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Oil leak from turbo?


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Hi new to the forum.. I have an 05 legacy GT and noticed a increasingly getting worse burning smell and onetime came through the heater (not sure if related or freak accident) while stopped at stoplights. You can sometimes visibly see smoke coming from the hood scoop at certain times after freeway drives or aggressive driving.. when I look under the hood the smoke seems to be coming from under the Turbo. From what I've seen it could be the banjo bolt? I haven't noticed any loss in boost.. still pushes 14 psi. Any suggestions?

 

 

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First you should check 2 things before saying it's the turbo.

 

1) Check the passenger side valve cover, it is know to leak down onto the uppipe. When it does, the oil burns off giving the smell and smoke under the turbo.

 

2) Check the passenger side CV joint boot, these are know to tear and fling grease onto the downpipe. Giving that burn smell and possible smoke underneath the turbo.

 

Check the 2 most common oil/grease leaks first before declaring it's the turbo.

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I'd park it until you figure out exactly what's causing it or at the very least don't drive aggressively.

 

Hopefully not and probably not the case, but my turbo boosted fine until the very end when I experienced a cracked piston ringland. Had smoke coming from turbo/downpipe area but also out of oil filler which is tell tale sign.

 

Don't mean to scare you, more likely it's one of the things Juan has said, but just take care so as to not do more harm.

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First you should check 2 things before saying it's the turbo.

 

1) Check the passenger side valve cover, it is know to leak down onto the uppipe. When it does, the oil burns off giving the smell and smoke under the turbo.

 

2) Check the passenger side CV joint boot, these are know to tear and fling grease onto the downpipe. Giving that burn smell and possible smoke underneath the turbo.

 

Check the 2 most common oil/grease leaks first before declaring it's the turbo.

 

 

 

Okay.. I'm going to have to look at the passenger side valve cover.. I'm guessing it's not going to be the CV because it's been "burning" through oil pretty quickly and is said to be normal from the previous owner putting about 1/2 quart every other fill up.. hoping that's what's going on at least.

 

 

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Okay.. I'm going to have to look at the passenger side valve cover.. I'm guessing it's not going to be the CV because it's been "burning" through oil pretty quickly and is said to be normal from the previous owner putting about 1/2 quart every other fill up.. hoping that's what's going on at least.

 

 

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1/2 quart every other fuel fill up?? or every oil change interval?

 

if the former, that's certainly abnormal

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1/2 quart every other fuel fill up?? or every oil change interval?

 

if the former, that's certainly abnormal

 

Assuming 300 miles per tank, 1/2 quart every other fill-up is 1 quart per 1200 miles, which is at the high end of the range Subaru considers normal & acceptable, but is unfortunately fairly normal.

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I wanna see where this is going. I kind of had the same problem after I basically had a stage 2 setup with no tune at all and daily drove the car for 500 miles. Now it's back to bone stock and perfectly fine. One issue I found during this Period though is the breather hoses for valve covers became plasticy and cracked. It's like $5 at the dealer so I replaced it. Been perfect ever since

 

 

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I wanna see where this is going. I kind of had the same problem after I basically had a stage 2 setup with no tune at all and daily drove the car for 500 miles. Now it's back to bone stock and perfectly fine. One issue I found during this Period though is the breather hoses for valve covers became plasticy and cracked. It's like $5 at the dealer so I replaced it. Been perfect ever since

 

 

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That's something that could be possible as well. I'm gonna have to dig into it this weekend and might have to take it to a mechanic after watching some videos it looks pretty tight down there and tight situations like that frustrate me so we'll see how it goes

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**** Also forgot to mention that this is my first year of owning the car and it's been winter for most of the time I've owned it and as the weather has been warming up I haven't noticed any smoke or smell.. so the temperature may be a factor as well?? Whatever it is I still want to get it fixed.

 

 

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No man it's easy, take off the intercooler and there is a lot of room to work. The pcv valve is alittle tricky where it connects to the crankcase because of the stupid hose clamps they decided to use. But still not worth taking to a mechanic. And the valve cover breather hoses aren't even held in by any clamps, just be careful because they might be dry and break when you pull them out. But not to fear they are $8 from the dealer.

 

 

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Assuming 300 miles per tank, 1/2 quart every other fill-up is 1 quart per 1200 miles, which is at the high end of the range Subaru considers normal & acceptable, but is unfortunately fairly normal.

 

I stand corrected. Unfortunately I don't think oil consumption will get any better unless it's an oil leak or other issue described here, given your mileage.

 

She's made it a long way- probably thanks to being stock

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Funny, as I write this I'm replacing my valve cover gaskets. I had some oil loss, not that much though, and attributed it to my VC gasket leaking, I also noticed I was loosing some from the turbo oil feed line but that was because I removed the filter not too long ago and apparently didn't torque it down enough to seal.

 

But for the VC job, Holy sh*t at those hoses and the stupid clamp. I was actually able to get the clamps with regular old channel locks, but they were in such a horrible spot. The hardest part was just detaching the hoses, they were rock hard!

 

I just finished the passenger side, moving to the drivers now. It's a pain, but definitely not a highly challenging job. Just follow the write ups.

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But for the VC job, Holy sh*t at those hoses and the stupid clamp. I was actually able to get the clamps with regular old channel locks, but they were in such a horrible spot. The hardest part was just detaching the hoses, they were rock hard!

 

Inspect those rock-hard hoses carefully. If you get through that job without a couple of them developing a leak, you're a lucky man.

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