P0011 code(camshaft code people hooked on) describes a problem with this particular motor in AVCS which relates to the Active Valve Control System(variable timing). The banjo bolt for turbo and passenger side AVCS is shared and likely clogged throwing the code or delta in oil pressure since turbo not working. AVCS operates using oil pressure. The banjo bolt for drivers side AVCS is behind the timing belt cover.
Not sure where idea of sludge(or copious) is coming from. The banjo bolt has a microscreen and IMHO should either be replaced or thrown out permantly which OP stated was done during the $2200 fix.
The mechanic just called me back (spoke to the guy who actually did the work). He was great and explained everything in detail. I asked all of the questions that were raised in the thread and he had good answers:
He did replace the Banjo Bolt
He put in a new Turbo @VDCdriver : Checked for oil sludge - oil was thin and clean, so there wasn’t really any issue with oil here. In fact, he said it looked very well maintained.
The Turbo was bad - just worn out - Here’s where I may have not written everything down correctly, but something about a blade inside the compressor wheel snapped a belt? or the compressor wheel inside the turbo was just spinning all over the place? I couldn’t write it down quickly enough.
Good news was that it didn’t wear down any pieces of metal or anything so the engine is clean.
He flushed all the systems and everything ran well.
In terms of the code P0011 - he cleared that out when he started working on the car and it never came back. He suspects that it has to do with the turbo not working correctly, which gave the sensor an error - Honestly, I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it made sense to me. (perhaps it’s what @andrewRA was referring to).
He drove the car for 26 miles to make sure all was well, and it was
He says the car is in fantastic condition and now with the new turbo, we’ve got many, many years to go with this car. He said it’s a great car and is in the best condition it’s been in, in a long time.
He suggested we change oil every 7k miles (seems like a lot given what I’ve read here), but since we drive it less, to change it every 4-5 months. However, with the new Turbo, we should change it up in 3 months.
Always use synthetic oil - they used synthetic 530.
Thank you all for the help - was good to know what questions to ask and how to proceed. Really appreciate all the knowledge and responses shared here.
Yes, I’m aware that the banjo bolt/screen is the Achilles Heel of the turbocharger oil supply but the point is that the banjo bolt is only one end of a galley of oil supply galleys that spiderwebs throughout the engine.
My point is that factoring in the turbo failure along with a cam sensor issue and as nearly as I can remember from the thread the mention of a lapse in oil change regimen the odds of additional problems do go up.
Even if, for the sake of discussion, the cam sensor and turbocharger problems are fixed and the engine runs fine that does not mean there are no additional oil related issues. That’s why my suggestion about raking the pan was made because if a wire loop in inserted clean and comes out caked with half-coked engine oil then there is some concern for the rest of the engine.
We had a Subaru in once (bought from new) and the engine wiped out at 25k miles due to no oil changes. It was so far gone due to oil coking that it wasn’t even worth considered for repair due to the extensive damage.
The oil screen on the pickup tube in the pan was baked over with hardened (coked) motor oil and the engine had strangled itself to death from lack of lubricant. That’s by no means the only engine either…
Subaru reverted oil change to 3750 miles severe service on this particular motor and year(ignore mechanic on 7k). We got a letter in 2007 related to it. The 7500 oci originally spec’d with dino even I think yielded lots of turbo failures and warranty claims.
Use what oil you feel best and check it every few fuel fill ups. I am a 4k dino oil changer with OEM turbo at 180k. In your case changing 2-3 times may suffice.
we only have 90K miles on the car now. Will change the oil every 4 months, just as a precaution. That will probably be only about every 2k miles at most!
I think the mechanic wants you back for an oil change within 3 months or 3k miles because the new turbo may give off some metal particles and machining grit from manufacturing and break in. After that, you can go 7k between oil changes IF you use a synthetic oil. The synthetic oils hold up under the extra heat of a turbocharger.
When it comes to synthetic oils, they are not all the same anymore. You have group III oils made from conventional oil and group IV oils made from natural gas. You also have synthetic blends of questionable value.
The Group IV oils are reported to be the best. Two of these group IV oils that I know of are Mobil 1 EP and the new Pennzoil Platinum Pure oil, it says made from natural gas right on the label. All others, including the other grades of Mobil 1 are likely group III. I don’t know if the group IV synthetic oils are that much better than the group III, but many people are sold on them. I have used group III synthetic oils for many years, in non turbo engines with oil change intervals of 7500 miles or more (up to 11k on one car) and went over 200k on all of them without any oil related issues.
I think that after the first oil change at 3 months or 3k, you can easily go 7k or one year as long as you use one of the group IV oils. You probably would not have an issue with group III either, but for that extra margin of error you may want to use group IV to be sure. You might also ask the dealer mechanic to show you where the banjo bolt is so that it can be cleaned out at every oil change, or take the car to this mechanic for its oil changes in the future.
Thats more miles than I put on my truck per year and I change the oil every 7500 miles. I use Castrol Syntec (group III) so it can go as long as 2 years between oil changes. It has 192k on it now and has only used one quart of oil in its life. Not sure why it used that one quart, that happened 4 or 5 oil changes ago and hasn’t happened since.
Clean oil draining out of the pan means nothing. Oil sludge and oil coking sticks to the inside of the engine and inside the oil galleys and I’m having a very hard time seeing how a valve train actuator is affected by the turbocharger unless the engine was struggling to run with the throttle mashed, etc.
Going 7k miles on an oil change especially with the type of driving you do is a huge mistake. Best of luck anyway.
A video synopsis of problem/code(he needes to turn radio off). The camshaft code is thrown when its oil feed is compromised since it uses oil pressure to operate correctly(valve train actuator): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lwAyc3nTO8
