Right To Assume Turbo Is Fekd?

[Mitch]

So over the past few weeks I have been dealing with this turbo noise that has been coming and going. It started around 4 weeks ago when I noticed a boost-leak sound appearing once the car was on full boost around 4000rpm onwards. First cab of the rank was to check the turbo bolts, and sure enough a few were loose around the turbo housing. Once these were tightend I assumed the noise would be gone.

I drove the car away from the mechanics with a little more down low and no sign of the leaky noise. After about 30 minutes of driving home I was a few streets away and thought I heard the noise come back. I couldn’t get on full boost again as I was in a 50 km/h zone, so I just assumed it was me being paranoid and went home. The next morning I got back in the car and did my 5-10min warm up of the engine before I gave it a few good squirts to see if I could hear it. All went well and there was no sign, the car was running really well with no loss of power and boosting really well. Then again after about 30 minutes I hit boost and there is was again, I boosted it from down low once or twice more just to check it wasn’t a one of and sure enough it stayed there. I put it away and called the mechanic and organised the drop off of the vehicle again the next day.

The following day came and again I went through the same process of warming it up before boosting hard. Again for the first 30 minutes it ran so perfectly with no sign of the leaky noise, I went steady the rest of the way and just before I arrived boosted again and there it was. My mechanic hadn’t heard the noise and was just going off my description, so I took him for a spin to hear it first hand and sure enough after sitting for 10-15 minutes it didn’t make the noise. I left it with them and received a phone call that afternoon saying the induction filter had not been looked at in the service and the K&N filter was falling apart. It was replaced and driven quite hard by the mechanic and he said there was no sign of the noise. After picking it up I have driven it for about a week again with power gains and boosting harder with no signs of the leak. Then again after about 30 minutes of driving this morning it suddenly started doing it again.

After another discussion with my mechanic we think the turbo may be f*cked and sucked up a few pieces of the filter while it was falling apart. Could this be the case? It just sounds so strange to me that this noise keeps coming back once the turbo has been fully warmed up, If it was f*cked wouldn’t it just be making the noise all the time and not be running very well?

Sorry for the length of this post, Just would like a opinion or 2 before I get it taken off and sent away to be checked if it needs a re-build.

[tab]

Fck me!

If it was fragments from the filter that's caused it you'd assume it would make the noise all the time. Have you checked the impeller for any visible signs of damage/wear?

[Mitch]

My thought exactly, if it is buggerd surely it would be doing it all the time....

Probably not fully, both times the turbo was about to come off a smaller more probable issue which was highly likly to be the issue was fixed but didn't turn out to be the problem.

Edited 22/03/10 02:07 AM by Mitch