Turbo fault or head gasket?
Discussion
Hi, I’m not mechanically clued up so thought I’d ask on here…
Driving my partners Corsa earlier (2016 1.3 cdti) and it started smoking slightly when my foot was down and also a delay in acceleration. I pulled off the main road and all of a sudden it started smoking LOTS from the exhaust (white/light grey) and the engine was reving high without me actually on the pedal, the revs continued for a few seconds after removing the keys. The misses now says she hasn’t had it serviced for 3 years so it’s low on oil. Any ideas what it could be? Matey who helped push it to a safe place suggested turbo failure.
Thanks,
Driving my partners Corsa earlier (2016 1.3 cdti) and it started smoking slightly when my foot was down and also a delay in acceleration. I pulled off the main road and all of a sudden it started smoking LOTS from the exhaust (white/light grey) and the engine was reving high without me actually on the pedal, the revs continued for a few seconds after removing the keys. The misses now says she hasn’t had it serviced for 3 years so it’s low on oil. Any ideas what it could be? Matey who helped push it to a safe place suggested turbo failure.
Thanks,
The symptoms you describe are classic signs of a failing/failed turbo:
- White/grey smoke from exhaust
- Delayed acceleration (turbo lag)
- Engine continuing to rev after key removal (known as "runaway diesel" - very dangerous)
- The smoke likely indicates the turbo seals have failed and it's burning oil
Do not drive the car, get it towed to a garage.
- White/grey smoke from exhaust
- Delayed acceleration (turbo lag)
- Engine continuing to rev after key removal (known as "runaway diesel" - very dangerous)
- The smoke likely indicates the turbo seals have failed and it's burning oil
Do not drive the car, get it towed to a garage.
Joe-kbgs7 said:
Hi, I’m not mechanically clued up so thought I’d ask on here…
Driving my partners Corsa earlier (2016 1.3 cdti) and it started smoking slightly when my foot was down and also a delay in acceleration. I pulled off the main road and all of a sudden it started smoking LOTS from the exhaust (white/light grey) and the engine was reving high without me actually on the pedal, the revs continued for a few seconds after removing the keys. The misses now says she hasn’t had it serviced for 3 years so it’s low on oil. Any ideas what it could be? Matey who helped push it to a safe place suggested turbo failure.
Thanks,
That sounds like diesel runaway.Driving my partners Corsa earlier (2016 1.3 cdti) and it started smoking slightly when my foot was down and also a delay in acceleration. I pulled off the main road and all of a sudden it started smoking LOTS from the exhaust (white/light grey) and the engine was reving high without me actually on the pedal, the revs continued for a few seconds after removing the keys. The misses now says she hasn’t had it serviced for 3 years so it’s low on oil. Any ideas what it could be? Matey who helped push it to a safe place suggested turbo failure.
Thanks,
It can happen a few ways but the fault is oil from the lubrication system (engine oil) ends up being ingested by the engine which burns it as fuel. Obviously that's not a good thing, lubrication oil isn't supposed to get burnt.
Unlike petrol cars, diesel cars generally don't have a way to stop the flow of air into the engine so during a runaway, there can be no easy way to stop the engine once it's started; the engine is pulling in air and it's getting oil to burn so it keeps going until there is no oil left to burn.
The problem is that running the engine with no lubrication oil left in it wrecks anything that needs lubrication to work.
Hopefully the missus has learned that lube is not optional, otherwise things get wrecked.
A runaway diesel or burning oil would usually have a blue tinge to the grey smoke and would redline instantly and be impossible to stop, on your engine there is an electronic controlled butterfly in the throttle body as there is on most modern diesels, this acts as a anti shudder valve and a backstop to shut the engine down. Anyway it sounds more like leaking injectors, it's impossible to say on a forum, make sure the oil is topped up, give it a try, see if theres any rattles, ram something like a towel in the intake not your hands to stop a runaway. (Check the engine oil for the smell of diesel, fuel dilution, it would stink from a leaking injector) Could be the turbo oil seal and you got lucky with it shutting down etc. Good luck.
Edited by Skyrocket21 on Sunday 23 February 08:42
Likely turbo failed, poured oil into the inlet and it's run away.
Lesson to be learnt here....have your cars maintained. There is a slim chance it might have happened anyway, or not.
You might be very lucky with a reasonable repair if it is just the turbo, and lots of cleaning the oil out. Although if it also ran itself dry of oil, it's probably scrap.
Lesson to be learnt here....have your cars maintained. There is a slim chance it might have happened anyway, or not.
You might be very lucky with a reasonable repair if it is just the turbo, and lots of cleaning the oil out. Although if it also ran itself dry of oil, it's probably scrap.
Yeah, looks like turbo failure:
1. Running low on oil, slowly degraded the bearings in the turbo, causing the internals to work loose
2. An "event" took place and snowballed, where a seal let go, leaking oil into the exhaust and burning/producing smoke from the exhaust
3. The lack of lubrication from the redirected oil, caused the bearing to break up significantly
4. The oil was then able to make its way to the inlet
5. The car then ran on oil (revs higher)
6. The car was able to continue to run on oil after the ignition was turned off, for a few seconds, because modern diesels often DO have a throttle, whose job is to give a clean shutoff rather than a shuddering halt (for refinement) by fully closing the inlet path. They are also there as a safety feature to prevent an engine from running on after shutoff in the above failure mode.
I suspect a turbo isn't that expensive - and for a 2016 Corsa, might well be economically viable. But the labour in fitting it, and the possible damage of other components, probably tip it over the edge to being not viable.
1. Running low on oil, slowly degraded the bearings in the turbo, causing the internals to work loose
2. An "event" took place and snowballed, where a seal let go, leaking oil into the exhaust and burning/producing smoke from the exhaust
3. The lack of lubrication from the redirected oil, caused the bearing to break up significantly
4. The oil was then able to make its way to the inlet
5. The car then ran on oil (revs higher)
6. The car was able to continue to run on oil after the ignition was turned off, for a few seconds, because modern diesels often DO have a throttle, whose job is to give a clean shutoff rather than a shuddering halt (for refinement) by fully closing the inlet path. They are also there as a safety feature to prevent an engine from running on after shutoff in the above failure mode.
I suspect a turbo isn't that expensive - and for a 2016 Corsa, might well be economically viable. But the labour in fitting it, and the possible damage of other components, probably tip it over the edge to being not viable.
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