Turbo Whine/Burning Excessive Oil

Phoole · 15-09-2013 2:29pm #1

Hi guys,

Looking for a bit of help.

Car: BMW 2003 E39 525d Sport

After my 'check oil level' warning came on the other day, I put a litre of oil in. Yesterday I began hearing a whine from what I think is the turbo, and excessive oil shooting out of the back of the car. Oil level seems ok on the dipstick. Its not as bad when the engine is warm but I don't want to drive it any more before getting it checked by a mechanic. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Rob

Chimaera · 15-09-2013 2:41pm

It does sound a lot like the turbo's dead. Easy way to check is pop off the inlet hose on the turbo and check for play in the shaft. If there's any, it's dead and you really shouldn't drive the car any further as you run the risk of a runaway* which will kill the engine. Get it towed to the mechanic, or get him to call out to you to confirm the diagnosis before it's driven any further.

*Runaway happens when oil leaks past the turbo shaft seals and gets into the intake: the engine can run on this oil rather than diesel and rapidly accelerates past it's normal RPM limit. Two things are likely from this point: the engine self destructs from being over-revved or the engine self destructs from running out of oil. The only way to stop a runaway is to starve the engine of air.

Phoole · 15-09-2013 2:59pm

Thanks for that. I don't know too much about cars so I won't go taking off any hoses etc.

I've only done about 2/3 miles since I started hearing the noise. I hope its not that as I really don't have the cash to replace the turbo right now.

KwackerJack · 15-09-2013 3:05pm

Unfortunately it does sound as if the turbo has retired but as Chimaera said check the shaft!

Don't get a refurbished one, from my experience they never last!

Make sure the mechanic checks the oil feed to the turbo when he's installing the new one and to check the sump for any metal particles that may have come from the turbo fan blades IF they were damaged!

After about a 1000 miles changes the oil and filter again just to be sure!

Oil starvation is a big reason why turbo's go, that and people drive the bollox out of them

Phoole · 15-09-2013 3:11pm

Thanks fellas. There was no noise until I added the extra oil. Would that make any difference? The noise only arrived the following day.

KwackerJack · 15-09-2013 3:14pm

Phoole wrote: »

Thanks fellas. The thing is there was no noise until I added the extra oil. The noise only arrived the following day.

Maybe you dislodge some dirt in the system that got into the turbo??

Oh use engine flush before you drop the old oil, will take any crap out of the system

Phoole · 15-09-2013 3:20pm

KwackerJack wrote: »

Maybe you dislodge some dirt in the system that got into the turbo??

Oh use engine flush before you drop the old oil, will take any crap out of the system

Yeah hopefully its just something simple like that. Luckily my mechanic's garage is only 500 yards from my house!! I'm already trying to think of ways of funding this if the worst case scenario!!

Turbo Whine/Burning Excessive Oil

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