Same thing innit? Wikipedia thinks so.
Ah, the problem with the X-trail is the intercooler leaking at the sides.
The leak (air) makes the turbo overboost to compensate which eventually kills it.
Any oil which is in there from turbo bearings leaking a bit also leaks out rather than getting burned.
(ie it's not intercooler leaks oil into the turbo, which would be a bit surprising since the intercooler is after the turbo, not before it)
On the T30 the intercooler is *after* the turbo and does indeed fill up with oil when the turbo bearings are shot. Can very easily lead to the engine running on the oil and destroying itself. But you'd never let a turbo get that bad, would you? :)
Google suggests it's the older T30 (like mine) that had the problem with an intercooler design that was changed, but there still seem to be plenty of them on the roads. In any case, extrapolating from "one model of car has turbo problems" to "turbos are bad" seems excessive.
The intercooler is always after the turbo - no point in putting it in the cold air before it :-)
I had assumed that the "inter" bit of the name was because it's between the turbo and the engine, but apparently originally that was an aftercooler, and an intercooler was in between multiple stages of compression.
So you could in principle have an intercooler which was before _a_ turbo, but after either another turbo, or a supercharger.
But probably not on an X-Trail, certainly not a standard production one. :-)
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.