Turbo noise

Nov 30, 2005 16 Replies

Hi chaps,



Mum's '00 HDi (110BHp, in a cit. Xantia, so technically OT :-) has started making a loud whistling noise. When she mentioned it, I thought it must be a hole in the exhaust before the silencer, but when I went over and had a listen it turns out to be _much_ louder than that.



Sound comes from front (i.e. engine bay...), is definitely turbo related, sounds like one of those whistles you get in christmas crackers (! technical jargon !) starts at ~1400rpm. My thinking is that it could be a leak in the intake plumbing somewhere in the turbo-intercooler-inlet manifold bit, a leak in the manifold itself, or knackered turbo.



If anyone can suggest other possible causes, I'd be glad to hear.



Many thanks!


Sounds like a leak to me, but I'd be inclined to check the exhuast side of the turbo first. My 205 used to whistle very loudly, and that was just through a knackered back box (no hole, just old).

At my last place of work, I use to pootle around in an TD Astra Van - it'd been to the moon and back, the Turbo was shagged, and it too used to whistle like a banshee :) Still made full boost though.

What sorta mileage has your Mum's car done ? Does it do lots of short journeys ?

Yeah, I've had the same on my 205, but this is _much_ louder than that was. I'll get it up on ramps next time I'm down there and see what I can see.

Cheers Carl.

It's at about 150k, but it's pretty much all been motorway miles - she lives in the sticks, so there are no short journeys, heh.

We've had squillions of TDs over the years, mostly PSA, quite a few with getting on for double this mileage and never had a turbo problem, but I guess that doesn't mean much really. Ho Hum.

Cheers Nom.

Obviously I dont know how loud yours was, but mine used to get most people turning there heads to see what the hell was going on. I think I recorded

102dB with at @ 1m from the tail pipe @ ~3500rpm. Without the whistle it was about 80 :)

Well a leak is the cheapest thing to fix.

But Turbos do whistle when they're shafted :)

It's the turbo. Bugger. Looks like £350-£400 for a replacement, then some seriously skinned knuckles putting it on..

Thats one thing i do miss on my 405 turbopower, but now i got a 405 without turbo but still got power. chris addlestone surrey

Doh, bad luck :(

Go down the scrappie. Must be a fair few crashed HDis about with decent turbos!

Or go on a site called find a part they should be able to find you one.if not its a trip to the beakers yard,very good one over by Heathrow Airport, on the A4. good luck from chris Addlestone Surrey

Cheers chaps. I tried a find-a-part type website, which turned up one at a breakers not far away for £80, which seems pretty reasonable, but they don't know if it's off a 90 or a 110BHp variant. Anyone know if they had the same turbos?

Dad (who's ultimately going to pay for it..) seems in favour of getting a new one, rather than a used one of unknown vintage. Hmmm.

At a guess I'd say they'd be the same, as the power difference is primarily due to the addition of an intercooler isnt it?

I suppose you'd gaurentee its going to be good, but is it worth all the extra money? Personally I'd say no!

Your Dad does right.

It's still gonna cost the same in labour charges to fit.

It's clearly worth the extra two or three hundred quid, knowing your shiny new Turbo's got another 200k or so in it. And if the scrappy's Turbo *is* shafted, then you've just wasted a boatload of money on said labour !

The intercooler allows more boost without pushing up the intake temperature, which is primarily why you get more power, rather than because you are running a cooler intake charge, I think. That said, I would imagine that they would try to use the same turbo on both, but I'd like to know for sure...

I'd tend to agree with you. If I can check for sure that the £80 one at the breakers is the right one, then I think the £300 difference might sway him.

Labour charges = cost of bacon sandwiches for me. The argument still holds though, just from my perspective, rather than his.

Yeah, sort of. Mum is probably only keeping the car for < another 10k, and you can check the replacement turbo for wear in the bearings/oil seals before you buy it, so you can probably be reasonably sure that your £80 turbo will last the remaining few k miles you need it to.

It's no big deal at the end of the day - the occasional couple of hundred quid for maintainance is pretty much peanuts in the overall cost of running a car, so it probably will end up being a new or at least recon unit.

Hi ... the turbos ARE different mate.for the 90 bhp engine the turbo is looped control.. i.e. when the turbo reaches a pre-determined pressure (around 14.7 p.s.i) the turbo pressure itself opens the waste gate.On the 110 engine the turbocharger pressure is controlled by a solenoid valve using o.c. r.(negative) signal from the ecm .Vacuum is always present UNTIL you reach full boost then the ecm "chops " the signal allowing no vacuum to the turbo waste gate via the solenoid valve which in turn will open the waste gate.This is a fail safe system to protect the turbo in case of failure of the circuit. all the best mark

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