When I removed my air filter assembly to access alt. adjustment nuts, I could see in the fresh air end of my turbo that it had quite a bit of oil in it. The turbo has only 3000 miles on it so I'm assuming it's all coming from the breather tube. Should I be alarmed? By quite a bit I mean there is a pool of black oil in the bottom of the intake shaft. The turbo doesn't seem to spin as freely as I would expect either. What could be causing this? I don't think the rings are bad - no smoke and pretty good power. Can this harm the turbo? Thanks -Keith

As long as your oil consumption is not way up there I would not worry too much about it.

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Jim

Thanks for the quick response, I go through about a quart per oil change - that's one quart since I bought the car. That doesn't seem like much for 236k. -K

With the assumption that you are changing oil every 3k miles I don't think it is much to worry about. Make sure you are running a diesel rated oil.

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Jim

I would be concerned about the "doesn't seem to spin as freely.." part. These things spin up to 140,000 rpm...you don't want to have one of these "grenade" and fill your engine cylinders with metal particles. Mine spins very easily with slight finger pressure. I suggest you call "Turbo City" in Orange,CA (714-639-4933) and tell them what you know.

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Diesel-guy