WHY Turbo gone in extreme weather -20F ?

This is a 2011 GTI with DSG, and 60000mi, running on 0W40 Mobile 1.


SYMPTHOMES:
Car starts perfectly cold and doesn't smoke
When temperature drops below -10F, car heavily smokes at idle and when hot.


HOW IT STARTED:
I have been doing lapping during 2 summers but never had any turbo issues.
In 5 days extreme weather -20F my turbo is gone

First symptoms started on Monday January 1st evening when I left for a dinner.
The car started smoking at the second stop then smoked 7mi especially when I stopped at idle.
After the dinner I drove home 7mi without problem.
Then I spend the week going to work and ski-ing, drove about 180mi without any smoke.

Thursday my oil level was at half level (about 3.4qt)

Then this Friday the nightmare has started. After 10mi I stopped at a red light and my car started heavily smoking.
At the second light the engine stopped because of the excessive oil in the engine. I left the car and went to work.
After work car started without issue, drove about 7mi then it started heavily smoking and I had a lot of difficulty to drive home.


DIAGNOSES:

- Turbo has been disassembled
- I had 2qt oil left in the engine, within 20mi my turbo blow out 1.4qt oil
- Intake is dry no oil
- Leak down on all 4 cylinders is 0% which quit exceptional
- No coolant is missing
- Exhaust valves are clean
- Intercooler had about 0.3qt oil inside
- Turbo had oil in every single outlet
- My exhaust is full on oil
- Boost side of turbo is "clean" but have been leaking oil from behind the propeller
- Exhaust side of the turbo is plenty of "cooked" oil
- Turbo propeller is turning “square”


THE QUESTION:
What caused the turbo to fail ? Obviously it didn’t overheat but missed some lubrication.
Should I have used 5W30 for this temperature?

Catch can/bad pcv?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

car heavily smokes at idle and when hot.

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Classic sign of bad pcv

People are saying bad PCV but i would bet oil starvation to the turbo; perhaps due to a faulty return or feed line.

Temperature changes can cause from warming and cooling to such an extreme certainly put strain on gaskets and such.

True the smokeyness is a classic PCV sign but the rapid oil consumption and oil build up around the exhaust end would indicate the aforementioned issue.

Injen1us said:

People are saying bad PCV but i would bet oil starvation to the turbo; perhaps due to a faulty return or feed line.

Temperature changes can cause from warming and cooling to such an extreme certainly put strain on gaskets and such.

True the smokeyness is a classic PCV sign but the rapid oil consumption and oil build up around the exhaust end would indicate the aforementioned issue.

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I only think pcv because I just ran into an issue not related but with my catch can blocking air from circulating and causing pressure in the engine. I was burning hella oil this way and there was a ton coming out of the exhaust afterwards. Even smelled like a turbo burning/mechanical smell. I was shitting bricks imagining a screwed up turbo. Doesn’t the coolant dump into the turbo in these situations to prevent an overheat issue? I’m probably way off on that.

notovicrious said:

I only think pcv because I just ran into an issue not related but with my catch can blocking air from circulating and causing pressure in the engine. I was burning hella oil this way and there was a ton coming out of the exhaust afterwards. Even smelled like a turbo burning/mechanical smell. I was shitting bricks imagining a screwed up turbo. Doesn’t the coolant dump into the turbo in these situations to prevent an overheat issue? I’m probably way off on that.

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Big reason why I'm anti catch can...

I coolant moves around the housing yea

No catch can, PCV is running perfect, I thing so but clearly the Turbo has failed.

schulmann said:

No catch can, PCV is running perfect, I thing so but clearly the Turbo has failed.

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Which turbo is it?

I forgot to add that imo Mobil 1 is not a good oil for these cars. In my experience, hotter engines such as the Subaru burn Mobil 1 up much quicker than others. I'm not saying that's the cause of your issue. I'd use nothing but rotella if I were you.

GroceryGTIer said:

I forgot to add that imo Mobil 1 is not a good oil for these cars. In my experience, hotter engines such as the Subaru burn Mobil 1 up much quicker than others. I'm not saying that's the cause of your issue. I'd use nothing but rotella if I were you.

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I had a pretty bizarre experience with Mobil 1 in my STI. Did an oil change and went on a 550 mile interstate drive the next day. I checked the oil after I had arrived and it wasn't even touching the dipstick. I topped it off and it was stable until it was time to change it again. I've had more than one car that liked to make Mobil 1 disappear in the first few hundred miles after a change. I haven't had that issue in the GTI, it seemed to do just fine.

Last change I got some Pennzoil Platinum on sale and gave it a try. The car seems smoother, but my slightly seeping cylinder head cover seems to be losing oil just a bit faster than with the Mobil 1.

Either way, I'm not sure if Mobil 1 would lead to the turbo failure. Maybe there are better oils for our cars, but Mobil 1 isn't exactly a poor choice.

What types of materials are used for the shaft seals in these turbos? How do they react to extreme cold? How do you warm the engine up when running the car when starting it?

Has oil pump cavitation been ruled out? It seems like the rest of the engine should be able to handle a momentary loss of oil flow at low RPMs without damage, but if the turbo grabs a pocket of air through the oil feed line at the exact wrong moment it could lead to this. Consider how fast you can get this turbo to spin at very low engine speeds.

Short Bus said:

I had a pretty bizarre experience with Mobil 1 in my STI. Did an oil change and went on a 550 mile interstate drive the next day. I checked the oil after I had arrived and it wasn't even touching the dipstick. I topped it off and it was stable until it was time to change it again. I've had more than one car that liked to make Mobil 1 disappear in the first few hundred miles after a change. I haven't had that issue in the GTI, it seemed to do just fine.

Last change I got some Pennzoil Platinum on sale and gave it a try. The car seems smoother, but my slightly seeping cylinder head cover seems to be losing oil just a bit faster than with the Mobil 1.

Either way, I'm not sure if Mobil 1 would lead to the turbo failure. Maybe there are better oils for our cars, but Mobil 1 isn't exactly a poor choice.

What types of materials are used for the shaft seals in these turbos? How do they react to extreme cold? How do you warm the engine up when running the car when starting it?

Has oil pump cavitation been ruled out? It seems like the rest of the engine should be able to handle a momentary loss of oil flow at low RPMs without damage, but if the turbo grabs a pocket of air through the oil feed line at the exact wrong moment it could lead to this. Consider how fast you can get this turbo to spin at very low engine speeds.

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More pressure means more heat, simply because it can and does break down faster of course , with more power.

I was asking about the turbo type because he might have a junk turbo like the f23 or another eBay knock off.