Pauls E61

Hi folks
i need your help please

driving to work this morning, got within 1 mike and lost 80% of power
There was a loud whaling noise that sounded like a hurricane as the revs went up and down
Inspected at dinner time but couldn’t see anything obvious and took it fir another drive.
same whaling noise, loss of power and blue smoke out of exhaust when under load
Checked oil and it’s very low all of a sudden so I assume I have been sucking and burning oil
I topped oil up and I have Quite a knocking noise at what I would describe as top end

From reading various known issues with these I have a suspicion on what it might be (but don’t want to embarrass myself)
Could any of you maybe suggest what it could be and the remedy

is it terminal?
its done 180k miles and was running great before this. Changed oil every 6k miles

any advice appreciated

Thanks

kd7iwp

Can you tell us what engine you have, or year/model? On my phone I’m not seeing any of that info in your post. It sounds turbo-related to me especially if you’re burning lots of oil, so a 535xi? Have you scanned codes yet?

Pauls E61

Ah sorry. I thought that info came up automatic

its an E61 520D. Not sure of the engine code name
its a 58 reg
only fault code I have is P14A3

Thanks

Pauls E61

Hi folks
an update

I have had chance to start investigating and my intercooler duct was full of oil
where the right hand duct joins the engine there was oil there also
I took off the ducts from the air box and the other intercooler flexible duct and they were dry
The turbo blades seem to be intact, rotate and don’t have any play in them
Is it still possible that the turbo has gone
here are some pictures

Hope you can help

gman6262

I'm not familiar with the four cylinder diesels, I can't provide any specific advise. Boost pressure issues can be caused by several things - problems on the vacuum activation side with the pressure controllers, vacuum lines and actuators, problems on the pressure side with the pop-off valves, loose hoses, bad turbos. Oil in the air ducts can be made worse by a poorly functioning EGR system - you should check all the EGR hoses and valves. If you're going to diagnose this yourself, you're going to have to get to know your engine and look at things systematically. What year is your vehicle, pre-LCI cars have the M47 engine, LCI cars have the N47 engine. Some text from the N47 wikipedia page: The return spring on the turbo's wastegate was not originally lubricated or covered, this frequently resulted in early failure causing the waste-gate to remain partially or fully open. With the subsequent loss in compression, fuel consumption increased by 30–50%. The problem was described by BMW engineers as a "known fault" and was immediately repaired (BMW mobile engineers even carried boxes of an improved spring), however BMW refused to compensate customers for the excessive fuel consumption and denied this fault was their liability.

As the cars equipped with this engine are coming of age, some hoses in the engine bay can start to break down. This is not to be ignored, even though this does not illuminate the CEL, it just sets a code in the ECU. If the vacuum hose supplying the EGR cooler bypass valve gets a hole rubbed in it, or breaks down from old age and oil spray, the EGR cooler won't get bypassed during the engine warmup period. This causes excessive buildup in the cooler matrix, and when the engine warms up these solid chunks of buildup can detach from the EGR cooler and get sucked into the plastic intake tube, melting holes in the intake tube, causing a massive boost leak and in very rare cases an engine fire. BMW has issued a recall to over 1.6 million vehicles in 2018 for the EGR issues.

Good luck with figuring this out.

Pauls E61

Oh my god. I think this level of investigation will be beyond my capabilities.
I was just trying to diagnose if it was turbo in which case would be financially viable to repair and if something else, would determine if I scrap the car or not
Its a 2008 M47 engine and therefore the car is only worth around £1500 now, so spending in excess of £750 on repairs is not worth it for me
if it was turbo I would be prepared to do that and possibly do it myself
Having it diagnosed by a good mechanic will also cost a lot of money so I was trying to avoid spending a few hundred to be told it’s scrap

Thanks for your advice
I still don’t know what to do though

Pauls E61

Hi
An update
my car is an N47 engine
I got the turbo off and I’m pretty certain it’s knackered
The exhaust turbine shaft has a lot of play in it
Therefore I will order a replacement used one off ebay

This doesn’t explain to me how the oil gets into the intercooler duct
is this a normal result of turbo failure
Will the replacement turbo cure the problem.

I assume I will need to strip things down to clean all the oil out of ducts etc before I restart the engine

Thanks

neilv

turbo bearings are oil cooled and pressurized(journal bearings) to maintain tolerance. If there is wear/they get sloppy, or possibly low oil pressure then bearings fail or there can be oil blow by with the seals. Generally it gets to the exhaust size more but it can make its way into the compressor side and fill the intake with oil.

Id also check the PCV system