Bloody turbo's gone on mine ... been making a noise for a while, which I couldn't track down ... had props off, uj's, bearings, oil seals replaced, diffs off, bloody allsorts, which has sorted all the runnning gear a treat, then my nieces boyfriend comes round this am comes out for a ride and says it sounded like something in the induction ... took inlet pipe off turbo and the impeller shaft moves about 1-2 mm and clicks ... :(
At least it now seems we know what's been sounding strange thobut ... ;)
Yeah, I had one let go on a Nissan Bluebird ZX Turbo (Company car many years ago) ... it's not something you don't notice. ;)
Sounded strange this one though. It started as a whistle, and has developed through a knocking into a constant drumming type noise. Looks like a mate has a 'spare' one going that's supposedly A1 so we're going to try that tomorrow evening and check if the nopise changes, goes away, or isn't the turbo at all ... but I'm 99.9% certain it is ... :(
Just took it off ready to pass on to a reconditioners ... glad I did ...
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Has about 1mm sideways movement of the spindle and about 0.5mm endfloat, which I suspect is _way_ over tolerances ... ;) Also, have a look at the edges of the vanes, they look a bit chipped to me, and felt it ... hmmmm.
Also took off the manifold, certainly easier to take it all off as the turbo bolts are on bastard tight, and found an exhaust stud missing ...
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Not done anything about it yet, but it's obviously been blowing. Seems to me like it's never been on from new ... there's no stud in the hole, there are no marks on the manifold from the nut that should have been on the stud, as there are on the other stud holes.
It's no wonder I've always said I could hear an odd whistling sound from the thing ... ;)
It's also given me a chance to look over the EGR system and plenum chamber and such-like ... jeez what a gunky mess ... so while it's all off I'ne going to get it steam cleaned along with a few other bits and treat it to new hoses, oils, and other stuff ... ;)
It looks like summat foreign has been through that compressor wheel - that doesn't look like shagged bearing damage. I expect it'll need replacing as part of a rebuild which will probably make a new turbo a reasonably priced option :-(
We had a case here before which was even worse than that!
Once the vanes make contact you're well on the way to a nasty surprise - especially when the bits end up in the cylinders. You haven't caught this a moment too soon.
This is the 'cold' end of the turbo, isn't it? The damage on the axial edges of the vanes should not be there as they cannot rub on anything. It looks as though they've been passing dirty air. You have an air cleaner element installed haven't you? - although it may have been missing in an earlier life. Apart from having an element installed just make sure that the pipework from the air cleaner to the turbo doesn't leak i.e. you're not by-passing the cleaner.
It just dropped out long ago and your observation re. the missing nut is good!
Just check that the hot gases have done nothing nasty to the wiring insulation to the rear of the manifold.
Cleaning out the intercooler, too, are we? Not that I've ever done mine.
That's what I thought when I noticed the damage and why I took the pics ... ;)
Far as I know it's _always_ had a air filter element in, we're only second owners and have every receipt for everything it's ever had done to it ... but I do recall one service when I took the old filter out and it was all scrunched up, not a nice square unit. It looked almost like it had been soaked and wrung out! So it's possible that something got in, possibly water after an off-road session ... the air filter change before that one was completely normal and they have been since.
That's a more logical assumption, but you'd swear that there was never a nut tightened onto the manifold.
Yeah, it all looks fine. We're going to check it out better tomorrow when it gets light again.
Ho yuss. Can't see the point in having one part of the system being done without doing the rest of it. Also going to replace air filter, we've already ordered new turbo hoses as the original ones feel _very_ soft, especially the 90 degree one next to the turbo, and going over all the air inlet seals with a fine tooth comb. ;)
It's weird because lately the whole engine has felt really powerful as though it's running on steroids ... but it is possible that water has got into the air inlet system previously, and it may have also, I guess, brought grit or a pebble with it, see my reply to Dougal.
When I did the rebuild on the 300 disco the plenum chamber was tarmaced with crap to a depth of 1/8" the intercooler was squeaky clean apart from a light coat of oil. I suppose its natural that oil passing the EGR gets a proper mixing with soot to form that paste. What amazes me is that turbo parts can actually get through the inter cooler its a frightening thought.
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