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T6 Oil Check

Any oil in the water?
 
£4k to replace a turbo is utter nonsense. Turbo cost approx £600 (exchange so £100 back), 2 hours labour at £50/hr, oil service included.
 
£4k to replace a turbo is utter nonsense. Turbo cost approx £600 (exchange so £100 back), 2 hours labour at £50/hr, oil service included.
Where do you get your prices from? bare in mind its only a five year old van.
Cheapest reputable supplier I can find wants £1800, labour is more like £100/hr, intercoolers need replacing or at least flushing, oils etc add another £100, all that assumes nothing else is needed, add the Vat etc & I can easily see a bill of over £3k & thats me doing a bit of shopping around so £4k could well be the going rate for it.

In a foreign country, with the van presumably at a dealer, its not exactly a strong position to be in to start negotiating costs.

I'm more intrigued as to where the oil has gone. Its either leaked out, gone into the cooling system or out via the exhaust, any of those would leave evidence. The only time I've had a turbo let go all the cars behind disappeared in huge clouds of blue / black smoke.

Theres also the really worrying question as to whether a turbo failing has caused an oil loss or whether there was an oil loss that caused a turbo failure. If you don't know the answer the new turbo may not last long!
 

A decent reputable indy will fit it. I've literally had it done this week and the turbo was almost twice this price.
Oil has to be changed to cover the warranty. I was charged £30 for oil, £16 for filter and 4 hours labour.

Pay the big bucks if you like.

Are you going to put a link to a Biturbo one rather than the simple cheap single turbo for a 150?
 
Back to the OP's issue. It'll be interesting to find out the root cause. Worrying lack of warnings lights.
At least low oil level and or pressure followed closely by temperature would flag before rolling to a halt.
 
Are you going to put a link to a Biturbo one rather than the simple cheap single turbo for a 150?
I don't know what the van spec is, just a quick search.
 
Even if the cost is as you say, add the labour and it's still around half of £4k.
 
Back to the OP's issue. It'll be interesting to find out the root cause. Worrying lack of warnings lights.
At least low oil level and or pressure followed closely by temperature would flag before rolling to a halt.

Low oil level doesn't always flag properly, on my 140SE the oil filter o ring was pinched with oil flooding out after a service, I drove it & a low oil light came on for no more than 2 or 3 seconds & then went off again, as I was half a mile from home & the light had gone off I carried on to home.
On checking the oil it took about 3 litres to get to the bottom of the dipstick but the light was still off.
 
I didn’t see any signs of smoke from behind. If oil had blown out the back, I’m sure I would’ve noticed.
No low oil warnings on the dash at the time the van failed.
I wish I had checked the level myself when the van failed. I have to take the word of the French garage, it was low.
They report adding 1.5l when doing their investigations…???

Prices for these Bi-turbo seem outrageous. But I scanned the T6 forum and a few people there had been quoted similar. One guy got a quote from VW last year at almost £4.7k
They factor 12-14hrs labour to replace.
I would love to shop around, but I can’t. It’s stuck in France and I need to have it running to get it back home.
It’s not like I can go over with a pick-up and trailer and bring it back. It would be over tow limits without using a 7.5t beaver tail or similar.

My immediate concern is the reported low oil.
I’ve been checking oil on this from new. It was fine, until last year. I’ve covered around 10k this last 12 months, 5000 miles since the last oil change service service in Feb. I added just over a litre before my trip out to the continent.
 
I didn’t see any signs of smoke from behind. If oil had blown out the back, I’m sure I would’ve noticed.
No low oil warnings on the dash at the time the van failed.
I wish I had checked the level myself when the van failed. I have to take the word of the French garage, it was low.
They report adding 1.5l when doing their investigations…???

Prices for these Bi-turbo seem outrageous. But I scanned the T6 forum and a few people there had been quoted similar. One guy got a quote from VW last year at almost £4.7k
They factor 12-14hrs labour to replace.
I would love to shop around, but I can’t. It’s stuck in France and I need to have it running to get it back home.
It’s not like I can go over with a pick-up and trailer and bring it back. It would be over tow limits without using a 7.5t beaver tail or similar.

