[turbotko]

I had the car in the shop today to check out a bad ball joint in the front end, and noticed some oil residue around the intercooler inlet connector. Further inspection revealed the pipe that connects to the IC wasn't even connected, it was just chilling inside the IC inlet. I was able to pull it all the way out without pulling the metal clip out!!

It had to have come this way from the factory, no work has ever been done to the car in the front end or around the IC......I know because I'm the only tech that has ever worked on the car, even did the PDI myself. BTW, I've never had a limp or C/E light on and have been running V2 for 6 months.

Moral to the story, if any of you guys think you might have a boost leak it's worth checking out. I'm sure it was leaking, if oil can get out then so can boost. I've not driven the car since I fixed it, but it never did seem to pull as hard as I thought it should and would also ping on 93 octane and 15 psi of boost sometimes.

[O-cha]

Yea it has to be a big leak, that's rather minor. After I got my charge pipe back on after it popped off and without the Oring it was leaking but didn't throw a code, but there was oil on the throttle body.

[Mr. Vapor]

how were you building boost if you blew off a charge pipe?

[Soni]

noobie question...how do we know if we have boost leak?

[asdflkijd]

Originally Posted by Soni

noobie question...how do we know if we have boost leak?

boost gauge?

[O-cha]

Originally Posted by Mr. Vapor

how were you building boost if you blew off a charge pipe?

He didn't blow it off it was just loose.

Originally Posted by Soni

noobie question...how do we know if we have boost leak?

Depends on the severity, either you cant boost at all, you wont know at all, or boost will spike and then dip and spike.

[turbotko]

Originally Posted by Soni

noobie question...how do we know if we have boost leak?

I just happened to get lucky and find it. If the leak isn't bad enough you might not ever know. I've got a smoke machine in the shop and I think I'm going to cap the compressor inlets and throttle body pipe then pressurize the system with 15 psi of smoke to check for any more leaks. That's the best way IMO to find them.

I drove the car home last night and it does build boost faster now. It's a noticeable difference so it must have been leaking a decent amount.

Imagine trying to blow 15 psi of pressure into a pop bottle with your mouth.........now drill a small hole in the pop bottle and imagine how much harder it would be to build the same 15 psi of pressure. That's what a boost leak does to your poor snails!!