Oil eak - could turbo fail?????? HELP

[Welly]

There is a weak point on the bottom rad hose on the conrad fitting and I think this is where it blows (happened to teamy aswell) james' hoses were solid and fit to burst but this connection went first and later the water pump seal blew!

I Suppose what is happening really is a general rise in pressure - not enough to worry the expansion tank too much but enough to inflate the rather flopsy hoses and take out weak points such as the conrad and water pump etc and I suppose in reality the pressure does not have to be all that much extra than normal. Worrying though for me as my coolant is brownish even after it was flushed and changed 2 years ago by the pug dealer oh wait.....

[teamster1975]

There is a weak point on the bottom rad hose on the conrad fitting and I think this is where it blows (happened to teamy aswell)

Yes I'll vouch for this; the bottom conrad fitting had succumbed to the dreaded red stuff and disintegrated, it was a hell of a mess. New rad and bottom hose

[Longintooth]

Hi
Well there you go then it was defective hose or radiator rather than the hose being forced off the connection through "over pressure". Water pumps can go any time since seals are generally weak carbon seals and once water gets past onto the bearings that's caput - nothing to do with pressure except that normal pressure actually helps seal them because the face side of the seal is pressed firmly against the seal face. It happens on any car when the service checks are not done or when someone says " It always happens on HDi 's so it's normal". De Dum de Dum.

[teamster1975]

Hi
Well there you go then it was defective hose rather than the hose being forced off the connection through "over pressure". It happens when the service checks are not done or when someone says " It always happens on HDi 's so it's normal". De Dum de Dum.

Whoever "maintained" my car before I bought it needs shooting, it was a bloody state. I'm getting it up to scratch though as money permits
Btw My problem wasn't the hose coming off, it was coolant loss. Swiss cheese radiator and leaking bottom conrad union.

[harrywy]

Thanks guys.

The initial problem I had was the engine temp would stay cold even after a long run.

So I decided to change the stat in case it was faulty, to get the housing off I decided to remove the air pipe, I found a small amount of oil in the pipe more like a film of oil rather than a sludge.

Now back to the stat, after opening the housing and removing the cooling pipes on the rad, the top and bottom rad pipe was removed to drain water from the rad.

Since I've added the stat, I've done nearly 1200 miles a lot of motorway miles! Ands it's not lost any water and the temp has stayed just below 90. Not sure if that's a good sign or any kind of a sign.

There is some oil sludge any the local garage said it's oil seals didn't go into too much detail but it's not dripping just a slight leak.

Am going to have a look at the engine again on Saturday. Is there anything I should really look out for?

[Longintooth]

Hi
The temp is ok, not sure where you are saying the oil sludge is appearing and you still refer to the "air pipe". I would suggest you talk about one item at a time then we know what you are refering to. Where are you seeing oil sludge - in the cooling system or in the air pipe. If its the latter why are you taking that apart when you are dealing with the cooling sysytem. hmmmm - If when you take off the top air pipe you find an oil film then that's normal. If you take off the lower air pipe and it's dripping with oil then that's a sign your turbo seals are leaking.

[harrywy]

When I say 'air pipe' am refering to the intercooler pipe - the one which runs from the top of the intercooler......

I took the car to my local garage today for them to have a look at the oil, ive been told there should be some oil in the intcooler pipe - he said something about oil cooler.....

with regards oil under the car, thats something to do with the oil seals but not the turbo...and said its not economical at this stage to actually repair it as its not too bad yet, and i can get some stop leak which will help the situation. I know eventually i will have to do some kind of repair lets hope that day doesnt come!!!

Now lets talk about the cooling system, the pressure seems fine the pipes are not over pressurising and its not using any extra water so so far so good, only thing am worried about is what problems could now return by fitting the stat. am pretty happy the head gasket is ok as there doesnt appear to be any mixing. Is there some kind of a pressure test or gasket test i can do??

[steve_earwig]

Yep, there's a pressure test, not really something you could do yourself but your friendly local garage should be able to help you out with that one too.

I wouldn't worry too much about the 'stat, I've had that a couple of times too and it's not showed up anything untoward by fitting one. A small amount of oil blowing past the turbo seals seems more-or-less normal, and we did a quick poll a while back and it seems like Puggy's car is the only one without an oil leak of some sort.

[harrywy]

Puggy's lucky with no leak at all......i spoke to the garage yesterday he just said drive it for this week as they were really busy yeasterday.

He said its normal for there to be some kind of oil around the engine seals but nothing to worry about and the head gasket doesnt normally go on theses.......

Also he had a look under the oil filler cap and the oil and said there doesnt seem to be any water mixing so should be ok - but i'll be safe and get the pressure test i think.

[Longintooth]

Hi
There is no oil cooler on the 406 110 HDi. The intercooler top hose may have just a light film of inside. My 406 has no leaks at all since I sort them when they occur. It's only a very fine weep around any seal lip - barely a film that's acceptable for me. I do understand someone letting it run on a bit at the first sign of a leak it can get very costly if you have to take it in to get it done. On a motor that is 5 -8 years old it can be more than the cars worth so you have to get down dirty sometimes. Its not just Puggies that get probs - my Beamer sprung a leak from the oil filter housing, two O rings had just hardend up and had enough without warning. £7 for the seals and gasket but 3 hours to do the job - piece of cake - priced up at £210 plus Vat at the dealer.

If you're not getting any water in the oil and no water loss you have no problems but a good little investment for a DIY job is get hold of a spare filler cap and fit a schrader valve to it - pop your air line on it and pressurise it to 10/15 psi above its rated pressure and check the pressure after half hour. Alternatively you could
fit the valve to a hose or other place but you will only pressurise it to system pressure because it will vent off through the cap, which is good enough.
Sounds like your garage is ok.
No need to worry about fitting the stat back in if it's keeping the temp constant - this shows your rad is ok and the stat is doing it's job. A little test you can do -
run it up from cold keeping your hand on the top hose, when it gets to temperature you will feel the water start to flow and warm up. Let it continue to warm up and ensure that the fan kicks in in due course - it's fitted on the front of the rad and you will hear it start blowing, it should stop after a while if its cooling it down
ok.
Sleep tight