I think my turbo is blown

Well an update now that I finally have news to report back ...

After 4 visits to the dealer, and two months I finally have it fixed. The first visit the tech 'could not hear the noise I was describing' which upon hearing that when I picked up my car I insisted the manager go on a test drive with me and he was pretty upset his tech missed something that obvious.

Second service appointment - they ran out of time and didn't get around to it.

Third service appointment - they confirmed the noise and their best guess was the turbo, which I have been telling them for 2 months now. I ask them to put together a written quote, then call another shop and they offer a 10% discount, call up the dealer and ask them if they want to match the price, they do, so setup appointment #4.

Today - the dealer let me know they scheduled several fewer service appointments than usual, since this is a 5 hour tear down to get at the turbo so I dropped it off and hit the shuttle (all of the drivers I know pretty well by now). They finished up right at 5pm when I was back to pick up the car, and although I was gentle on the way home, everything is fixed. The clatter during warm up, and the whistling under acceleration over 3k RPM gone ... and I sure have a heck of a lot more power than I did right before the service. The power must have been going down pretty slowly because I had never noticed a huge change.

I requested the old parts back so I can tear it down and see what actually happened, and perhaps see if there is any residual value that I can get out of it. For now here is the old turbo that got pulled, I will post pictures of the tear down when I have time to pull it apart.

1260765787_vxKHHZp-XL-1.jpg
 
jjkacz said:
Was there any play in the turbine shaft?
Click to expand...

I don't have much to compare it to, but on the fresh air side I can move the shaft back and forth ever so slightly, maybe 1/10 of a mm. It is a very small amount, but it does wiggle - I'll shoot some video and get it posted so someone with more experience can weigh in.
 
Ok here are two videos trying to highlight the play in the turbo shaft.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdfv_MDjrUk]YouTube - Turbo_ShaftPlay_1.MOV[/video]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAt6KOh9PUw]YouTube - Turbo_ShaftPlay_2.MOV[/video]

This is the roughly the amount of play in the shaft
1262829666_n4FGMqL-X2-1.jpg
 
I'm no expert, but that definitely looks like too much lateral play for a turbo shaft. Can you have the bearings replaced like somebody suggested?
 
I've always wondered about new turbo cars. Mine is from 1993 and the 2JZ-GTE was in development in the 80s. It was one of THEE only cars in the world to launch with a sequential turbos (others at the time only being the Porsche 959 and Mazda FD3S).

Pass turbo cars and modded cars with turbos MUST at least allow the car to warm up to circulate oil before the car is used. IE stay off the damn boost till the car is warm. After a spirited drive its also recommended that you do a cool down lap/turn the engine for a min to allow the hot air to cool down. Modern turbo cars? I know Volvo's never mention anything in their handbook, don't think the BMW 335 does either.

Anyways since the turbo is already out of your car you can send it to Turbonetics and they can rebuild it for you. Hell a lot of shops can.

PTE, Turbonetics, etc etc. Good luck man I know how it feels when your turbos are blown:(
 
First off great video quality! I think I remember you saying that you shot with a 7D.

While I don't have the Subaru Service Manual sitting in front of me, I would say that's way too much play. It would for sure make some noise when cold and would probably get better as it got warmer due the the expansion of the shaft.
 
jjkacz said:
First off great video quality! I think I remember you saying that you shot with a 7D.
Click to expand...
Thanks ... I was shooting in 1080 with the 7D, you can see the full quality here: 7d Video

While I don't have the Subaru Service Manual sitting in front of me, I would say that's way too much play. It would for sure make some noise when cold and would probably get better as it got warmer due the the expansion of the shaft.
Click to expand...
After getting the replacement, all of my problems have been resolved. I had a platinum blond yuppie pull up next to me at the lights in a BMW I think 328 reved her engines (boy toy in the passenger seat) so I decided to give the new turbo a good wind out, and absolutely destroyed the BMW in the process. I made sure to let it cool down for about 5 miles afterwards.

To other posts, all in all, at 85k, I almost feel like this is just wear and tear (maybe I am wrong) but I feel like I have gotten a hell of a bang for the buck out of the turbo. I take really good care of the car, have it on an accelerated maintenance schedule, use full synthetic oil, but I also use it hard.
 
50~60 sounds about right for some, I've gotten 99k and its still going strong on stock twins.

Like everyone else said Mobil1 isn't full synthetic. They're actually

What about synthetic motor oils? Do they need Viscosity Additives?
Group IV (4) and Group V (5) base oil (synthetics) are chemically made from uniform molecules with no paraffin and don't need Viscosity Additives. However, in recent years Group III (3) based oils have been labeled "synthetic" through a legal loophole. These are petroleum based Group II (2) oils that have had the sulfur refined out making them more pure and longer lasting. Group III (3) "synthetic" motor oils must employ Viscosity Additives being petroleum based.

Group V (5) based synthetics are usually not compatible with petroleum or petroleum fuels and have poor seal swell. These are used for air compressors, hydraulics, etc. It's the Group IV (4) PAO based synthetics that make the best motor oils. They are compatible with petroleum based oils and fuels plus they have better seal swell than petroleum. Typically PAO based motor oils use no Viscosity Additives yet pass the multi-grade viscosity requirements as a straight weight! This makes them ideal under a greater temperature range. One advantage of not having to employ Viscosity Improving additives is having a more pure undiluted lubricant that can be loaded with more longevity and performance additives to keep the oil cleaner longer with better mileage/horsepower.
Click to expand...

Mobil1 is PAO3 so its not a true synthetic but a blend. If you want TRUE synthetic at a good price I would purchase the Castrol EDGE in the black bottle and on the back look for the MADE IN EUROPE and not the MADE IN THE USA.
 
Well, another visit to the shop is in my future. I had driven home and was in the garage putting some things away when I noticed a sweet-smelling burning odor, and saw smoke trickling out of my hood scoop. I grabbed a light and found that one of the collent hoses to the new turbo is leaking onto the exhaust header and burning. I decided to leave my car out in the driveway for the night :(

Here is as best I could do to get a video of the issue to show the dealer when I go back in, so there is no way they can miss the issue. The engine you hear running is actually a different car, the Legacy is turned off while I am getting this video.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_eNq_lAYdo[/video]

This is the amount of coolant that leaked out in just a few minutes.
i-Lx76MJq-L.jpg
 
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