Intercooler hoses

One that goes onto the turbo looks pretty loose, and there’s evidence of oil spray on the hose. I suspect that there’s a slight leak in the system, so this could be it.

Shouldn’t be loose, should it? It rocks from side to side.

I’ll check back into this thread when it reaches page 10 🙂

Is there usually oil in the intercooler -aren’t they mostly air-air or water to air? There shouldn’t be oil anywhere internally in the intercooler hoses to spray out.

They should be gas tight, at least.

Oil in the turbo? That’ll make a smoke trail.

Intercooler hoses should be tight. Otherwise you’ll lose boost pressure.
If you have an EGR then you will get a little oily deposit over time.
How is the hose attached? Jubilee or hose clip?

I think it’s normal to have some oil circulating in the intake / intercooler. Not loads though.

Its under pressure though innit so any oil in there is going to get blown.

Not a volkswagon tdi is it?

The hose from turbo to intercooler shouldn’t be loose, no. No hoses should be. New compression clip or jubilee clip or similar should sort that out.

Oil spray on hose suggests maybe the turbo seals are on their way out. Shouldn’t really be any oil that side, as technically it’s pretty much fresh air > turbo > intercooler. You may have a recirculation “dump” valve though (MR2 Turbo had this, for example), or your crankcase breather may feed back into the air intake, so maybe that’s what it is.

Thinking about it, if the hose is loose and there’s a bit of oil in the hose due to crankcase breather recirculation, it’s going to spray out due to +ve pressure post-turbo.

Not a volkswagon tdi is it?

Yes, having read about it these hoses do work loose apparently.

There is slight oil in the intercooler, this is normal, and only a little has sprayed out. I tipped a teaspoon or two of oil out last time I checked for leaks, that was after about 100k miles. Not really excessive.

There aren’t any clips or any form of tensioning of the joints, that’s the problem. They just clip together, there’s nothing you can do.

The seals work loose and shrink also I have read that the clips get weak over time. New seal kits are made for some models.

Interesting, thanks beic.

Yep, the pipes vibrate and weaken the clips which fail over time.
I think I had 2 or 3 hoses replaced in the 250k miles I put on the old Ibiza…they all failed at the clip and everyone I asked about it said it’s common on the VAG diesels because the clips are a bit crap and weaken over time because of the vibrations. Like you say, there’s nothing to brace the pipes so they wobble around a bit…

Just make sure you nip-up the bolts before page two, but don’t actually announce this fact, until at least page 5……… And if you dupe a mod into getting “involved” bonus points 😉

In general, Volkswagen AG (VAG) are very shyte at dealing with issues not resolved during development.

In my experience, unless absolutely called out and forced to do so, then while VAG will become aware of an issue, they typically remain silent and rely on customers to report back after which VAG “may” fix, on an individual basis.
This is a much cheaper strategy for VAG, than to roll out region wide network TSBs to fix, x,y,z, whenever an effected vehicle roles into a dealership.

Other OEMs use the TSB system in a much more ethical manner, where they will notify dealerships to carry out rectification when a car comes in. Quite often, customer will have no idea the OEM has carried out any additional, corrective work. Imo, this is how the TSB system should be operated.

With regard to this particular issue. As others have indicated, it’s a known problem. VAG is hoping drivers discover this, at their own expense.

While not being familiar with the specific design of the intake hose system on the OP’s unspecified vehicle. Is it not possible to deploy jubilee clips to compress the hose ends against their adjoining parts?…

No, not possible.

molgrips – Member

No, not possible.

What? Baiting a forum member or using jubilee clips?

You will have oil circulating in the intake system from the EGR.

Hot oil vapours and elevated pressure from the turbo will eventually degrade most intercooler hoses leading them to split on elbows or break up around hose fittings. Or clips can break because of vibrations and engine movement as the intercooler will be fixed to the chassis but turbo hose to the turbo on the engine.

Only place it is acceptable to have a loose pipe is on the intake to air filter. Anthing beyond the filter is either risking letting dirt get in (before turbo) or losing boost (after turbo so turbo to intercooler or intercooler to inlet manifold).

Any loss of boost will reduce power and cause more black smoke.

It’s automatic, and to shift smoothly it has to match engine revs and power. For the last few years it’s been slightly hesitant shifting, as if the engine wasn’t responding how the gearbox was expecting. Took it up the road for a few hundred metres now and the gearbox had no idea what to do, like its parameters had completely changed, but all I’d done was wrap some ptfe tape around the seal. So that might be it.

It probably won’t hold, but we’ll see.

What? Baiting a forum member or using jubilee clips?

Using jubilee clips. I’m here to talk about cars not wind each other up.

Battery disconnect for 15 mins to reset the ECU parameters and force it to relearn with correct boost pressures etc (given you’re not losing boost now) might be worth a go.

Yeah it seemed to learn and adjust quickly last night but I’ll also have a go at it with VCDS when it’s done. Looks like you can get the O-rings as genuine VW parts, at least on ebay, so I’ll try and get a full set from the dealer. It’s a pretty easy fix once you’re under the car.

The charge control test was only *just* within spec last time I tried it.