TDi Turbo failure - replace or rebuild
Discussion
My main motor is a crappy old Alhambra TDi which runs lovely on veg oil. Last night 3 hours from home the turbo gave up the ghost. Sounded like a hairdrier, loads of white smoke, and the engine starts to run away on its own oil.
Now recovered back home. I am going to pull the turbo and feed/return pipes and have a gander.
Ebay "sell" refurb kits for the Garrett GT1749V for £30, as opposed to a new unit which will be about £300.
I suppose the refurb kit is worth a try even if it fails I an always pull it and put an exchange unit in place.
Is this sound thinking?
Now recovered back home. I am going to pull the turbo and feed/return pipes and have a gander.
Ebay "sell" refurb kits for the Garrett GT1749V for £30, as opposed to a new unit which will be about £300.
I suppose the refurb kit is worth a try even if it fails I an always pull it and put an exchange unit in place.
Is this sound thinking?
It only partially ran away, the revs were up and down. The engine is fine, runs at idle just smokes as oil gets past the seals.
I am just stripping the turbo off, but I think that reports of the cars death are premature. The veg oil can get past the piston rings and contaminate the oil, wrecking the turbo but I change the oil every 3k to prevent this.
I will purchase a refurb kit and give it a go I figure that its £30 worth spending and the interweb seems to suggest refub is fairly simple.
I am just stripping the turbo off, but I think that reports of the cars death are premature. The veg oil can get past the piston rings and contaminate the oil, wrecking the turbo but I change the oil every 3k to prevent this.
I will purchase a refurb kit and give it a go I figure that its £30 worth spending and the interweb seems to suggest refub is fairly simple.
750turbo said:
Even if there is no other damage to the engine, which is a tad unlikely, you will never be able to fit a rebuild kit without specialist knowledge and equipment.
Good luck though
Just got a reply from the ebay guy advising me the kit should be fitted by a professional so you are right 750turbo.Good luck though
There was only a litre of oil in the sump. So either the turbo was on its way out and the reason for the low oil level, or a piston is burning oil and caused a low oil level, is a moot point. Either way my low oil light did not come on.
So I can replace the turbo, and find the engine is shagged (compression test will confirm?) or replace the car.
So the car might be dead after all!
Hmmm,
I think it was a bit ambitious to assume you can just "fix" a turbo for £30... they're £300-£500 to refurbish for a reason! No shame in looking into it though.
I think your best option may be to source a whole engine and turbo from a crashed/written off car perhaps? Then you can replace your engine if it is beyond economical repair.
I think it was a bit ambitious to assume you can just "fix" a turbo for £30... they're £300-£500 to refurbish for a reason! No shame in looking into it though.
I think your best option may be to source a whole engine and turbo from a crashed/written off car perhaps? Then you can replace your engine if it is beyond economical repair.
750turbo said:
Even if there is no other damage to the engine, which is a tad unlikely, you will never be able to fit a rebuild kit without specialist knowledge and equipment.
Good luck though
I'm sorry but most turbos are proper easy to strip down and rebuild, and require nothing more than a spanner set and a vice. Good luck though
maniac0796 said:
750turbo said:
Even if there is no other damage to the engine, which is a tad unlikely, you will never be able to fit a rebuild kit without specialist knowledge and equipment.
Good luck though
I'm sorry but most turbos are proper easy to strip down and rebuild, and require nothing more than a spanner set and a vice. Good luck though
Don't
Think
So
If the blades and shaft came out the factory, and didn't get damaged, then how are they going to of gained or lost weight in various patches along the circumfrence? And if you needed a new shaft and blades, then you'd expect them to be balanced in the first place.
Perhaps if your turbo is going to give the 750bhp, then yeah maybe, but for your turbo diesel asthmatic smokers lung of a turbo, it's hardly relavent.
Perhaps if your turbo is going to give the 750bhp, then yeah maybe, but for your turbo diesel asthmatic smokers lung of a turbo, it's hardly relavent.
Just spoke to him - is yours a PD engine? If so check sump for presence of diesel, and remove cam cover and check that the cast fuel rail in the cylinder head hasn't cracked. If it has you will probably see a clean area in amongst all the black gunk. Crank engine and watch for diesel spilling out. Can also be caused by worn split or broken injector seals allowing diesel and oil to mix too. HTH
e8_pack said:
Thanks for that link. Inevitably the bolts holding the turbo on are obscured by the driveshaft so I am going to have to drop that in the morning. Luckily we have the Defender which will keep us going for a few weeks so I have a bit of time to sort it.I suspect an ebay snipe will win me a working/shagged second hand turbo. My tenant who is spanner happy is going to give me a hand tomorrow, I could move the turbo blades the movement was very rough.
If the worst comes to the worst I will have to buy another one, going to cost about £1500ish. I have saved about £3k on veg in 2 years, however engine life seems limited due to ring gumming. This can be resolved with water injection though.
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