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2005 Renault Scenic Dci using a LOT of oil!

11K views 17 replies 6 participants last post by  HugoSP 
#1 ·
Hi guys,

Just bought this car and I done a full service the day I got it. In the last 3 days it's lost a litre of oil!

There doesn't appear to be any loss of power, and no apparent oil leaks from anywhere. There's no smoke from the exhaust at all.

Any ideas? Some good news would be great right about now :(
 
#5 ·
Sorry thread title was meant to say 1.5dci

If its a 1.5 they have a bad habit of the turbo seals going and dumping oil into the intercooler, once the intercooler is full the oil is then drawn into the inlet and the engine starts revvin it's nuts off and eventually blows up!

If I were you I would check to see if the intercooler is full of oil at the earliest opportunity!

Hth
Craig
Turbo seals? Sounds expensive :/

I shall check the intercooler later on today, thanks for the heads up!

If the problem is with the turbo seals would there be any damage as a result? And would it be a whole new turbo jobbie?

^ guess what I'm going to be doing tomorrow morning then, seeing as I've already had someone else I know saying that I may have oil in the cooler and inlet... but not what the risk was.

Runaway is, like, my biggest fear, having switched to diesel... :crazy:

It doesn't seem to have lost much over the last couple days, but I had some trouble getting a good reading off the dipstick last I checked it ... somehow oil's got smeared all up the guide tube so it's interfering with the actual reading no matter how many times I wipe it squeaky clean and put it back in. I mean, it's obviously showing that the sump hasn't gone dry, but I can't tell if it's eaten any of what I've put in over the last week, and the smearing may be a symptom in of itself...
Funny you should mention that, i noticed the exact same thing with oil being smeared up the dipstick!

Thanks for taking the time to reply guys, much appreciated.
 
#3 ·
If its a 1.5 they have a bad habit of the turbo seals going and dumping oil into the intercooler, once the intercooler is full the oil is then drawn into the inlet and the engine starts revvin it's nuts off and eventually blows up!

If I were you I would check to see if the intercooler is full of oil at the earliest opportunity!

Hth
Craig
 
#4 ·
^ guess what I'm going to be doing tomorrow morning then, seeing as I've already had someone else I know saying that I may have oil in the cooler and inlet... but not what the risk was.

Runaway is, like, my biggest fear, having switched to diesel... :crazy:

It doesn't seem to have lost much over the last couple days, but I had some trouble getting a good reading off the dipstick last I checked it ... somehow oil's got smeared all up the guide tube so it's interfering with the actual reading no matter how many times I wipe it squeaky clean and put it back in. I mean, it's obviously showing that the sump hasn't gone dry, but I can't tell if it's eaten any of what I've put in over the last week, and the smearing may be a symptom in of itself...
 
#7 ·
Thanks, problem is as i've just bought the car I don't know how long it's had the problem for. Would it have likely caused any other damage?

Also any ideas where i might get a reconditioned turbo from? I've had a look on ebay and a new one looks like it's gonna' be about £300 :(

EDIT: I forgot to say, i took the pipe off of the turbo that goes to the intercooler, started the car and revved it a bit and oil was literally dripping out.
 
#12 ·
It probably won't have caused much in the way of other issues, as the turbine is a fairly simple device and all it's leaking is stuff that would normally be in the engine anyway... though it will have clagged up the components downwind of the turbo. Thankfully the air filter isn't one of them... but the EGR *is* :mad:

As for how long it's been doing it ... When I bought mine in December, at 116k miles, it was on the basis that the turbo just went "shhhh" at full load vs the alternative choice - a slightly plusher and more expensive Polo that went "fweeee!" when revved even in neutral. The problem only started to come on a couple months and a bare 2-3 thousand miles ago, if that. And I'd done the last oil change myself quite soon after buying it (apparently it had been given a 100-point service and check by the dealer, I chose not to believe that for various small reasons) & tried to ensure the level was always kept high, I never booted it from cold and gave it at least a few seconds' idle to spin down before switching off.

Thanks for the idea about taking off the feed pipe to the manifold, I was wondering how to check for the presence of excess oil in the intake system etc. That simple plan didn't occur for some reason. There will probably normally be a little bit of grease and wax in there (apparently turbo seals are never perfect even when new, according to a merc mechanic mate... and of course, if your EGR is still functioning, it'll be letting exhaust gas with potentially unburnt fuel and refugee valve/cylinder wall lubricating oil through into the intake charge), but I don't remember tipping any amount of liquid oil out last time I had it apart.

However, anyone know an easy way to check the intercooler for how much oil it may have collected in it without removing it from the car? Haynes is telling me that it lives between the coolant radiator and the AC radiator, which means it will require taking the bumper off and will then STILL be almost impossible to get at. I thought the 80hp's were supposed to have a side-mount cooler? Can I just jack the car (on axle stands), undo a pipe and a couple of bolts and tip it into an old washing-up bowl?

And yeah, it does look like it's going to be hundreds even if done as a home DIY job.

(Now, is THAT a practical proposition? I think I can -sort- of reach the turbo on both the intake and exhaust sides, but not that easily... I'm in a flat with a pokey, unpowered garage in a rather wet season... need the car out of action for no more than a saturday and sunday... and then there's all that business about replacing the washers, o-rings, hose clips etc but no information on what sizes we need... OR just best to shuck it off to a garage and hope they don't charge too much for the labour?)
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the comprehensive reply!

Having just paid for the car i'm not in a position financially to let a garage do the work, so it's definitely gonna' have to be a DIY job for me! I'm gonna order a new turbo tomorrow, will new gaskets and hoses be necessary too? I'll probably have the EGR vlave off and clean it while i'm at it, would seem silly not to! As you can probably tell i'm not too clued up when it comes to cars:crazy:

If you fancy coming over one weekend and doing both cars together we could write a ''how NOT to do it guide'' for others not to follow :d
 
#14 ·
Have you checked that the oil return from the turbo to the crankcase/sump is unrestricted? Oil may be passing the seal(s) due to excess pressure and the seal(s) may or may not be damaged. Even if the turbo is replaced check that the return is free, it is particularly liable to restriction where it enters the crankcase.
 
#17 ·
UPDATE - (6 months on)

Right, i never got round to buying the new turbo. Mainly because i couldn't find out which model i needed for my car. There seems to be about 7 different turbo's for the 1.5dci and as mine is on an Irish plate nobody could seem to tell me which model was the right one.

Sooo, I just kept putting it off. Anyway, 6 months & 7k miles later the problem hasn't got any better or worse. I've just been sticking a couple of litres of oil in every couple of hundred miles and the old girl just keeps plodding along.

Maybe it wasn't the turbo after all? I've noticed that one of the injector seals is leaking so i'll be tackling that soon. Is it a related problem? Or was it just the injector seals leaking and not the turbo after all?
 
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