Smoke, no power and new turbo did not fix it.

[Trippy]

Hi all,
I just had the turbo replaced in the wife's FL2 as adviced by our mechanic. Just picked the car up this afternoon and it still has the same issues as before the turbo was replaced. Lack of power (especially uphill) and smoke coming out of the exhaust.

Does anyone have any ideas of what is wrong? The mechanic is an independent Land Rover specialist so he has checked the fault code. I think it just shows up as a problem with the fuel system.

[Graeme]

What colour is the smoke?
Which engine?

[Grentarc]

With the replacement turbo, was it genuine or aftermarket?
I discovered once that my factory turbo had an integrated oil restrictor whereas my aftermarket one did not. This caused it to act like the seals were blown on a new turbo as it was getting way too much oil to the bearings, which caused it to blow past the seals and give me excessive smoke.

[Trippy]

What colour is the smoke?
Which engine?
I will have to check the colour tomorrow. It is a TD4.

[Trippy]

With the replacement turbo, was it genuine or aftermarket?
I discovered once that my factory turbo had an integrated oil restrictor whereas my aftermarket one did not. This caused it to act like the seals were blown on a new turbo as it was getting way too much oil to the bearings, which caused it to blow past the seals and give me excessive smoke.
I ordered an OEM turbo from Rimmerbros in the UK. It was a Garrett. Not sure if that is what Land Rover uses for their genuine turbos.

So is there a way to fix the oil issue?

[Grentarc]

First you need to disconnect the oil feed line and have a look inside the port on the turbo - if it is what looks like a hole somewhere between 0.8 and 1.5mm diameter, it should be fine. If it looks like the oil feed port is full bore (about 10mm or so) then you will need an inline restrictor, which can be easily purchased online once you know what your oil feed thread is.
If you have an inbuilt restrictor already, they you need to look in your exhaust and inlet for oil, probably left over from the previous turbo dying.

[Graeme]

Colour will reveal if it's burning oil or it's not burning fuel properly. If the smoke is black then it's not getting enough air, perhaps due to a split inter-cooler hose but if the smoke is blue then it's burning oil. If the problem is exactly the same as with the old turbo then the cause is less likely to be the turbo.

If it was burning oil and is still burning oil, perhaps there is still oil in the inter-cooler that should eventually clean itself.

[Grentarc]

I had very thick white "smoke" with a turbo pumping oil down the exhaust, it wasn't burning it, it was vaporising it. I had no oil on the compressor side, even when the bearings and seals were so shot the compressor wheel was chewed to pieces from hitting the housing.

[Graeme]

Your's barely ran once the throttle was opened because of being flooded with oil whereas this one appears only to be down on power, but I'm only trying to interpret the condition so could easily be way off the mark.

Edit: Sorry, I missed the point that one doesn't see blue smoke from oil escaping from a turbo if the oil is excessive.

[Grentarc]

Yes, that's true, I forgot how the new turbo flooded the inlet with oil before the oil restriction was put in place... The old one didn't seem to leak into the inlet though, just down the exhaust and was still very driveable.

[Trippy]

I just had a test drive with my bluetooth OBDII unit and collected some data. The boost pressure stayed at 0 PSI when accelerating.

I checked under the hood and discovered that the intercooler to manifold hose (LR066429) (http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-LR066429) has a large split in the hard plastic part. I took a photo looking straight down between the engine and the radiator.

This hose was replaced less than a year ago when the problems started. Initially the hose just popped off at the hose clamp but eventually it was replaced. Could a failing turbo have caused this?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8456474/Land%20Rover/cracked%20hose%20small.jpg

[Graeme]

Unlikely. Bandage the hose with some good tape until you get another hose.

Is there any warranty on the hose?

If genuine then perhaps try the after-market version this time.

[Grentarc]

I am guessing the smoke is black and has always been black?

[justinc]

I am in absolute shock that the split wasn't picked up on first up. Unbelievable. I hope the diagnosis and subsequent fitting charges for the not required turbo were reasonable??😠😠😠

Jc

[justinc]

...and no a failing turbocharger can't cause this issue unless it is putting out 30+ psi of really hot air for quite some time.

Jc

[Graeme]

I am in absolute shock that the split wasn't picked up on first up. Unbelievable.The mechanic failed Turbo Diesel 101 or is there more to the story?

[bee utey]

I'd be inclined to take the broken plastic bitsy to the nearest exhaust shop and get them to bend a replacement one up out of steel tubing.

[Trippy]

Well, the hose was replaced last year but the lack of power got worse. If the turbo was failing we probably drove with it for over a year before replacing it last week. So the mechanic did not miss the leaking hose the first time, but it has failed again.

I will tape it up tomorrow and see if that is the only issue.

[Trippy]

...and no a failing turbocharger can't cause this issue unless it is putting out 30+ psi of really hot air for quite some time.

Jc
If the air is too hot, so hot that it melts the hose, does that mean there may be something wrong with the intercooler?

[Graeme]

That's a split along the edge, not appearing to be melted but instead faulty or not up to the task in your operating environment if it was non-genuine.

Why the mechanic missed the split this time is the puzzling question, assuming that the mechanic diagnosed a faulty turbo rather than an assumption on your part after last year's failure.

[Trippy]

I taped it up with duct tape best I could without removing the hose but it came off during test drive.

Could something cause an abnormally high pressure in this hose? If I understand it correctly this hose sits after the intercooler connects to the throttle body.

[Graeme]

The pressure would probably get to at least 20 psi judging by the TD5 engines and duct tape will not hold-up against that pressure unless multiple layers are applied. Race ("100 mph") tape tightly wound with lots of overlap on each pass has a chance at holding.

[Grentarc]

Silicone tape is the tape to use - have heard of it working well on charge air pipes (2-3 layers)
A quick Google search revealed that it is a common enough issue to split that pipe on the TD4. I would get it replaced as suggested with a metal one, then you can check whether or not there is excessive boost.