1994 FD with oil leak at turbo
 

Hi all,

Just had my oil change and the technician noticed a drop of oil (actually more than a drop) at the bottom half only of the rear turbo (by the snap ring). Car seems to be working fine, no spots on my garage floor. Car only has 20,000 miles, any ideas??? Could the turbo be gone???

More than likely your oil seal's on it's way out. Time to go single.

I would clean up the area, run it for a day and check it again. There are a few areas around which could leak oil which may not be all that serious. Doing this will allow you to try and pinpoint the exact location of the leak.

From your description, I would suspect the copper crush washers and gaskets for the oil feed and return lines.

So, rather than fix the problem, costing anywhere from $50-$2300 ($2300 for brand new efini twins)... you suggest he buys an expensive single setup.

Would it make sense at only 20,000 original miles that the turbo would be gone? I just checked my garage again and I do not see any oil anywhere. I will go back to the garage next week, get it cleaned up and maybe add die to the engine oil? I will also take pictures and post it on the site.

Simply cleaning it up and then running it a little would be enough to look for the leak. I never found the dye to help much. ;)

I wouldn't expect the turbos to be toast as 20k miles, but you never know. Anything is possible! :) However, I don't think its probable. ;)

If you do any DIY work, I suggest you remove the y-pipe and look for oil in the front or back of the pipe. A small amount in either end is acceptable and indicates a tiny amount of leakage past the turbo seals. If it's dry, I would look externally (the oil lines) for leakage.

A set of new gaskets and crush washers should stop the leak.

Dave

Hi Dave, is this a DIY job? What Y pipe are you referring to? Sorry for sounding like an apprentice.

Just to close the loop on this issue. It was the crush washer leaking at the turbo cooling line. Problem solved...Thank you to all for the input.

Assume you mean the turbo oil line. If so, did you replace both crush washers? I replaced the top one 3 times before I realized that there was another one underneath all crudded up and actually causing the leak.