P38a Diesel Grey Smoke and Lacking Power

This is a bit of a head scratcher for me as the problem is not currently happening but I am concerned it will rear its head again if I go on a long drive.

A few weeks ago I was driving back to the UK from Alicante, Spain in my 97 P38 Diesel with a PSI chip fitted.

Some of you will know what those Spanish main roads are like, you can just sit there cruising along at 80 and then suddenly you will hit a very long and very steep hill. Only for some tit in gutless hatchback to pull out in front of you and rob you of any momentum you had built up to get up the hill.

This is exactly what happened to me, but when said tit had finally got out of my way I had to struggle to get up the rest of the hill and then suddenly lost a lot of power. Managing to crawl into a service station I noticed that under 2000rpm the car ran fine but over that it had much less power and started to pump out no end of grey smoke. I then decided to continue the 1000 mile drive home not going over 2000rpm. Although that was the most stressful drive of my life the car managed it.

Now its home the problem appears to have stopped. The turbo fan is not loose, spins smoothly and does not have too much endfloat. The intercooler seems to pumping out plenty of air and the hoses don't appear damaged either. However, I have noticed that car is using a lot more oil than it ever used to.

Any ideas?

Turbo intake pipe collapsing. Replace with modified one 99MY onwards.
Yours is probably made from rubber, newer one are plastic.

ive noticed on some cars that have been chipped, that the oil consumption goes up a bit! Mine was missing two litres of oil last time i checked! Amazing how it changes its own oil over the year! Just replace the filter every January and jobs done..

Mark Piercy said:

ive noticed on some cars that have been chipped, that the oil consumption goes up a bit! Mine was missing two litres of oil last time i checked! Amazing how it changes its own oil over the year! Just replace the filter every January and jobs done..

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I change my oil regularly but never have to top it up. Mine isn't chipped but not sure how that would affect oil consumption.

I would agree with N2O though, I've be checking all the hoses inside.

Grrrrrr said:

I change my oil regularly but never have to top it up. Mine isn't chipped but not sure how that would affect oil consumption.

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The more chips you fry the more oil you use.

No, Wammers. My old Smiley van is the one burning the chip oil. Every time I go out in that thing I come home starving..............

Does anyone know if those turbo intake pipe were shared with any of BMW's offerings at the time? Got to go for a poke around in the local scrappy later this week so hoping they'll have a few old 5 series knocking about if the haven't got an RR.

wammers said:

The more chips you fry the more oil you use.

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we like chips.mmmmm or, worn out turbo seals!!!

jimllshiftit said:

No, Wammers. My old Smiley van is the one burning the chip oil. Every time I go out in that thing I come home starving..............

Does anyone know if those turbo intake pipe were shared with any of BMW's offerings at the time? Got to go for a poke around in the local scrappy later this week so hoping they'll have a few old 5 series knocking about if the haven't got an RR.

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Just had a look at new cost. Strange that an EGR one from intercooler to manifold is around £70.00 depending on where you get it, Rimmers £99.00, but a none EGR one is around £6.00 plus post. Somebody is taking the piss out of someone somewhere.

OP should also be looking at pipe to MAP sensor for blockage or splits i would think, also checking that lift pump is working properly.

Intercooler pipes are not the problem.
Turbo intake elbow is! It is very soft up to 1998 and turbo simply sucks it closing airflow!. Then it smokes and eats oil residue from entire intake system after turbo and also some oil.
Seen that problem on a least 5 vehicles, problem disapeared after fitting stiff intake from newer P38 diesel.