Today I went out with my cousin and she drove. I noticed that her tailpipes were very black and oily looking. I put my finger in the exhaust and got very wet and black oil on my finger. She told me yesterday it needed oil and they added it. She called the dealer and they said its normal for the Exhaust to look like that.
Its a 2006 4 cylinder turbo. what do you guys think?
Steve,
No. That’s not normal.
A turbo has oil seals on the compressor and turbine side. The turbine side is hot due to exhaust gasses and pressure spinning it to power the compressor-- that adds additional air volume and pressure to the engine for more performance.
Oily tailpipes indicate that the seal on the turbine side is leaking. If you’ve added oil to the engine-- which supplies oil to the turbo by means of a feed line-- then you can be assured there is an issue.
Get a second opinion ASAP.
BTW: NEVER, EVER run a turbocharged engine hard and then shut down immediately. Always let it idle for 5 minutes to “cool down” the turbo and prevent bearing coking failure and turbo seal failure. And ALWAYS use the proper engine oil as stated in the manual.
-Matt Silveira
Is that a gasoline engine or diesel? (TDI)
Its gasoline
I told my cousin to be on top of this because I had many Vw’s and I know how much trouble they are. I had a 1999 Saab 9-3 turbo and it was smoking when I drove it. It had less than 10,000 miles on it. They replaced the turbo and the head gasket. I’m not a big fan of the turbo. I think they work well on big diesel trucks.