I was following my wife who was driving the RRS. Lots of black smoke and she pulls over. Car has cut out, no warning lights. She said there was no audible bang, just that the car lost power. Huge oil leak right under the front drivers side. Car is getting recovered tomorrow but I'm sat in work wondering what it could be?! Could I be lucky and it's just an oil pipe and low oil pressure has cut the engine out?

Also I had to rush to Stansted to get a flight. Pulled up in the car park for my radiator on my 3 series BMW combust! [/img]

Sounds exactly the same as what happened to me recently. I had a big puddle of oil on front drivers side also, car cut out and engine was knackered due to the oil build up and it turned out both my turbos were gone. My bill was just shy of £10k... I hope yours is not as serious and at worst it is just the one turbo if it is that. Not good.

Fingers crossed! I'm sure I'll find out sometime tomorrow.

So it's been confirmed. Left hand side turbo has gone. I've been quoted £3400 by the dealer to replace including new oil pipe and gaskets also.

I've rang an Indy in Hereford for a quote and they've quoted me 800-900 for a turbo plus 400 labour for the "easier" turbo to replace or if it's body off its £1200 labour so maybe as good as 2k from these guys. So the dilemma is I trust my local dealer totally. I've used my local Indy (not the Hereford one) and they were awful. The Hereford Indy is an unknown to me.

Also is there a non OEM turbo which could be more reliable?

I wouldn't even entertain TDV8 turbos without removing the body...

While its in the diagnostic stages, remove the turbo hoses from the other side, and check that too.
The one I had in the week was L/H turbo seized, but upon checking, the R/H hoses were also full of oil. Drained half a litre from the LH hoses, and a good quarter of a litre from the RH side...

It is also a good idea to change the engine oil and filter, as well as the turbo oil feed pipe

Cheers for that. I'll keep that in mind. The dealer said to me it's a body off job and are quoting 13 hours labour in total. When I mentioned to the Indy that the dealer are quoting 13 hours, he seemed to think they're not taking the body off. I need to speak to the dealer to find out what exactly they are doing. The dealer is hugely more expensive but I've been through this all before where the Indy under quotes and I'm eventually left with a bill exactly the same as main dealer, only without getting a free car and free coffee and biscuits.

This car in question, was body off, both turbos, clean out inlet and boost pipework, oil and filter, and oil feed pipe. That was around 14 hours

Sounds like I had a fairly accurate quote from my dealer. I'm not totally convinced the Indy was 100% clued up about the job. Hereford can be a bit rural so maybe he gets a lot of defenders in than sports. Can I asked how much it was for your job? I'm looking at 5k for both turbos.

£3,300 inc VAT

Would be cheaper to have it recovered up here and spend the night

When my TDV8 ate its turbos last year, the dealer replaced them both "body on". They had the vehicle for 9 days. A few months later the RH turbo failed again. They did that one "body off". Sadly I have no idea whether they replaced the oil pipes too - I'm guessing they probably didn't, at least the first time, so I'm hoping it's not a ticking time bomb...

If I were you, I'd go with the dealership. At least then you get 2 years of warranty on the replacement turbos should the worst happen again.  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Disco_Mikey wrote:

£3,300 inc VAT

Would be cheaper to have it recovered up here and spend the night

RRSTDV8 wrote:

When my TDV8 ate its turbos last year, the dealer replaced them both "body on". They had the vehicle for 9 days. A few months later the RH turbo failed again. They did that one "body off". Sadly I have no idea whether they replaced the oil pipes too - I'm guessing they probably didn't, at least the first time, so I'm hoping it's not a ticking time bomb...

If I were you, I'd go with the dealership. At least then you get 2 years of warranty on the replacement turbos should the worst happen again.

jame5 wrote:

Disco_Mikey wrote:

£3,300 inc VAT

Would be cheaper to have it recovered up here and spend the night

For both turbos?!?

For everything listed on my previous post

Both OEM turbos + gaskets etc, genuine oil pipe, genuine oil filter and new engine oil, cleaning out the pipework, labour and VAT included

Great price! I just need a tow truck now. I'm with the AA but it's been recovered by them already so I don't think they'll go for a second lift.

Tow it round the corner after its "repair", where it breaks down again