Oil leak from oil return line

[Grothe08LGT]

So, long story short, knew I was buying the car with an oil leak from the return line/pipe area. Simple fix really (at least I thought so ). So get the turbo out, replaced it with a new return pipe, gasket, actual hose clamps, and a new OEM return hose. Got it all installed and seemed to actually work.

 

Next day, went out to find I was still getting little puddles of oil on the ground. Went to friends house to look, this time looking up from the bottom, you can physically watch the oil dripping off the rerun line bolt (the bolt towards the drivers side to be exact). Kind of at a loss where to go from here. Going to take the turbo off again and see if the bolts weren't tightened enough, which we thought we did, but can't find any torque specs for those bolts.

 

So, kind of coming here to see if anyone has had similar issues, or this exact problem by chance. Thanks for looking, any help would be great, and will post any updates as they come along!

[Zakster87]

Previous owner chiming in here to possibly provide a little more background. I have pulled this turbo now more times than I care to admit...

 

The last 4-5 times have been to try to fix this leak, each time with a different method of sealing it. When I originally pulled it was when I pulled the motor to replace the headgaskets. I replaced the lead type gasket that was originally on with the paper type that's included in the full OEM gasket kit. By the time I got everything back together and running, I had noticed a small leak, but at this point could care less. I had my car back!

 

After a couple of months the oil spot under the car got a bit bigger, and I decided to take it to the local guy that is basically a Subaru Master tech, who easily pointed out the return line bolts were dripping. He gave me another gasket and off I went to replace it. So I replaced it again, spots were way smaller, figured it was just residue oil dripping from the places it had pooled. Rolled under it a couple weeks later and found the undercarriage still coated in oil. And oil on the return line bolts. Spoke with my tech again and he said, try putting some high temp rtv on the gasket, so I did. I noticed this time that the flange on the pipe was slightly bowed, so with a hammer and a vise, I re-trued the flange to be perfectly flat, new gasket, both sides covered in RTV. Let the rtv cure for 24hr as recommended and then reinstalled the turbo, again. Wasn't a week before I had oil spots under where the car was parked, and lo and behold, frigging oil on the return line bolts. This time I pulled it and scraped off the old rtv, then cleaned it so there was no residue oil what so ever, and just laid a bead around the hole in the bottom of the turbo. Installed the drain pipe to finger tight, and let the rtv set up for 24hr again, then gave the bolts a quarter turn, as specified to provide a good tight seal. For the first time in over a year dealing this leak, the sunnuvagun didn't leak!... For a week... The leak was much less and intermittent (usually only did it after getting on it in S#). This last time, as my buddy said above, he got a new return pipe and lead type gasket, and we installed it, and it wasn't a hour later, he had multiple oil spots. I rolled under it while it was running, to watch it continuously drip from the driver side return line bolt head. We're at a loss at this point... Any experience or advice would be much appreciated!:confused:

[travrach]

Sorry to hear this, stinks. Zak How close did you examine the turbo itself when out? Maybe it has a hairline crack at the base by the drain.

[heiche]

^ good idea

 

also, i have no idea if the threaded bolt holes on the turbo go through all the way, but... maybe next time coat the bolts in rtv as well? just in case oil is sneaking by the threads there.

[Grothe08LGT]

Honestly upon inspection when we had it out last, it seemed like the only place oil was coming from was the oil drain gasket.. We are going to take the turbo out again to make sure the drain isn't partially plugged up anywhere or anything like that. Will have to look closer at the turbo itself. Thank you for the suggestions!

[doobaruGT]

Did you use crush washers with the new line? Don't want to insult anyone's intel.

 

When I installed mine from IAG, I had to make sure the barbs were situated perfectly or it would sit against the head incorrectly and cause a leak. I also had to torque the hell out of the banjo there to get mine to seal. See pic below for explanation of barb discrepancy. Hope this helps.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=193127&thumb=1&d=1412268550

[travrach]

^ Not the spot they are speaking about. They are having issues with turbo oil drain tube mounting area.

[Zakster87]

Yep, thanks Trav, and yea new crush washers anyway. Top of the turbo is dry, as are the sides

[Grothe08LGT]

Well, we did all the above and still leaking. Going to assume there is a hairline crack somewhere along the v-band area, so next step will to probably get a different turbo and hope that is the issue. Otherwise, still at a huge loss as to what it could or may be. Thank you all for all the suggestions though

[Grothe08LGT]

Just noticed I never updated this when we found the problem. It was the turbo itself. It had to have had a very small hairline crack some where. Replaced with a VF52 and been leak free (minus the slight valve cover leak...)

[LGTwagon99]

Back from the dead....I am extremely frustrated with the same issue, although I had it first on a NEW VF52 and now currently a NEW BNR16G. So I sort of ruled out the turbo being the issue. I just got the car running after a total rebuild, now I've got to pull the turbo off again. I'll try the high temp rtv this time, even coat the bolts and make them nice and tight. Any other insight on this issue would be appreciated, as this is a small yet oh so annoying leak to resolve.

[JmP6889928]

Drain bolts don't go all the way into the oil jacket of the center housing. Pull the drain off, sand it on a flat plate until it's completely flat, use a Subaru OE gasket with a thin film of red silicone on each side and tighten them evenly but not too tight.

 

The flange on the oil drains become warped after time and even new, they are not very flat. When I rebuild a turbo, if it's dry there, I leave it in place undisturbed. If I have to remove the drain, I do what I tell you to do above and have no issues. I can only remember a single time I had an issue and that was a number of years ago, and I did the above and fixed it.

 

Good luck.

[LGTwagon99]

Drain bolts don't go all the way into the oil jacket of the center housing. Pull the drain off, sand it on a flat plate until it's completely flat, use a Subaru OE gasket with a thin film of red silicone on each side and tighten them evenly but not too tight.

 

The flange on the oil drains become warped after time and even new, they are not very flat. When I rebuild a turbo, if it's dry there, I leave it in place undisturbed. If I have to remove the drain, I do what I tell you to do above and have no issues. I can only remember a single time I had an issue and that was a number of years ago, and I did the above and fixed it.

 

Good luck.

 

Thanks for this!! I pulled the turbo of tonight, the flange was warped like crazy, it's easy to see why is wasn't sealing. Got it straightened out and sanded down with some high heat silicone, hopefully it'll stay dry!