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Hello
I own a 2000 9-3 with 155,000kms on the odometer. I've owned the car for 5 years and have always used synthetic oil (first Mobil1, then German Castrol) and OEM filter, changed every 10,000kms. Until yesterday, the car has run perfectly, lots of power, no noises, idles smoothly, etc. I have performed all of the regular maintenance such as fuel/air filters, and also the latest PCV upgrade.
Last night I was driving on the highway, and I accelerated to pass a slower truck. After I had passed, the oil warning light came on, so I coasted to a stop at the first off-ramp, and then shut down the engine. I checked the oil level to find that the dipstick was dry. I was due for an oil change and had purchased the oil the previous day, so I called my sister to bring the oil from my house so I could fill up the engine. It took 3 litres to fill, so I had only about 1 litre remaining in the sump! I started the engine, drove home, and noticed on the way that there was a noticeable whine, louder than the regular engine noise, coming from the engine that increased with the throttle position, but not with the RPMs, so my first thought was that there is something wrong with the turbo.
In the morning, I started the engine and noticed a couple of small puffs of white smoke from the tail pipe. I took the car to a local SAAB specialist who drove the car and diagnosed the noise as coming from the turbo, but he said the car can be driven as long as I keep an eye on the oil level. He said I probably lost the 3 litres of oil through the turbo during the above mentioned accleration, and that this is a sign that the turbo seals are failing and the turbo will have to be replaced soon.
So my questions are:
1) Is is really possible to lose 3 litres of oil through the turbo and the car is still driveable? The only indication of a problem is increased noise or whine from the turbo?
2) Is it possible that I was slowly losing oil through the turbo since the last oil change, and I just didn't notice any smoke puffs? I have been a little lazy lately, so I had not checked the oil level for a quite a while before this happened.
3) If the answer to #2 is yes, why didn't the oil warning light come on much sooner than it did? It seems quite dangerous to have a threshold so low for oil pressure.
4) Can this whine be attributed to anything else i.e. bypass valve?
5) Has anything similar happened to one of you fine people on this board?
Thanks for reading,
Miguel
posted by 69.196.189...
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