Oil Leak and hesitation, help!
 

Yesturday drove to Aptos to meet with family, everything seemed ok, been noticing a tiny hint of a burning smell. Then, today, driving back over the 17, my car seemed to be hesitating under 3000 rpm, no boost, and even has somewhat lack of power. Although, wide open it seems ok, but was scared after trying WOT once since now there is issues.

Parked in front of another relative's house in Willow Glen for a couple hours and go to start the car and tons of white smoke came out for the first seconds after start, then clear. Limped the subie home and thats when I notice small periods of hesitation once in a while, no boost, under 3k rpm.

At home, put on jack stands, took undercover off and there is oil leaking from the bottom of the turbo, great, just in time for the tahoe trip next week.

Here is a picture below of where the leak is coming from.
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Do you think incorrect oil pressure could be the problem?
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Last note...very small amount of oil has leaked, even though its a mess, and it was hard to notice b/c I check my oil almost everyday. Since the last oil change (1500 miles ago), oil consumtion is 0.2 quarts, seems pretty normal.

What does the i-club community think about this? I don't really know what to do...waiting for my buddy Jerry to come check it out, but it is Xmas and all, hard to expect friends to help ya out right now.

On my phone, so I can't see pictures, but I'd say your Turbo is done for.
DO NOT DRIVE IT UNTIL HAVING IT PROPERLY DIAGNOSED!

Definitly not driving.

Took the heatshield off and from the top...no signs of cracks or leaks.

From underneath, can't see too much, but above the power steering rack, the underside of turbo has oil slow leak. I can only see as far as where the rubber tube clamps to the metal tube as highlighted above. Maybe a crack lies on the underside and oil is just dripping down onto the metal and rubber tubes, or not.

And what about the white smoke at start after a couple hours of letting the it sit? Is that a determinate of oil leaking on the inside of the turbo.

Crossing the fingers that I will not need another VF52.

The smoke is the dead give away that the Turbo is shot.

Good thing Iam under warranty. Brought my car to Justin at Capitol Subie and sitting in the waiting room right now. He told me if the turbo is bad, i get a new one, yay!

Oh yeah, Update...

Driving to capitol this morning and the hesitation is getting worse and I found I could only boost to 9psi MAX. Butt dyno thinks 110hp WOT right now. Wonderful.

then you will get a free engine !!! cuz where did the blown out bearings go!! in the pan !

Ok, final diag by capitol...turbo housing leaking oil, done for. Free turbo under warranty.

+1 for Capitol Subaru's service department. Glad I decided to keep to stock downpipe on until the warranty expires.

Plus, they are going to get me driving before my trip to tahoe on the 31st.

You drove the car to the dealership with a bad turbo??
Let's hope the bottom end doesn't fail on your trip on the 31st.

explain

what he is getting at is that the turbo is shot cuz something failed in the cartridge.... what ever failed can be breaking apart and flowing into your oil pan. your engine can suck up the crap and feeding it into your bearings, which can then cause damage to your engine.

figured. Subaru didnt even change the oil. I am going to buy a filter cutter and send in oil for an analysis and see whats up.

FINAL: Car runs fine now, turbo had an external leak in the bell housing. Turbo replaced, but the Shiggy tune was jacked. Weeks of diagnosis and boost map adjustments did not help, car kept going into some kind of limp mode. And Shiggy is in Japan.

Replaced ECU, stock plugs, keys registered with it, and everything is fine. So weird. Still have an EcuTek licensed ECM in my garage.