Hi

I bought a renault scenic last month, its 6 years old and about 132,000kms. Since i bought it it has been drinking oil. I have had different warning lights on the dashboard always relating to the oil. I topped it up myself in December and now again it is without oil.

I took it to the garage today (on french side) and he said that it was the Turbo and it would need to be replaced at a cost of 1100 euros as I have little to no knowledge about cars does this sound right to any car buffs out there. Can I buy the part on ebay, or am I being ripped off?

Just keep adding oil; it's cheaper. Plus it keeps the engine full of nice, new oil.

if he says a turbo i guess it is a diesel? the figure is about right for a turbo replacement inc labour. however that is for a dealer supplied part.

I would have a look around for a reconditioned part, and ask around on owner forums how easy it is to replace the turbo by yourself.

i assume you bought the car private and not from a dealer? the owner would have known this problem existed

do you have any signs of blue smoke from your exhaust under acceleration or do you have lots of soot on your bumper?? look at all options incase someone is trying a fast one.

Means I have to keep topping up every month which is a pain.....would there not be a point that it would simply konk out? Where does the oil go?, could it be leaking elsewhere and causing more damage?

There is no leakage of oil right? I'm sure there's not.

What kind of oil did you put? What kind of oil had it been put before? Did you mix different types of oil?

Does the car came with service book? Search to see if the turbo had been changed recently. If it was, it could be that it hasn't been installed properly or that it was faulty. The reason why the oil is evaporates is that the turbo probably blew and since it's using oil to cool it's self it's leaking the oil into the exhaust. If oil residue can't be seen on the exhaust, if you check the compression in the cylinders and the state of the gaskets and rings you might determine if the turbo blew or it was faulty to begin with.

Sometimes when new turbo is installed it takes time to break in but I don't think it should take this long.

And they are very expensive to replace.

The previous owner HAD to know about this problem. You should call him. A defect like this doesn't come over night.

Turbo charges on the Scenic have always been very nasty. Hundreds of cases. Usually starts with the valves and gaskets and then the turbo.

You could get a second opinion and drive to Germany. It would be interesting to read which is the cheaper offer.

I will probably head to germany tomorrow. The warning lights change daily from normal to re-adjust to 'stop'.

I bought a diesel car oil 'turbo' from the supermarket in December and topped it up myself. It was ok for a bit then the warning lights started again.

Sodding cars

I would sue the previous owner if he had not mentioned this at the point of selling.

This is all about "Gewaehrleistung": you may expect that a car, also a used car, does not have these kinds of defects after a month.
Have a look here (in German): http://www.beobachter.ch/fileadmin/u...tooccasion.pdf

The turbo issue (if there really is one) is not related to excessive oil consumption. How much oil does the car need per 1000kms? 1 liter per 1000kms is still ok for a car with that mileage.

i think that consumption is total crap..... i have an 11 year old car with higher kms and guess how much oil it uses... ZERO.

A liter per 1000 km? My two stroke 1983 Yamaha RD 125 wasn't using that much, yet alone a car! And bike the had no oil pump you had to mix the oil with the fuel so the engine won't blow!

3 options of the missing oil, you have a leak which would be seen at your park space, the engine is using oil thru worn components, the turbo is leaking.

go to another garage for a double check

Well, it's a french car, you know. Same holds for British cars (I used to drive a Metro). My 19 yo Audi also needs no oil.

4th option: you're filling it too high and the engine throws the oil out into the intake and burns it (not likely here but EXTREMELY dangerous in case of a diesel)

Get rid of it asap.

check if the engine shares the same oil as the turbo, if they do and you let the oil run out then the whole car will be scrap. if the turbo breaks totally then you'll be driving the slowest car on the road, those limited to 30kph things will be flashing you to move over.

turbos do use oil, but not that much!! lol

you bought a dud (no suprise really, its a renault, they are shite when new let alone after 100k km) get rid asap

A tip I learned many years ago when buying a second-hand car is to leave the engine running on tick-over for 4-5 minutes. Then stand on the gas and observe the tail pipe.

An oil-burner will send out a cloud of dark smoke. That would be worn piston rings, but I guess the same will apply if it's the turbo.

Renault + turbo + km132,000 = potential trouble. Time to dig deep into your pockets - or sell...

I'm afraid you were ripped off and the Renault garage is right. Very high oil consumption is a sign of serious motor problems or a dying turbo, and the second one is more likely of the two.

A new turbo is expensive (500EUR+), and one alternative option is to get a refurbished one. Some consider it a patch-up work but if done right, it can keep working for another tens of thousands kilometers. Where I come from (Poland) a complete refurbished turbo for a Renault costs ~250 EUR. You can get the price down a bit if you send your old turbo back to the seller (or just get yours refurbished).

Other then that, I'm afraid no good news for you. It can only get worse if you do nothing. The seller must have known about it.

Agree with glinaa. If it's the 1.5 dci engine, be careful on what turbo you buy. I think that this engine has a KKK turbo. The aftermarket variant is a garret but I'm not quite shore it works properly on this engine. My advice is to buy a new turbo. On the other hand, if you have white/blue smoke on the exhaust, there could be another problem and you need to do a compression test.

So how are you going to sue, it was "sold as seen" Caveat emptor.

If it was bought from a garage you may have some recourse but if it was bought without guarantee....

I suggest you take a long weekend and book it in to a garage wither in Germany or France, what you save will pay for a nice hotel and a couple of hangovers !