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Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Discuss the problems with your X5 (E53).
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shaneg7ewl
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Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by shaneg7ewl » Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:07 pm

Hope someone familiar with the M57 engine can guide me please.

I will try and keep this as short as poss,but its a long story.

Last summer I bought a E53 manual with the M57, 2003. Soon after buying I noticed if I drove it anything other than gentle from cold it would push oil out from all over the engine bay.I could never really see where it was coming from though. Once up to temp it was fine, although it did have intermitent boost at times. I changed the loo roll oil breather and also pulled the inlet off to get to the vacuum pipes as I discovered they had fallen to pieces and presumed that was the cause of the intermittant boost. But it didnt cure either problems. I also discovered that I had a lot of oil traces in the intercooler pipework. So it all started to look like a turbo issue, at one point I thought the loss of boost was a split intercooler as it used to build up and then vanish, like a cracked intercooler, but I eliminated this using compressed air.

So I have been living with this now for a few months, just making sure I took it easy until warm, the plan was to look at it in detail in the spring. FF now to Christmas day, I didnt wait for it to warm up fully and put my foot down when cold when over taking and it went into runaway, luckily I knew the symptoms and even more luckier its a manual so managed to tame it before any damage was caused. My 87 year old mum was a bit shocked tho with the smoke :)

I obviously then thought the turbo had died and this weekend have replaced it, well rebuilt it with a Nerrings core. Took it for a test drive and again it went into runaway pretty much straight away with the first hard pull. Got it back under control and tickled it home and now its not boosting much at all really and I have oil everywhere again. Very very annoying after the amount of work that went into the turbo change.

Any pointers?

Does the vacuum pump have a oil way/feed from the cam case? I ask this as my son noticed quite a bit of oil from the hard pipe to rubber pipe on the vacuum pipe. But this could be a red herring as there is a LOT of oil everywhere Any pointers well received,thanks in advance.

Shane

IanP
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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by IanP » Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:00 pm

If you had a runaway turbo as you previously described, did you remove all of the inlet system and clean it out, including the intercooler?
You would be surprised how much oil can be in there after a turbo problem.

shaneg7ewl
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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by shaneg7ewl » Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:09 pm

I didn't no, but I should have also added that I have used it daily since the first runaway, leaving it to get warm before driving anything other than very gentle of boost. Once warm I have been driving it normally and would have thought if the intercooler or pipework had too much residue in them I would have had issues in the 2 or three weeks since it first happened.

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Paulpen
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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by Paulpen » Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:47 pm

I'd be tempted to flush the intercooler as don't think it will all come out on it's own for a long time.

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marti
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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by marti » Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:01 am

Hi when you say 'Runaway' do you mean when you put your foot down its lacking power and then all of a sudden it takes off like a rocket..?

shaneg7ewl
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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by shaneg7ewl » Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:30 am

Hi, no I mean "diesel runaway", it's a term for when engine oil get into the intake of a diesel motor for whatever reason and its this oil that gets combusted,normally ending in catastrophic failure, bent rods, holes in blocks etc.Once it starts unless you can stall it or quickly block the inlet there's no way of stopping it, it usually only stops when the engine has exploded or devoured all its engine oil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-pxsViKF88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTlekxSl4JA

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marti
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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by marti » Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:19 am

Know what you mean now....had that happen on a van of mine, managed to stall it.....garage had over filled it with oil...

shaneg7ewl
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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by shaneg7ewl » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:13 am

Just an update to this. I managed to get a bit of oil out of the intercooler without doing a full remove and flush just by disconnecting the outlet and letting the turbo at quite high revs push the bulk of it out. It has responded well and I now dont have the runaway, so thanks for the pointers guys. I will remove the intercooler in the better weather and give it a proper flush.

I have also managed to cure the intermittant boost issue the car has always had by replacing the boost solenoid/vacuum converter. But I have a question relating to this if someone may know. I am wondering if the VNT actuator is pulled in by the vac at max boost or is it the other way around, as in is the actuator rod extended at max boost? I am more used to waste gate and actuator mechs and VNT is a bit new to me. Reason I ask is that now with the replacement solenoid I notice the arm activates at start up and just want to be 100% everything is as it should be. To me that suggests if the pipe to the actuator is removed i.e no vac then the VNT postion is at max boost, is this correct?

Thanks in advance.

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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by Leslie » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:35 am

If it was set to max boost then the car would have no power below about 2500 to 3k revs which is usually what happens when the vanes are not operating so sounds about right to me but I'm no turbo expert !
I think from what i read on another forum years ago (now long gone) the arm should move on startup :D Glad you got it sorted.

shaneg7ewl
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Re: Diesel runaway, turbo replaced.

Post by shaneg7ewl » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:55 am

Great info, thanks Leslie :thumbsup:

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