Possibly turbo?

[Jimes256]

so have checked the inlet pipe which apart from the flexi bit which is tough enough to not be collapsing the rest is hard plastic or poss ally(cold and dark!) the intercooler looks ok from the front, has had a little knock but pretty sure its not split. no signs of oil anywhere either. haven't had chance to read codes or get any time on it yet. will probably check condition of turbo if i can get inlet pipe off next

[davebb]

Hi did you remove the plastic under tray, under the coolers
if your car has aircon, how did you see the front of the intercooler, did you remove the aircon unit,
Dave

[prc68]

If it is one of the intercooler connections or intercooler itself, you should be able to pickup the noise of the pressurized air escaping through the cracked IC or torn tubing.
If the turbo seals are shot, the smoke should be grey/whitish in colour. If it's black, then your just not getting enough boost/air going through the engine for the amount of fuel the ecu is requesting.
Besides what was already mentioned, it could also be the vnt mechanism stuck (carbon buildup) or a MAF issue (thinking back to my ex-VAG group cars).

[Jimes256]

No to be fair it looked like the ic was one in front of rad but wasn't sure if it was the ac rad I was looking at from front and suspect it was. No sign of oil anywhere though but as I said it was a brief look. Will try and get a good fault find on it Saturday. Be nice if it was turbo vanes sticking and will use turbo revive as that is great stuff unless it's really gunked. How easy is inlet to turbo to get off?

[davebb]

the front rad is the aircon, intercooler is in the middle ,
to remove the turbo inlet pipe, remove the top engine cross bar so you can get to the back of the engine, then its 2 clips, leave the oil breather pipe on there as you are only giving it a good look over,
Dave