsFocus]

17 minutes ago, MindBlack said:

Hi,

So I have changed the o-ring seal that was on the plastic intake pipe. After that did not help, I noticed there was a crack in the plastic itself, so I got a second hand one and the leak is gone. However, I noticed quite a bit of oil in both the inlet and outlet tubes that are connected to the turbo. After looking around in the forums I figured its a common problem due to the oil breather, but should I be worried about this excess amount that is now being pumped into the intercooler instead of going outside the system via the leak? Is there anything else I can do apart from the suggested oil-catchers?

About the engine oil: I've reduced the oil level to two thirds of the dipstick, and after just over 200 km its almost back up to full dipstick, any advice there?

oil in the intercooler won't hurt it at all, you'll find oil throughout the intake system on most engines.  You can fit a catch tank if you like, that's the only way to stop it.

As for the oil level rising that quickly, I'd suggest you've got a fault there.  Either the DPF is failing to regenerate for some reason.  Or you have a bad injector.  That would need further investigation imo.  Are you finding the cooling fan is regularly staying on after switching the engine off?

[MindBlack]

I would say it does not stay on very often.

As for the injectors - they have been cleaned a couple of times during my ownership (once when the turbo was rebuilt and later after getting a ticking noise). I also had to manually change one of the rubber seals on an injector because our lovely mechanics here managed to rip it apart and leave it like that, leading to diesel running all over the place. Other than that, not much else I can say about the injectors, they seem fine to me at the moment. The oil level seems to stop rising once it passes the top of the dipstick so I assume the excess is being burned off somehow?

[south_bound]

35 minutes ago, MindBlack said:

As for the injectors - they have been cleaned a couple of times during my ownership (once when the turbo was rebuilt and later after getting a ticking noise). 

I have a ticking noise at the moment which from reading up on it could be coming from the injectors - it just happens when the engine is under load up to about 1500 rpm.  Does this sound like what you had, and how did you clean the injectors to solve it?  Was it by adding a treatment to the fuel or did you physically take them out and clean manually?

[TomsFocus]

2 hours ago, MindBlack said:

I would say it does not stay on very often.

As for the injectors - they have been cleaned a couple of times during my ownership (once when the turbo was rebuilt and later after getting a ticking noise). I also had to manually change one of the rubber seals on an injector because our lovely mechanics here managed to rip it apart and leave it like that, leading to diesel running all over the place. Other than that, not much else I can say about the injectors, they seem fine to me at the moment. The oil level seems to stop rising once it passes the top of the dipstick so I assume the excess is being burned off somehow?

I used to find the oil level rose after a regen, but would then get burnt off over the next couple of weeks before the next regen so maybe you checked the level straight after a regen?  

If the injectors are old enough to have been cleaned twice, it's possible they're getting worn by now and would need a refurbishment rather than just a clean.  An injector leak off test might be worth trying.