Does the turbo still spool with a bad seal?

[Gamble97]

The turbo has some shaft play and only a few thousand miles. It used to smoke a little and now it smokes non stop out the exhaust. New motor, new turbo. Sometimes it will boost to 20 and sometimes to 15.
Compression test is good all across the board. The car smokes so bad it will hide the cars next to me or behind me..

I called to send it in for warrany and they said to first check the oil return. Sounds good, but what am I looking for on the oil return?

 

[Loewen21]

You are looking to check if there is anything plugged in it or blocking it that would cause the oil to back up, and therefore have ## turbo burn it up.

 

[DSM4me44]

shaft play is never good, even a little.

heres what happened to me recently when my turbo had "little" shaftplay.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260189

Yeah, your turbo will still spool. Your seals are bad most likely, thats what mine did when they went bad. The clouds of smoke, embarrasing i know.

 

[Gamble97]

I stepped on it and even heard a loud pop, so now I have to dig around and see what popped. I really doubt it was the seal.

 

[DSM4me44]

What color is the smoke?

 

[2gGSX]

If the seal is going out enough to have significant amounts of oil bypass it, I'd say stop boosting and get it fixed. Otherwise, you're risking the blades hitting the compressor/turbine housing and then the turbo will definitely be trashed.

Redoing the CHRA = cheaper then new wheels, generally.