Focus 1.6tdci turbo whistle

[Sinatra21]

A family member as a 58 plate focus with the 1.6tdci. It has 117k miles on the clock. Recently it developed a whistling sound when drive which I said was most likely a boost leak. A garage repaired a crack in one of the intercooler pipes put the sound is still there. It sounds like it is coming from the turbo itself. Last weekend I took all the pipes off this area to check for damage or leaking gaskets but couldn’t fine anything wrong. The pipes had a small amount of oil in them but nothing too serious. The turbo itself had very little play in the shaft (1mm tops) and the turbine blades looks ok with no visible damage. I would have thought the turbo would feel more damaged (more play etc) if it was on its way out.

I have read that oil blockages can cause starvation to the turbo but can’t seem to find any links about cleaning them out. As anyone had similar problems or ideas of what else I can check?

[neiljohnson]

The blockages they suffer is on the engine oil pick up in the sump it sludges & reduces the oil flow & fries the turbo, its worthwhile dropping the sump & just changing the oil pick up (cheap part) at the 100k mark on these engines.
It does sound like a leak the intercoolers are prone to splitting so if there is nothing obvious on any of the boost pipes or breathers I would be looking at the cooler, also check the air filter as cheap ones can get sucked in under load causing the turbo to work harder than normal.

[MG CHRIS]

The injector seals are a common problem on these engines which does sound like turbo noise/ split pipe. Or a crack in the inlet manafold. If a turbo does start to whistle time to get rid not a cheap replacment up to 1k to replace.