I hate it when this happens...

[Bigglezworth]

Had an energetic sprint with an M6 up a hill this morning only to notice smoke coming out of my rear a couple of minutes later. Pulled in to a parking lot and got out to see if it was coming from tail pipes. To no avail, but the front of the car was smoking nicely.... Smoke was the result of oil burning off downpipe and cat. Puddle of oil below passenger side turbo. Checked oil level and was down just below cross hatch marks. Topped everything up with a full litre and drove it for another 5 minutes to monitor things in an attempt to understand just what occured. No more oil loss. In fact drove the car home 40kms and had no oil loss at all after checking the levels a couple of times on the drive. Not entirely clear on what exactly occured. Something failed, but I can't tell what. Perhaps either the supply or return line from the turbo? I doubt it's the turbo itself. What is clear though is that it occured under full boost and at high RPM's.

Anyone ever had this occur to them? What did you find out the problem was? One of the few drawbacks with our cars is the manner in which the powerplant is shoehorned into the engine bay. If this turns out to just be an oil like to the passenber turbo, I can't see any manner other than dropping the chassis/engine to complete repair.

Tim

1132811327

[4everRS]

No fun. How does it look around your valve covers? PCV system?

It could be lines like you said but you'd think they'd still be leaking.

[Bigglezworth]

Top appears to be dry and exhaust manifold wasn't smoking. I am highly confident the oil is coming from turbo area.

[wmgarton]

Similar thing happened to me. The PCV valve was clogged and not working properly causing crankcase to be over pressurized, causing oil to be pushed out through valve covers. I changed PCV valve and put new valve cover gaskets. Now all is good. Passenger side was difficult.

[4everRS]

These were my thoughts in my previous post. It would make sense that it happened under high rpm when crankcase pressure is highest. wmgarten, were you able to see the oil on the back of the valve covers? Tim could get back there with an inspection mirror to rule that out. Or rule it in.
Similar thing happened to me. The PCV valve was clogged and not working properly causing crankcase to be over pressurized, causing oil to be pushed out through valve covers. I changed PCV valve and put new valve cover gaskets. Now all is good. Passenger side was difficult.

[PALETTE]

i would say the exact same thing. PCV thats why many guys have gone with the catch can idea now

[Bigglezworth]

Tim could get back there with an inspection mirror to rule that out. Or rule it in.

Will certainly look at doing so this weekend. Would certainly prefer that repair to an oil line or anything else more major.

Thx

[Elevens]

Looks like part of my preventative maintenance will be to replace the PCV valve before it gets clogged. That's why I love this Forum....................................

[terrytcl]

i'd even go further than replacing the PCV valve.

the vacuum setup for the crankcase ventillation on the rs6 is pretty poor. imagine a gelatinous sticky cream of oil, water, and air building up on the inner walls of your tubing.
that's what you'd get with a bad PCV valve. so, even if you change out the PCV valve, you'll still have a clog or restriction causing the same oil blow by.

takes a little bit, but i'd suggest a thorough cleaning of the lines with a degreaser with the PCV valve replacement.

i'll upload the PCV replacement instructions on google docs.

[Elevens]

Thanks for the Advice Terry. I'll definitely make note of your suggestions and check your Google docs.......

[TozoM8]

I had the same problem with my S8. Boost pressure passes the PCV and pushes the oil back on the turbo drain. I ended up installing a T on the crank case hose an put a small (2") cone air filter on it. no more crank case pressure on boost.

[wmgarton]

When I removed the coil packs from the spark plugs, most of the "tubes" that encompass the tops of the spark plugs had oil in them.
A bit of a job cleaning the oil out of those.
Also a bit of a job is removing the pass. side valve cover.

[wmgarton]

Maybe a reasonably quick way to check, is to remove a few coil packs and check for oil accumulation around the spark plugs