Have a very unhappy Imprezza !! Jap '99 WRX RA version 5.
Started burning a lot of oil suddenly, still had some boost and appeared to run ok, just a lot of smoke out the exhaust.
Had the turbo rebuilt -
Flushed the intercooler as best a possible refilled oil (only mobil 1). Ran the engine lot of smoke (assumed burn off in the exhaust and residual in the intercooler) Engine smooth on start up ! Took for a drive about 35 miles - checked oil level again off the bottom of the stick ! still lots of smoke !!

Any clues or ideas where to go next please !!

 

Sounds to me like the turbos gone. I'm not an expert but in the past I was an HGV fitter, when ever we fitted a new turbo we always charged the turbo oil feeds with fresh oil to give it a chance on start up. Also if your getting oil in the intercooler this points to the same thing. Did you fit the turbo yourself? or if not did the person who fitted it carry out this procedure? I don't know how relevent this is to car turbos but if I was fitting one I would carry out the same thing if possible. BTW I fix jet engines now so I have a basic grounding for how turbos work.

Jamie.

 

with it running undo the oil filler cap there should be a slight vacuum if it's chuffing out of there then you got a problem

 

PSlater, Seems that you might have lost the turbo, however, what oil did you use? grade I mean?? It's dangerous to use anything less than 10W/40 or 50 in a Subaru.

It might be worthwhile changing oil and filter to a higher grade if you've mistakenly fitted 0W or 5W to see what happens, maybe the thicker oil will sort it out - straws and clutching come to mind, but strange things do happen. A large residue of oil in the exhaust will take weeks to burn off and in some cases when the cat gets flooded it never burns off, just solidifies and then a new cat is required too.

BUT, if you're using as much oil as you think, you won't be able to see out of the back window for smoke. If you can see out then you need to look elsewhere for the problem. Leaks?? Any noises from the engine??

Worst case you've melted a piston and you need to talk to me to see what we can do for you.

David API Engines

 

Oil - Mobil 1 15/50 did the turbo change ourselves and yes we did prime the system before starting.
Using about a litre of oil for 20 miles and it is starting to seem like it has a slight misfire.
There's no cat !
Doesn't appear to be any leaks.
The car is regularly serviced by Power Engineering in Uxbridge they reported a small amount of piston slap at the last service about 2000 miles ago.

 

Maybe worth doing a compression check to ensure pistons and rings are healthy

btw It's Impreza with one Z

(sorry, but it's one of my pet hates )

 

Yep it's chuffing out ... what now !!

 

I have a similar problem with my car,lots of oil in the intercooler and running very lumpy.Its a melted piston.

Do a compression test,then speak to David API.

 

PSlater, call me then ! 01926 614522 David API

 

You will get a small amount of puffing through the oil filler cap,This is normal..(mostly crankshaft draft)As long as its not with smoke...And it depleates and turns to suck with a little rev.