Turbo problems
 

Chaps.

My Impreza is developing a bit of a problem. When I bought it it had recently been serviced, and usually had a bit of a whif of burnt oil about in the air after a journey, but nothing too major and after about 4-5000 miles it went away. I assumed that either the oil level was a bit high, or that there had been a little oil seeping onto a manifold somewhere, no oil leakage showing under the car.

This was some 8 months back and I had it serviced again a couple of months back and the problem is back.. only now its worse (I was expecting it to "go away" again). The oil level was at MAX, so not over-filled, but now it seems that I have the oily burning smell most/all of the time and rather amusingly (not) if I've done a shortish run I now get smoke coming from the Turbo area. Last night it looked like someone was trying to light a Touareg campfire under there when I switched it off last night as I had a lovely plume drifting out of the bonnet scoop being illuminated by the headlights as it drifted across the road

So I'm wondering.. is MAX oil level actually too high for a Subaru Impreza and basically I'm getting loads of it up a breather pipe and into the turbo (but then I imagine the smoke would be inside the unit & into the engine only).. or is there some other oil-feed/connection around the turbo that is prone to leak/fail, or alternatively have I developed a slightly buggered turbo (boost etc all fine thought).. any ideas people..?

Car year is 1999

Cheers

Certainly whenever I get mine serviced, the oil level is always about 2/3s of the way up betwen min and max. Whether this is with good reson I don't know.

Any noises coming from the turbo? Any excessive blue smoke out the back?

Did a search on this recently for a mate with a my98 turbo.

I seemed to get the answer that it's the cam covers (check that is the right term) leaking a bit of oil onto the hot exhaust.

Spoke to Paul at APP Service who confirmed this was probably the problem. Apparently they can be tightened up and isn't major.

BTW the smoke was coming from around the turbo but couldn't pin point the exact place.

Damo