My immediate concern is the reported low oil.
I’ve been checking oil on this from new. It was fine, until last year. I’ve covered around 10k this last 12 months, 5000 miles since the last oil change service service in Feb. I added just over a litre before my trip out to the continent.
What effect would the DPF.have on the appearance of smoke?
 
I wish I had checked the level myself when the van failed. I have to take the word of the French garage, it was low.
They report adding 1.5l when doing their investigations…???

Im guessing they would have filled it when cold? & to the top mark of the dipstick. If so its overfilled.

The only thing I can think of is that there was a small oil leak in the turbo, the oil is now in the DPF & cat causing them to totally clog up, gives the impression of a failed turbo as it cant boost.

There is someone on the T6 forum going through a few replacement turbos at the moment.
 
I went back to the van yesterday before leaving France. Turned off and emptied the fridge and collected most of my clothes.
Btw, decathlon, kipster 75l bags €25 were well worth tracking down to pack stuff into.

I decided to see if there were any warning lights on the dash. None, the van started, and tick over sounded normal and stable. It’s only when I revved the van it sounded as if boost was missing and it struggled to rev as normal. No warning signs on the dash and no smoke from the rear at that point. Left the van running for 10mins to boost the leisure battery. I also had to move it to get into the boot and you could feel it was struggling to move. It did move with a fair bit of revs, but wasn’t running as normal.
 
Does sound like it could be exhaust side of things could be clogged up, that would let it tick over but not rev up
 
All very strange. You have our sympathy, I’m sure all will agree.
Breakdowns are never good but worse on holiday abroad. Not much we can say to help!

Keep your chin up. All part of life’s battered and torn tapestry.

I’m sure you’ll keep this thread updated.
Good luck. :thumb
 
I must admit, I'm not happy about the situation.
I am even considering cancelling my ID Buzz order. Tomorrow is my 14th day, since i officially ordered the vehicle.
I will sleep on it. But i have time to ditch the order and with good reason...
 
This week I broke down in France.
I’ve just had a report from a French Bosch service centre, who report low oil and blown turbo.
I can’t get much more information as I’ve had to travel home and I’m at the mercy of RAC recovery, which has been awful btw.

However, today I have a bill for turbo replacement at £4K from an engine with only 49k miles, full service history and only 5 years old…

View attachment 97248
Gutted for you :(
 
I must admit, I'm not happy about the situation.
I am even considering cancelling my ID Buzz order. Tomorrow is my 14th day, since i officially ordered the vehicle.
I will sleep on it. But i have time to ditch the order and with good reason...
I’m gutted for you. Hope all goes to plan over the next few days. Take care of yourself and the family.
 
That's shocking SSD, even worse on your holidays. Hope you get to the bottom of it.
 
I must admit, I'm not happy about the situation.
I am even considering cancelling my ID Buzz order. Tomorrow is my 14th day, since i officially ordered the vehicle.
I will sleep on it. But i have time to ditch the order and with good reason...
Stick with the buzz, no oil, no turbos, no cam belt.
 
Stick with the buzz, no oil, no turbos, no cam belt.

We’ve decided to stick with the Buzz. The alternative is a Tesla Model 3 and I’m just sick of seeing them. I think there’s 5 Tesla’s on my street. Great cars, obviously doing something right.

Decided, this is my last VW diesel and will be selling the Cali once it’s home…
 
We’ve decided to stick with the Buzz. The alternative is a Tesla Model 3 and I’m just sick of seeing them. I think there’s 5 Tesla’s on my street. Great cars, obviously doing something right.

Decided, this is my last VW diesel and will be selling the Cali once it’s home…
Should the 204 be treated the same as the 180 biturbo?
 
@WelshGas, possibly…
The 140bhp Beach had 60 000 miles when I sold it. It never used a drop of oil between its 12month services. My old 2.5 tdi T4 had 130k miles, was heavily modified and remapped, it was an absolute Gem, solid as a rock.

I’m not sure Volkswagen have mastered bi-turbos and all the emission constriction stuff they’ve added to the engines.
There’s post after post on the T6 forum about failed egr’s, dpf’s and premature failed turbos…
 
Id be tempted to disconnect the exhaust at the engine down pipe and see if it runs OK then. Obviously it will be loud but if it revs ok you will be getting somewhere
 
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