4.0TFSI Turbo failure

[Paulm]

Although I loved my RS7 (deffo best car I have ever owned) its crazy expensive if something engine wise goes wrong. Reading all the issues that are popping up on other forums. 2 that stand out. Turbo failures (over £3500 + Vat each) due to the Oil strainer blocking at as little as 40k miles and suspected oil scraper ring sticking causing miss-fires. Both huge and expensive jobs even DIY which I would do anyway.

The final nail in the coffin for my RS7 was turbo failure @ 39k miles (combined with continual cylinder 5 misfires). Driver side turbo seized and broke the shaft. On further investigation the passenger side turbo wasn’t much better, just a matter of time before it let go.

This applies to all 4.0TFSi engines. The newer cars have a different screen/strainer I believe. Mine was a FL car and it still blocked.

As for the misfires, I replaced the plugs and OEM coils but no improvement. Would not do it all the time but most annoying all the same. If it was a sticking oil scraper ring that would be a massive job I did not want to undertake.

Once stripped out I could clearly see the Oil strainer was blocked (sorry no pics) Sourced 2 new turbo cores and cleaned the screen insitu. Big job but very doable by the home mechanic.

Turbos came from the below link (might come in handy for someone) with billet wheels and cost 613 USD inc delivery for both. Mega cheap I hear you say, they must be chocolate? On arrival and inspection, they look and feel really good. Obviously, I can’t tell the quality of the bearings, shaft or dynamic balancing.

I did around 200 miles on them before I sold my car with absolutely no issues. Can’t say I really care how long they last, much like Audi’s attitude to the oil strainer issue. Sold the car back to Audi. From reading other forums Audi clearly don’t care re this issue and if it fails out with warranty that’s just tough. Very poor in my eyes for a £90k+ car with low miles and full history.

https://otsturbo.com/audi-rs7-turbo-chr ... urbo-chra/

Sorry about the crap pics I was running out of light.

The second pic is looking down into the oil strainer.

I have a video of the failed turbos but this site does not like mp4 files. If i can convert it i will add it.

The above is maybe just waffle for most of you but hopefully it might help someone in the future if/when they suffer turbo failure.

Anyway, new car arrived and really liking it. 2 issues need addressed ASAP. Road noise and suspension. MSS springs on their way. I will buy MPS4s tyres soon. P Zeros seems to be bad for noise amongst other things.

[dasquade]

Indeed sad to hear and known issue (especially in the US...extra more ambient heat?). Indeed a design flow especially seeing how many oil screen revisions audi made and still not bullet free. Personally just under 100.000km and still good (holding wood). I keep myself on a strickt 5.000km oil change with every 10.000km an oil cleaner flush + oil treadment. Not sure if it helps (all i know my oil once done the cleaner comes out very dark and very fluid so hoping it keeps carbon buildup/sludge on the lower side.
JHM (?) is developing an "above the turbo's" dual oil screen setup for easy maintance (but still requires removing the old offcourse).

Never the less, beside the issues hope you enjoyed and enjoying the new car . Thanks for sharing!

[Paulm]

Do we think its lack of failures in the UK or lack of reporting? UK has different culture to the US.

[Tadass910]

No failures so far in Europe with such example as yours, maybe your car was broken from a factory

[Paulm]

No failures so far in Europe with such example as yours, maybe your car was broken from a factory

There has definitely been 2 in the uk. There is a YouTube video about failures in a uk garage it but can’t find it currently.

I still think there have been more failures in the uk just not documented as 99% of them will be repaired under warranty. A car that only fails in the US is very unlikely

[Paulm]

2 min search on the net showed up another in the UK.

05-09-2019 11:00 PM
#30
LinenMonkey6262
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Hello all,

Think I have posted this in the right place.

I have an S7 (4.0t) 65 plate (December 15) with 19k miles on clock.

Looking for some advice as I'm preparing myself for having it out with Audi due to turbo failure on my car.

Inital diagnosis (by an independent repair centre) shows that 1 turbo is completly goosed and the other is on the cusp of the same. The exact terminology was "Turbo issue on your car note impeller touching turbo casing due to bearing failure" with 3 images showing the fault (the images dont mean anything to me).

The car is less than 6 months out of warranty and cost 66k invoice price (I financed the vehicle), I have had both services completed on 12k and 17k miles. No issues with the car until now.

Coincidently 2 days before my car went kaput I started the Voluntary Termination...couldn't beleive it when I was sitting in my knackered car with the pickup company calling me to organise return. Litrally had my head in my hands!!

My car is with the official audi workshop now, they are going to diagnose it themselves either tomorrow or Monday and will come back to me with...well, the damage!

Any words of advice really appreciated. Surely this cant be normal for a car of this cost and calibre?!

Thanks

[feeltheburn]

Just had an oil service and MOT done today at my Local uk Audi dealer (£173.09 all in for both- we supplied the oil). I am overseas at wthe moment but got my wife to query the dealer regarding the oil screen “issues” and with references to pictures in this post. They reluctantly acknowledged that they had “heard” about some issues. My wife was assured that If any such issues occurred they’d be taken care of as “good will” as all of our cars have been serviced religiously by them. We have an extended warranty in any case so maybe they were just blowing smoke but it might be of some sort of comfort for others to hear. I do hope that S7 got fixed as part of good will...he had enough on his plate at that time!

