T180 lack of power

July 30

Hi Folks,

I've a 2008 avensis estate, 2.2 t180 Dcat engine, 138k miles, car is only used a couple of days a week and is basically a run around for the family, mostly the dog to be fair, lately the wife has been driving it so not sure if there was symptoms beforehand that I've missed.

I took the car to the shops and noticed it wasn't boosting fully, seemed to be coming in later than usual and wasn't reving through, stopping around 3500 rpm, but reved OK with the clutch in. Assumed it was DPF related, so I added the usual DPF cleaner which has been successful before, took the car out and did the usual higher rpm long run, seemed to clear up a bit, but boost was still intermittent. There was no smoke from the exhaust at any stage, although I've never noticed any smoke from this car of any description which seems unusual for a diesel.

Parked the car and a few days later I took it out, no boost whatsoever, car revs all the way but it's driving like there is no turbo. I always noticed a fluttering sound in 3rd and 4th in particular when the car came on boost, but that's completely gone.

Today I thought I'd decoke the EGR as I usually do at service time and noticed it was badly clogged, not entirely blocked but a lot worse than it usually would be. Also it was gunky, very obvious there is oil in it, then I noticed the rubber connecting into the inlet manifold is saturated with oil, so much so it's run down onto the engine tray below and trickled onto the underside and gathered up dust etc from the road.

I also cleaned the MAF and noticed oil mist in the inlet pipe to the turbo, didn't want to strip any further as the car was blocking the wife's so needed it running, but I suspect if I remove the inlet to the turbo I'm going to find a lot more oil. I also noticed the coolant was a bit rusty in colour, although the car does sit for days at a time now with WFH etc.

I suspect the turbo is at fault here, but I thought I'd query it here as I've found lots of useful information, and to be honest I've little desire to lie below a motor when the sun is out, so I'd rather be 99.9% sure before I commit to this.

The father in law had similar symptoms before with his 2.2 d4d which turned out to be the turbo, but his symptoms were immediate, I think this has been more progressive and I've not noticed as I haven't been using the car.

I was going to check the actuator movement next but the desire to live had left me at this stage because I was having flashbacks to the last time I tackled this job.

Any help is appreciated before I replace the turbo and realise I've misdiagnosed completely and whinge some more at the wife.

Cheers,

Andy