I went to test drive a 2008 CTT on Wednesday. The cayenne looked very well maintained, exterior and interior was nearly perfect and it drove like a charm. Seller told me all maintenance was done at the dealer and showed me the invoice of the last service.

So I took it for an inspection today and the only issue we discovered was oil residue around the driver-side turbo inlet, there was no sign of liquid dripping oil but my indy warned me that it was a sign of a failing turbo. The residue looked like dry oil and dust stuck on it. The passenger side turbo looked dry and clean.

At this point I'm not sure what to do, should I take to the dealer to get a quote on the repair or I should I just move on and look for another one? The seller is willing to negotiate the price but is the turbo leaking a sign of him not taking care of the car?

Any advice is greatly appreciated! I made a mistake (or not) driving the turbo, my emotions keep telling me to go for it but my head is telling me to wait for another one

 

If you do some research, you will find out that this is normal for any Cayenne Turbo. They will leak some small amount of oil around the driver side lower intercooler piping. It should not enough to cause any oil spots in your driveway, but it is normal.

As a side note, you will not regret the Turbo.

 

Ditto RenaissanceMan... I've read too. There are also a few places around the turbo path where oil can accumulate, and to some extent, this is normal. I'd give your local Porsche service manager a call. In my experience, most are very helpful and responsive in giving their advice.

 

I have owned a few turbo cars as well as my current car they all have a bit of residue, like RenaissanceMan and Dancingbears said. Have your mechanic check around the oil pan and oil cooler that should be more of a concern.

 

The biggest issue with the CTT is that the air/oil separator sucks. Second, the pcv system dumps into the drivers side air intake pipe just before the turbo. This is why most owners find a buildup of oil in the lower intercooler hose. I recommend installing one of these-

http://www.grimmspeed.com/air-oil-se...-turbo-subaru/

or a catch can like this

http://www.etektuning.com/42-draft-u...oil-catch-can/

 

Have you installed one of these Mr Haney?

 

Couldn't agree with you more but save your money on the catch can I have run prob every brand on my Subaru and grimspeed is the best. It's has 3 ports for the oil breathers which most only have 2 and it cycles the oil. As far as install on a cayenne not sure that would work. It's designed to screw into the Subaru neck and the oil breather lines are designed for the Subaru. It would have to be the same route for the cayenne for this to work.

 

Agreed. I noticed the routing as well on the driver side turbo inlet piping.

Interesting feedback.... I have considered building my own catch can for the Cayenne, but couldn't get over:

A) the additional length of piping that I would have to add to make it work, which would increase turbo lag. No bueno.

B) space restrictions - where would I physically put it? What about the additional piping? There is almost no useable space in the CTT engine bay

C) ease of access - I would need to put a drain valve where I could easily open it up and recover the excess oil. See point B.

All in all, I think I will just deal with the little bit of oil under the front subframe and the slight oil consumption.

 

On second thought, I checked out the Gimmspeed unit and I am wondering if I could adapt this to work on the Cayenne. The principle is the same and adapter inlets can be swapped out. Food for thought I guess...