Carbunkle

Oil is seeping through the joints between the pressure side of the turbo and the intercooler at the low point. Opened it up and an ounce of oil dripped out. Guess my seal is gone on the compressor side. No oil being burned yet. No smoke. Is it just a matter of time before the exhaust side goes? Is there any magic elixir that'll reseal it? Sucks cause I got everything else running. Welcome to Audi world.

Prospeeder

Its very normal to have some oil in the intercoolers if it has not been removed for a very long time. An ounce isn't much really, I see that much and more on lots of cars, especially TDI VWs. Most of it is the crankcase ventilation, which if you notice is dumped into the intake before the turbos on that big Y. Oil vapors come in, condense into oil droplets, and collect in the bottoms of the intercoolers. I wouldn't be too concerned. Brake cleaner off the hose and the cooler, and get a nice, dry seal with the hose.

the_duke

+1 on the clean fit. Don't put it back together with oil residue or you run a high probability of having a hose pop off.

Carbunkle

I'll do as you said. Borrowed a bore scope and couldn't find the leak. Really wanted to find the smoking gun so to speak. Getting a little smoke after it heats up then nothing. Valve cover gaskets are new and tight.all that work and still stinking.

transman

Great info provided by the posters above!

I would like to add, there are some things i do to help me decide if a turbo seal is leaking on the intake side..

I actually have a 2011 750i in the shop right now for excessive smoke. I suspeced the turbos needed to be replaced. So I took the boots off that go between the turbos and intercoolers, and of course they had gobs of oil all in the piping. I cleaned the pipes, and turbos as best as i could, to get all the oil residue out. I ran the car in the bay for an hour or so, then removed the pipes again, and sure enough already coated in oil. So I was pretty confiden this was a good test to confirm it needs new turbos.


I have never worked on a turbo car that didnt have oil residue in the piping, and usually it pools at the lowest point.


Its funny because even though we are turbo car owners worried bout the oil we find in weird places, we still have less oil consumption than new hondas and toyotas running 0w-20 oil.