legacycentral bbs

How do you know when your turbo is going bad? (Bear with my faulty terminology)

Is the stock turbo riding on a viscous bearing (oil) or is it a ball bearing? I know I'll get chewed up for not knowing but I had to ask. So does it just go all of a sudden or is little by little once a seal is broken or whatever?

You'll know when it dies, thats the only way. It's a bushing turbo, not a ball bearing one. I saw turbos still good at 200000kms(leaking but good), and a saw brand new ball bearing group N turbo auto destroy within a 1000kms.

So, has long has it boost and it doesnt smoke too much keep it.

You can check for shaft play if you want, no play=good turbo.

Yeah, I believe the bearings are bronze and so the shaft rides on a film of oil between the bearings and the shaft.

I thought you could tell when a turbo was on its way out because the play in the bearings would cause the turbo to become noisier.

And leaky seals in the turbo usually cause oil to end up in the intake air stream.

Isn't that right?

Everything was designed to last 300,000 miles, or so I've been told.

I just ripped apart my Turbo yesterday (Vikash, did you get that PM I sent you?) and there was no shaft play. I've got just a tick over 100k, so it's all good.

On another note, inspecting our stock turbo, it's horrendous how poorly it appears that the thing is designed. Well, not poorly designed, but it just seems that the compressor wheel leaves a lot to be desired by way of flow.

From what I understand, increasing the turbo's rotational speed has a big (i.e. superlinear) effect on the life of its bearings. Compressor speed is closely related to pressure ratio. That means that once you turn the boost up you start stressing the bearings a lot more.

Yes, I got it, Phil. I will respond shortly.

Hmm, so your saying that I should be budgeting for a new turbo then?


Awesome

My VF11 has no shaft play at a 145k.