Car still smoking after turbo change

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Med_tech3
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Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by Med_tech3 »

Hi. I recently changed my turbo on my 1.6hdi C4 Grand Picasso. Before I changed it it had failed and oily smoke was pouring out the exhaust. Since I changed it, once the engine has warmed up it smokes again. There is a lot and smells oily. The car drives fine with lots of power and no warning lights. I opened the bonnet and it seems to be coming out from under the exhaust heatshield as well as in the engine bay and the exhaust but that could be the fact I drove the car down the road and fumes have gone under the car. Do you think there is still a problem or is it just the old oil burning off? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by Harlequin »

The 1.6 HDi have an unfortunate failure process , the turbo is the end result but a lot more goes on sadly. Have you tightened the clamp bolts? Its a 7mm allen key
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by rebuilder86 »

Was the old turbo full of oil in the intake area?
Often its not the turbo itsepf, but the drain line gets blocked and the oil banks up and just takea the path of least resistance, which is the turo seals, but only when its all l[bricating freely and nice n thin.
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by rebuilder86 »

Just check that the failure of the last one disnt result in a piece of seal ending up down the drain tube.
Med_tech3
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by Med_tech3 »

Thank you for your replies. The old turbo stopped working and I carried on driving the car for another 200 or so miles until eventually the car started to smoke. I still drove it another 100 miles and got a low oil level warning. I topped it up and got it home. When I took the turbo off, the internal spindle was very loose and it was full of oil. The oil return hose was completely blocked with engine deposits. I bought a secondhand turbo which came with a good oil return pipe and fitted both of them and a new banjo oil feed pipe. When the car warms up it smokes but I was not sure if it was oil that had been dumped into the exhaust, from the old turbo, burning off or whether it was burning new oil.
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

There is a design flaw in one of the 1.6HDi engines in that the sump plug is recessed too far into the sump. This means that a large amount of oil does not drain away (I cannot remember how much). Any sludge/coke that builds up accumulates here. Unfortunately the turbo oil pickup is low down in the sump, and so it can (and does) pick up the sludge, and this results in the pipe getting blocked, and the turbo getting starved of oil. A later banjo bolt has a better filter fitted. One way to try and get more of the oil out is to locate where the sump plug is, and then jack up the opposite wheel safely as high as possible (this is how the service company dealt with my Peugeot Partner company van with a 1.6HDi engine (I don't now if it was one of the engines affected) when changing the oil.

It might be worth doing a couple of oil changes in short order with a sludge buster engine flush on each change. It might break down the sludge enough to resolve your problem.
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by Harlequin »

Ok so here is the failure mechanism for the 1.6HDi engine.

The injector clamp bolts were slimmed down from 10mm to 7mm, unfortunately, if these arnt checked at each service they do work loose.

The result is the seal then break down and allows exhaust gas passed it - and this mixes with the engine oil. The oil then thickens and starts with clogging the strainers fitted in the turbo oil feed line (1 or 2 if they engine side one hasn't been removed as per service schedule) and the oil pickup from the sump.

The turbo, starved of oil then wears quickly then fails.
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Med_tech3
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by Med_tech3 »

When I changed the turbo, I took off the sump and cleaned it out. I also cleaned out all the air intake parts except the intercooler as I couldn't remove it due to the aircon pipes being in the way. I changed the turbo feed banjo pipe and the larger rubber return pipe. I am assuming the oil is possible in the dpf and exhaust and/or the intercooler. If I gave the car a good run down a dual carriageway do you reckon it would clear the smoking? Is there anything I can look for to see if it is leaking fresh oil into the intake or exhaust? I have checked the oil level but don't know how quickly it would drop if there was an oil leak into the exhaust.
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by Gibbo2286 »

Not on your model but on another Citroen I worked on, after a turbo failure it still smoked really badly, I came to the conclusion that it was the exhaust full of unburned oil, took it down a quiet lane and drove it like and Italian up and down for half an hour until it cleared, it was fine after that.
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by doctle »

+1 on the Italian tune up
Oh buggle
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by Harlequin »

check the injector clamp bolts!
Simon
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by taffy »

hope this comes true for me bying c4 1.6hdi had turbo replaced smokes bad when warm already bought oil filter and loads of brake cleaner lol
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by oscar »

Med_tech3 wrote: 11 Jul 2019, 08:26 When I changed the turbo, I took off the sump and cleaned it out. I also cleaned out all the air intake parts except the intercooler as I couldn't remove it due to the aircon pipes being in the way. I changed the turbo feed banjo pipe and the larger rubber return pipe. I am assuming the oil is possible in the dpf and exhaust and/or the intercooler. If I gave the car a good run down a dual carriageway do you reckon it would clear the smoking? Is there anything I can look for to see if it is leaking fresh oil into the intake or exhaust? I have checked the oil level but don't know how quickly it would drop if there was an oil leak into the exhaust.
Keep a check on oil level check same way each time is best like first thing when been left all night then soon know if supping oil!
you will have oil in exhaust so once gets heated will smoke best is decent run along M'way so gets to heat up and clear out of everywhere!
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by taffy »

turbo seized caught fire lol
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Re: Car still smoking after turbo change

Post by pprooster »

Hi, exactly the same problem, did you resolve this in the end?
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