Evening I-clubers

So I'm at a loss for words tonight... as I just had speedelement replace my turbo inlet hose hoping to remedy my ongoing boost problems(for months now..) only to not gain back any more of my belovedboost/power and to top it off my turbo area/enginge bay even smoked on the way home while at red lights and out my tailpipe taking off...

that said I've replaced my upipipe/gaskets twice at this point, cleaned my stock EBC, and checked for other leaks but my car seems to run 100% fine other than when in boost beyond 0psi.. basically I get there and hit a wall and I'm fortunate to get 5-10psi flooring it, idles smooth/low end drives smooth so I've always doubted a vacuum leak, just no boost...

and lastly my car's turbo area has begun and continued to make an awful rattle while under boost and sometimes even pops... (kind of like wastegate flutter + heatshield rattle, but its neither) in neutral all seems well but around 2500k+ driving it sounds like the exhaust leak from hell but I'm almost 100% positive I'm not leaking any exhaust, had Kevin at AHQ replace my uppipe/manifold a month ago.. and i figure the noise is the bastard culprit

So with all that said I ask.... Turbo gone bad/just getting worse and thats the noise im hearing/smoke? Hairline vacuum leak somewhere? been monitoring everything possible with my AP and everything seems fine except for some A/F dancing and minor pull in timing(DAM has always been 16, no CEL's) that I figure have to do w/ the messy boost, no sign of burning oil/coolant either, I'm ****ing demoralized trying to figure out the answer at this point.. and ultimately dont want to continue to DD my car with these symptoms, especially the smoking tonight.. any help/experiences would be MUCH appreciated -Ryan and oh 05 wrx wagon 103k miles cobb stage 2

 

If your stock BPV working?

 

Have you ever replaced the intercooler couplers?

 

Stock bpv seems to be working perfect hasn't skipped a beat, and no I have not replaced the IC couplers, just the turbo inlet today.. Read about it though

just sat back down in my car/started it up again and smoking from the turbo aide engine bay continues.. Can't really describe the smell oddly enough..

 

Bad Turbo

 

Smoke from exhaust, id drop the down pipe and look at the turbo. Ive seen plenty of vf turbos fail but the car will drive fine.

 

vf isnt on yet fortunately this is still the td04, but yeah i think i ought to do that

also just found a pool of liquid under where he had been parked... fml

 

Sounds like a good time to put it on then.

Also if the puddle is sweet smelling your coolant lines on the turbo is leaking. Its the common culprit for leaks in that area.

 

Surprised that TD04 is having issues with how many miles it has..... its gotta be less than 20k

 

Hopefully and yeah speedelement may be getting my car back tomorrow..

 

yeah dude thats the thing.. maybe 20k+ by now but still it would really surprise me too, and for a while i honestly thought it was still making decent power/spooling and i just had a gnarly boost leak, like i said im at a loss for words

 

or the last shop he was at sprayed it to clean it off and now that junk is gassing off...

 

I was hoping it was just that but it continued to smoke from sj to my house in Los altos and then again when I moved it unfortunately.. Plus a puddle leftover

 

What color is the smoke? What does it smell like? Does the car appear to over heat at all?

What happens if you leave the car running and take the oil cap off? Any bubbling or smoking? Any contamination in your coolant?

Check all of those and report back. most of the wiser guys here probably suggest them already tho..but yeah good luck

 

heres a fun idea... have it towed to one of the several reputable bay area shops.

the internet is not a doctor, or a mechanic, or a shrink.


sometimes you need to pay money for an actual professional.