Happily driving along when I notice a constant reading of 25psi on my oil pressure guage (its an aftermarket one not the often faulty original equipment one) whilst cruising along. Going on what ive been told the reading should be between 30-60 on a warm engine and it usually sits at 50 most of the time obviously up a bit when I accellerate with aggression. I pulled over to look under bonnet and there is a fair amount of oil splatted in the top right corner over the battery, fuel filter, the hoses there, and the underside of the bonnet. Its not absolutely everywhere but you can see that its squirted quite a bit. I was only round the corner from home so did drive home, which perhaps I shouldnt have. I have only knowingly driven less than a mile with the problem but, although I do usually keep an eye on the guage I dont know how far ive driven with it like that. Im assuming that its gonna be a break in the turbo hose, or maybe a broken seal, or well it could be a gasket. Any ideas to what is most likely would be gratefully received and how much work is likely to be involved? Also is it likely that I am gonna have permenant turbo damage?

It may only be a blocked PCV valve thats caused this, lets hope.

Hopefully. They were replaced recently by the previous owner.

Check the dip stick is clicked in the tube correctly, oil can blow back under boost conditions and if not in right, will blow oil over the battery area.

 

Jeff TT

Yeh checked that out that was my first thought and I wish it was that.

Yeh checked that out that was my first thought and I wish it was that.

 

if there is an issue with the breather pipes and pcvs then,check the hoses and valves,remove balance bar and check inside plenum for oil,find out where the oil is leaking from 1st port of call

Turbo oil feed pipe could also be a suspect - would explain the loss on pressure

I am suspecting this is the one because I cant see it from above the engine and I cant see any cracks or anything elsewhere and as you say would explain loss on oil pressure. Which leads to the question of where exactly would my aftermarket guage get its reading from? I spoke to zedworld today and they have suggested that it may have just been the dipstick giving way under pressure. The car has had a manual boost adjuster valve fitted by a previous owner, I am thinking that its running higher than standard boost but with no mapping done to account for it as I have been getting popping from exhaust (quite a bit) when coming off throttle. The problem im having is there are know specialists anywhere near me so, as i dont want to drive it to avoid further potential damage, Ive gotta get it transported somewhere such as zedworld which is £150 before any work even begins. I am fairly competent mechanically but I dont want to make things worse by taking things apart myself.

You have to start it and run it - check the sump is at the right level first. If it is a cracked turbo feed hose you will see it right away with the high cold oil pressure. As long as you have some oil pressure the bearings should be fine - obviously dont run it for long if the pressure is falling fast and oil is spraying and dont keep it running if there is no pressure.

 

If it was oil getting chucked out the dipstick tube then it will simply run fine.

You mention that if the pressure is high on cold start up then oil feed hose may be cracked, well, before this happened the oil pressure was right up at the top to start with before slowly dropping down to 50psi for normal driving once warmed up and until I had both 50psi on the oil pressure guage and in the middle on the factory temperature guage I dont drive above 2000 rpm and the first five minutes of driving would be 30mph or less as I have to get out of town. What would you call high pressure for a cold engine? And is 50psi right for normal up to temperature driving?