I have a 2010 HHR SS 2.0L turbo, manual trans, 169k miles and are basically having two issues that I need some direction on. First, when I start (or restart) engine, the turbo will be fine the first time at hard acceleration, if I really get on it, it works fine. Once I let off of the gas pedal, any other times, I get no boost at all. If I turn the key off, then accelerate hard, it has boost, but again, once I back off, I have no boost.

The second issue just happens occasionally. I can go days or weeks without it happening, but sometimes it happens all the time. It is while at cruising speeds, (50-60mph) all of a sudden, I hear detonation, look back and the smoke is so bad, I cant even see a car behind me. I can stop after a short while, and have had to put in as much as 3.5 quarts of oil. I literally checked it right before the last time this happened, oil level was full, I went about 5 miles with it smoking and used 3.5 quarts of oil. I was out of town on a trip last week and I had this happen 4-5 times on my trip home, ended up consuming 10+ quarts of oil on a 300 mile trip. This also happened about 6 months ago, then all of a sudden, stopped. I have put about 20k miles on it without incident, then last week, started happening again. I unhooked the pcv valve that leads to the intake tube, it helped some but it did not solve the issue. Any help or direction would be appreciated. Like I said, it does not happen all the time, so it leads me to believe its not the turbo but some other ancillary part or valve or solenoid going bad, clogged, etc. Thanks

 

Welcome.

Did the Check engine light come on during any of this? If so, what was the code that was downloaded?

Needing to add 3.5 quarts would scare the carp out of me - I'd be worried about internal engine damage at this point. I'm not into the turbo thing, so lets see what the Turbo owners have to advise.

 

I am guessing you have a bad turbo. The 2 problems are probably connected.

The turbo has an oil feed and a coolant feed and a gasket between the pressure pump and the driven side. I am guessing either the gaskets and/or the bearing is kaput.

Kind of like an electric fan that runs fine until the bearing gets hot and seizes.

 

I'm tending to agree that it's the turbo. There's only a few ways oil can get into the exhaust.

Valve guides, piston/ring/cylinder wall, turbo. Also PCV system, but that would also indicate bad piston/ring/wall.

You can pull a charge pipe and see if it's drenched in oil. But I think it's possible that it's leaking directly into the exhaust side.

If your charge pipe is drenched, your intercooler is badly coated also.

You could perform a compression test to check the piston/ring/wall.

 

I have thought it may be the turbo but it makes no sense to me why this is just an occasional issue. I can drive thousands of miles without issue, then it starts happening every few miles, or hundreds of miles between??? I was thinking more that there is some sort of valve or solenoid or something else that controls oil feed from the valve cover or oiling system directly into the system. I was trying to find someone else who had a similar situation. I hate the thought of throwing 2k in labor and parts at a car when it may be a simple fix. Thanks for the replies

 

An installed new turbo from GM should cost $1350 + 4.3 hours labor. If anyone wants $2000 labor you should run.

 

Bad Turbski!!!! When they go bad, they like to drink up all of your oil.

 

Looks like you need new turbo. But since you've been running like this for a while, ( without 3.5 quarts!), I would be looking at replacing the engine in the near future.

 

Wow, first stop driving it, second when you see smoke stop driving. I can't believe you haven't grenaded the engine yet. Running it down to 1.5 quarts is bad. You've been lucky it's stayed together.

Pull the turbo and check it over and I would pull the pan and check the bearings at the very least.

 

Mine didn't have the intermittent portion of it, but when the turbo went, it was the seals in the turbo.

It was cooking coolant first, but later, oil, too. The oil and coolant passages are adjacent to each other on the shaft between the blades. Mine just got sloppy loose in there at 143K.