95' Volvo 850 Turbo has stopped making boost (long grab a snack)

I bought my 850 T5 a few weeks ago and aside from a lot of petty stuff has seemed like a decent car at 147,000 miles. Goes thru a little oil and power steering fluid but other than that nothing serious.........until NOW. When I bought the car the turbo spooled up quick and it hauled some serious butt, although I noticed midway thru acceleration at WOT there was a SLIGHT loss in boost and then it would pick up again and keep pulling hard to 6000rpm. Also the boost gauge never went all the way up, only like a 1/4 inch from the end of the bar but I've always assumed its just because its an old innaccurate gauge. NOW TO THE MATTER AT HAND.... I was driving home from work and everything was normal for the first few miles, cruising on the highway enjoying the back massage it gives me because the tires are of poor quality and a civic fly's up on me and starts to ride my bumper. Naturally I depressed the throttle to pick up my speed and the car instantly downshifts and starts to get going but..... oh wait.... ya my motor is growling away and I'm not really going anywhere...... Turbo gauge was reading halfway thru the black while off pedle and at full throttle sitting dead smack between + and - .There was no stange noises or anything of that nature that occured before this happened, just straight up lost any and all boost. I'm kinda screwed as this is my only car and I have to commute 1 1/2 hours to work every day. The car idles/drives/shifts perfectly fine it feels just like a N/A 5 cylinder should, but it won't even spin its tires in the rain. I have a constant CEL now and I had it checked at autozone and they pulled a code saying something along the lines of "MAF reading lower than average amount of air". Anyways I'm puzzled and really hope that with some thoughtful imput we can find out whats wrong.

As of right now I'm thinking the wastegate is stuck open, also upon a quick inspection in the rain I saw the actuator bar and it didn't appear to be dangling and a decent coating of oil in the charge pipes.

Thanks a MILLION in advance I'm sure we'll figure this out!

Reply to
Dom Didomsky
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Sounds like you blew a hole in one of the hoses and you're blowing all your boost right out of it. Hopefully you'll have caught it in time not to have roasted your catalytic converter (since the Air Mass meter reads the air going into the turbo, not reaching the engine and would have been dumping a LOT of excess fuel). I learned that lesson the hard way. Amazing how fast those things (cats) turn into an expensive lump of melted metal.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Bradley

That sounds likely to me, too, and easy enough to check. BTW, Dom, the hole can be fairly small on the outside (maybe not even big enough to fit a pencil into) while the inside of the hose is split end-to-end. If you run your hand over all the ducts between the turbo and the throttle body you should be able to feel any holes. For a very temporary repair you can duct tape a piece of aluminum can over the hole unless it is in a bend. Duct tape by itself won't hold.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

Thanks for the help guys, I took the turbo heat shield off it at work today out of curiosity and found that the wastegate actuator arm has come off the turbo. I guess the pin got too rusted and broke off because I cant really see the holes where I should be able to put a new clip. Back to turbo fun!!!!!!

Reply to
Dom Didomsky

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