jasper996

After a 20 minute drive yesterday and a 2 minute cool down in the driveway, I noticed a small puddle of oil on the driveway. Once I put my '96 TT up on my four-post storage lift, I could see oil had been seeping from high up on the driver's side turbo. The turbo is NOT smoking so it seems that it is an external leak only. Could the oil feed line have come loose? I checked all of the oil lines on the bottom of the turbo and they seem to be fine.

Kevin: thank you so much for your post. Could #14 on page 21 of this link be the culprit? If so, how can you get to it to tighten it?

https://rennlist.com/forums/993-turbo-forum/196641-factory-turbo-removal-proceedure.html

OldGuy

We need milage mods etc give us all the info and we can guess better. but it may be time for a trip to Kevins house.

Marc in AK

I am relatively new to the TT world but I have had to trouble shoot the same issue. Clean up everything and watch where the oil is coming from. If you have tightened up the oil lines, and ruled out other areas of a potential leak (valve covers, timing covers)...and there is oil coming from the turbo housing....you likely have a seal failure in your turbo. Pictures would help

Follow Kevins directions for checking the turbo for excess oil by pulling the inlet tube and looking for oil and visualizing the compressor wheel......

If you do a search, you will find out you are not alone....and some helpful info on this issue. If it is your turbo..it is not the end of the world. I popped mine out in a few hours (I am not a mechanic) and Kevin did his magic.

Again......I am just a wannabe car mechanic who ate a lot of paste as a child...so maybe the pros will have more to say.......

Marc

OldGuy

Oh and show us some pics too.

Air Kuul TT

Marc,

Did you get you turbo back already?

Kevin

Jasper there are 4 areas that the oil can be leaking from..

1) Valve cover above the turbocharger.. You need to clean the area of the seal and watch it for oil. We are getting enough miles on these seals that they should be replaced anyway..

2) The oil inlet pipe usually will not seat correctly when one installs new turbochargers and isn't tightened correctly. However, this line gets corroded over the years and requires replacement as well. Springing a leak out of the blue is not usually the case for this hard line.

3) Sump seal between turbocharger and sump tank. This oring can get pinched upon assy, or fail if not lubed prior to assy. Again this usually leaks after an install.

4) The turbocharger will leak from typically two areas. The first sign is from the compressor side (cold) side. Oil will be present in the inlet boot or hose.. If you take it off and you have oil inside, you typically have signs of a turbocharger failure with the exception that I have written below. Advanced wear will show a wet turbine housing. Oil will be dripping off the turbine housing. The bearing housing might ALSO be wet masking the effect of #2.. Regardless, the oil is breaching the turbine side seal and the turbo needs fixed..

The exception to the above steps is high oil levels and improper oil filters installed.. I would not install any oil filters on a TT that did not come directly from a Porsche Dealer.. It is not worth the headache.. Mahle, Bosch, and any other OEM filter have all failed on our cars. Go to the Dealer and purchase Porsche filters in the nice box..

Marc in AK

In the mail............I am all dressed up and ready for the DIY install....

mars911

Can you Tell me about your storage lift? What brand and are you happy with it? I have thought about getting one for storage/working under the car.

jasper996

My 1996 TT has 52k milles on it. I just bought it 3 weeks ago and had all the fluids changed last Monday. I will look into the oil filter/oil pressure question.

The two major lift compnaies are Eagle and Gemini. I bought the extra long/extra high four post storage lift. Here is the link: http://www.geminilift.com/hobby.htm

$4000 delivered and instaledd with AL ramps, 3 drip trays, and a 16 gallon oil change contanier

OldGuy

Well the milages is where you might expect a hick up. look at this as an oppurtunity.
Can you pull it off yourself?
Its not too hard even a doctor can do it.
no real special tools but a lift would be great!!

fc-racer

I bet your oil is overfilled. My car is super sensitive to oil level, it likes it slightly below the max line when everything is hot. Anything above that and it will either leak out or dump through the engine.

jasper996

...I can barely see the trubine and it looks clean. hopefully it is just oil filters....I will know Wednesday

Kevin

Do you have Porsche filters on your car? If there is oil in your compressor housing, you only have two choices.. Improper oil filters or worn seals..