Turbo rebuild symptoms

Q. What are the symptoms of a turbo needing a rebuild? My TDi Defender just had a pump and injector service but it’s still blowing smoke. The local diesel guys who did the service reckon that it could be the seals in the turbo leaking, but wouldn’t I be losing oil if that was the case? It’s got 250,000km and I wouldn’t mind trying to get 250,000 more out of it, so if it needs work done I’m happy to spend the money. How else can you tell if a turbo is crook without pulling it all apart?

A. Pretty much if a turbo seal goes you end up with a major drama in the form of smoke, big oil consumption and even the chance of the engine running on that oil effectively allowing the engine to run uncontrolled.....pretty scary stuff! I’d hazard a guess that the turbo is OK. Check for those symptoms and even get the boost checked as it should be running around 15PSI. If that’s all ok then it probably could be just fine tuning on the pump. Even if a pump has been rebuilt on a test bench it still needs potential fine tuning on the vehicle. Think of it a bit like rebuilding a carburettor and once its back on the car you ‘tweek’ the mixture screws etc.