Best car I have ever had. Car is now on 18,500 miles (just over 1000miles more than the last MOT and service). It is never booted until the oil shows above 92degc and always allowed to cool with some slow driving before switching off. Oil can only start to clog up a strainer/screen if it’s composition is starting to breakdown. Overheating of the oil is likely to be the main contributor (or trying to stretch servicing to the long life path...in a car with this performance !) Red hot turbos with “stagnant” oil in the bearing housings when the engine is switched off can only possibly accelerate oil degradation, clogging screens and starving components of oil.So some mechanical sympathy by allowing the engine to cool after a spirited run might be a wise thing to do...alongside frequent oil changes regardless of how far the service interval shows you can push such neglect

[Paulm]

Just had an oil service and MOT done today at my Local uk Audi dealer (£173.09 all in for both- we supplied the oil). I am overseas at the moment but got my wife to query the dealer regarding the oil screen “issues” and with references to pictures in this post. They reluctantly acknowledged that they had “heard” about some issues. My wife was assured that If any such issues occurred they’d be taken care of as “good will” as all of our cars have been serviced religiously by them. We have an extended warranty in any case so maybe they were just blowing smoke but it might be of some sort of comfort for others to hear.

Best car I have ever had. Car is now on 18,500 miles (just over 1000miles more than the last MOT and service). It is never booted until the oil shows above 92degc and always allowed to cool with some slow driving before switching off. Oil can only start to clog up a strainer/screen if it’s composition is starting to breakdown. Overheating of the oil is likely to be the main contributor (or trying to stretch servicing to the long life path...in a car with this performance !) Red hot turbos with “stagnant” oil in them when the engine is switched off can only possibly accelerate oil degradation. So some mechanical sympathy by allowing the engine to cool after a spirited run might be a wise thing to do...alongside frequent oil changes regardless of how far the service interval shows you can push such neglect

100% agree with your engine care. I am very fussy with heating, cooling down and servicing, but I guess I have no idea how the previous owner treated my car. One of the reasons I have bought new again. Removes any doubts of a muppet (other than me lol) owning the car.

[feeltheburn]

How do you find the RS3 compares to the RS7 in the real world? Tempted a few times to trade in our Q5 for one- perfectly proportioned in the looks department as a saloon imo.

[Paulm]

How do you find the RS3 compares to the S7 in the real world? Tempted a few times to trade in our Q5 for one- perfectly proportioned in the looks department as a saloon imo.

S7 was slow and lazy. RS3 would dust it. RS7 was fantastic with great power.

Real world they are like kangaroos and fish. Absolutely nothing alike.

S7/RS7 comfy, quiet, plenty room, lovely inside, fantastic build quality, lazy handling, although good for a big car, magic gearbox, sound amazing with milltek. Horrible MPG, need to be going crazy speeds to have fun

RS3, hard, noisy, just big enough, build quality seems ok, go kart handling, sound pretty poor as mine has the new GPF, really really good fun and you don’t have to be over 100 to have fun in it. Gearbox is great unless you are in 7th and nail it. It takes for ever to get going. Kicks down quickly, engine screams and then it decides to go.

[Simon RS6C7]

Interesting post. In fact very interesting for me as both my C7 RS6 turbos have recently failed. We were cruising back home from the Isle Of Wight. We did 600 miles of steady driving, mainly motorway, got caught up in traffic 30 miles from home when there was suddenly a misfire and a intermittent rattle. Got it recovered to an Independent Audi specialist (the warranty expired end of January!) and they have confirmed both turbos have failed, the drivers side by far the worst. There are carbon deposits around the housings and evidence of excessive heat.
the turbos are with a specialist and soon being rebuilt. The garage have not yet advised what has caused the failure, as they're still investigating.
Sorry I don't have pictures etc.

As you can imagine I'm gutted. It's a pre facelift, 49K with full Audi history, and totally standard. I bought it from a main dealer 18 months ago. They have been a nightmare to deal with in the past, as I had another problem with water leaking inside the car back in December (whilst still under warranty I might add). A very long story this one, but in summary they told me the cause was a blocked plenum chamber and a failed seal in the bulk head. They ruled out the panoramic roof. Guess what? The roof was the cause!! They wouldn't help at all either under the warranty or good will, so I involved Audi UK, and they just backed the dealer up. So this is why I went to an independent, as i've washed my hands with the main dealer.

This is my first and probably my last Audi. I am debating whether to sell once repaired, as I don't know if I can trust it again. I'll post up the route cause once it's found.

Simon

[Paulm]

Sorry to hear. Pretty much guarantee it will be a blocked turbo supply oil screen. You must get it cleaned when you fit the turbos or they will just fail again.

[Golfather]

Sorry to hear. Pretty much guarantee it will be a blocked turbo supply oil screen. You must get it cleaned when you fit the turbos or they will just fail again.

The oil strainer must be replaced to a later superceded part, which does not get clogged as easily:

Original oil strainer:
079115175F





Revised superceded part, allowing much more flow:
079115175G

[ab54666]

Blimey, is that the part...... less than £15 worth.

Assume it's a turbo out job for preventative?

[Golfather]

This is where it sits:

Front end off.