tell take sings

camo · **Posted:** Wed Aug 03, 2011 10:49 pm

Hey ppl. I was wandering what are the tell tale sings of a turbo going bad? noises, power differences etc I just want to be aware in case something like that show up (knock on wood)

papaindigo · **Posted:** Thu Aug 04, 2011 8:35 am

Check with geordi as he has experienced both catastrophic turbo/engine failure and just recently caught a possible turbo failure before it happened due to bearing noise.

I know he is looking for an oil sensor to catch the problem that caused the major failure before things go too far.

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Thu Aug 04, 2011 2:49 pm

One check is to remove the intake hose and with a clean hand washed with detergent or soap that has no grit, grasp the turbo intake with the tip of your index finger and thumb. A little play in the shaft is OK, but not enough to have the blades of the turbine touch the housing. Any rub marks, you should plan on a replacement. Next check to make sure the turbine spins freely. The final check is to make sure the veins connected to the actuator that change pitch and give our turbo the great performance can be moved with out binding. TDI forums are full of tricks to free up the veins if they get stuck. If the veins are stuck and you free them up, you have fixed a problem and saved your self some cash. Dealers and Turbo rebuilders will not free up stuck veins since they make big bucks replacing or rebuilding the turbo, some will try to scare you into not freeing up the stuck veins. Sometimes spraying a little PB Blaster on the part of the turbo where the actuator moves the veins is all it takes.
To protect your Turbo, install an EGT gauge and avoid driving in ways that will destroy the turbo like climbing steep grades pulling a heavy trailer load and using cruse control.
If I remember right, geordi installed an EGT gauge after his first turbo failure so it would not happen again. I installed mine before I hooked up my trailer, to play it safe. I back off if the temp hits 1250F-1300F and never let it spike over 1400F.
There are some preliminary reports that using the Hayden severe duty fan clutch and plastic 11 blade fan will lower the EGT when towing. I have not verified this myself yet, but will when I tow the next time.

camo · **Posted:** Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:28 pm

awsome info, now Im a bit ignorant about turbos as this is my first turbo charge vehicle. when you say the veins.... is that something i'll find arround the turbo? are they inside? how many? how do I test for stuck veins? that sounds like my next weekend project. thnx

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2011 6:05 am

camo wrote:

awsome info, now Im a bit ignorant about turbos as this is my first turbo charge vehicle. when you say the veins.... is that something i'll find arround the turbo? are they inside? how many? how do I test for stuck veins? that sounds like my next weekend project. thnx

Browse through the TDI websites, they have lots of info on the turbos the TDIs use that are a lot like ours, no sense repeating all that info. The veins are on the inside of the turbo but the actuator is on the outside of the turbo and is connected with a link. If the link moves, the veins move too and all should be OK.
If the veins don't move, the turbo performance will suck too.

camo · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:43 am

any TDI link in particular? im going to start looking now but it will be nice if you know of links that will help

camo · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 1:30 pm

ok, I check for actuator movement at my turbo and it does move about 3/8" to 1/2" up and down, is there any way to know if all individual vanes are ok? When I replaced the GPs about 1000k miles ago the tip for number two was gone and I believe it broke under the past owner. I was wandering if that tip makes its way out of the cylinder through the exhaust valve, could it brake or damage one of the vanes? how would I know of a single vane being broken, partially broken, or just not operational?
I'm getting a rattling noise between 1900 to 2200 rpm during warm up only and is coming from the turbo side. It only happens with the GDE FT tune load up, not with the stock tune, and also, I already went through all heat shields and bolts on the engine making sure they were torque to specs, replace both MMs, and did the TB service along with the pulleys, tensioner, and tstat. can someone throw me a bone here plz!!! what else can I check?
thnx in advance.

:dizzy:

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 2:16 pm

If your turbo shaft is moving 3/8" to 1/2" from side to side or up and down then your turbo is shot.

Furthermore an abnormal noise coming from the turbo at any RPM range is not a good sign.

I would stop driving the vehicle immediately and begin the process of repairing or replacing the turbo. But that is just me.

You see, I freak out knowing that my engine could grenade at any moment due to the turbo shattering and littering the motor oil with pieces of metal.

Check the oil by draining it through a clean rag and look for small shardz or metal, finding that would be an eye opener.

And if you were not using the specified synthetic oil then I would start doing that too.

Let us know how you make out.

camo · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 5:44 pm

well, that is why im trying to find the soucrse of the noise. I don,t even know if it is turbo related, I do know that it feels is coming from the pasanger side of the engine but I might be wrong. Any way, I think i'll change the oil and filtered with a rag to see what comes out, it is a good idea. what drive me nuts is that the noise vanishes at normal operating temp and it is not existing when the libby is driven with the stock non f37 tune, it only shows at warm-up with the FT tune.
accoding to GDE the turbo shat should move about 1/2" when you remove the vacuum and come back to position about another 1/2" when you reapply it. also the impeler shows no play and the oil stays clean for about 1500 to 2000 miles before it gets really dark.
I do appreciate more leads to try to find the source of this noise that I know is not normal. so I am open to suggestions.

CATCRD · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:14 pm

racertracer wrote:

If your turbo shaft is moving 3/8" to 1/2" from side to side or up and down then your turbo is shot.

Furthermore an abnormal noise coming from the turbo at any RPM range is not a good sign.

I would stop driving the vehicle immediately and begin the process of repairing or replacing the turbo. But that is just me.

You see, I freak out knowing that my engine could grenade at any moment due to the turbo shattering and littering the motor oil with pieces of metal.

Check the oil by draining it through a clean rag and look for small shardz or metal, finding that would be an eye opener.

And if you were not using the specified synthetic oil then I would start doing that too.

Let us know how you make out.

He's talking about the actuator shaft moving, not the impeller shaft. It's not time to freak out, it's supposed to move.

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:15 pm

If the turbo shaft has that much play, I would stop driving it.

CATCRD · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:27 pm

racertracer wrote:

If the turbo shaft has that much play, I would stop driving it.

Which shaft?

camo · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:23 pm

vanes actuator shaft, the vacuum operated one. the main shaft where the impeler is attach to dont have any play and neigther sings that it has ever touch the housing, alsopower is ok but on a side line, I have not seen any difference powerwise with the GDE ft tune, it feels the same to me. but any way I would appreciate some thougts on the noise describe avobe.

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 8:20 pm

oh ok I thoght you meant the power output drive shaft.

camo · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:29 pm

any ideas, plz!!!!

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