oil on outside of air filter to turbo pipe

[Phil and Liz]

Doing oil and filter today on wifes 08 1.5 dci, had plastic cover off on top of engine and noticed on right hand side of engine, the pipe coming from the turbo to the air filter has a fair bit of oil on the outside at the bottem where it connects onto the turbo. Cleaned it off and used some Gunk and washed that with water. Am I right in thinking that this is first indication of turbo problems ? cars done about 70k, serviced once a year - oil and filter with synthetic oil. Dont want to spend any money on this as its only gotta do 3 days a week for a year or so and any big bills will be the end of it. (clutch dont feel like its got long to go)

[AlexB]

The oil can be getting there through the crankcase ventilation pipe, or there is a hole in the boost air duct blowing oily mist onto the part in question, or it's dripping from above. The duct from the filter is under negative pressure, which should prevent oil from getting on its outside surface. I'm guessing, of course.

[robbie1003]

dont panic just yet. oil, and sometimes quite a bit of it does find its way into the intake system, happens on all makes and models, it settles in areas waiting to find a way out, it gets in there via crank breather system as well as sometimes from the turbo oil seals. i had two problems on my 1.9 causing problems, one with the valve on the breather system being faulty causing a increase in pressure in the system causing not only oil into the intake but externally too and a sneaky little split in the turbo air intake hard plastic pipes convoluted bit.
cure, well check the crank case breather valve and its associated parts, this also includes the oil filler pipe making sure its drain back into the sump is clear, check for splits in the pipe between the filter box and turbo, this means take it off and carefully check.

[Phil and Liz]

thanks for that