Weird turbo noise (advice needed)

[Charlie hermens]

Hi there, So about a week ago I bought a 2005 Lgt wagon in a stickshift from this guy who took really great care of it and its been super fun, the car was bone stock when I bought it, the owner before the guy I bought it from put a Cobb accessport into the car and the guy I bought it from never really even touched it so it was on a stock tune, well about a day ago I went stage 1 on the car and did a muffler delete but that's all that's been done to the car. So about halfway home from my trip to get the car (about a 2 1/2 hour drive) me and my dad noticed this weird rattling type noise, I just chalked it up to an exhaust rattle and drove it normally all week, But me and a friend were doing the muffler delete yesterday and dug deeper into the sound and realized that it seems to be coming from the turbo, The weird thing about it is that it only makes the sound when the car is fairly cold and when I'm low in the rpms, it goes away when I'm on spool and after driving for 5-10 minutes my friend suggested a turbo bearing but i wanted to get someone with a little more experiences advice.

 

here's the link to what it sounds like:

[ttnio]

how many miles on the odometer.

you went stage one barely,that put a strain on the turbo reason why i ask for mileage.

ask dad if he could pull down the downpipe to look at the back of the turbo to inspect

 

do not drive while looking for the noise

 

then again it could be something else

welcome

[awfulwaffle]

Do what ttnio said.

 

I picked up my wagon with a borderline-failed turbo that had the impeller fins contacting the housing, sounded just like that when spooling a little. Dropped downpipe, saw how much shaft play there was, replaced the turbo and the car was fine. If you let the bearing fail completely, you'll be shopping for a new motor more likely than not.

 

If it is the turbo, look around for a VF40 listed for sale with minimal shaft play, it'll be a direct replacement and cost you like 100-200 bucks used since they're not particularly desirable as 'upgrades' for other Subarus.

[Charlie hermens]

Cars at 140k and was making the noise long before stage 1 so I'm not sure, will go pull the downpipe and check thankyou.

[Max Capacity]

Here's my thread from years ago,

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/142-000-miles-oem-turbo-168561.html

 

It made a whistle sound the day I stopped driving it. Before that it was just louder.

 

IMO your on borrowed time...have a plan and don't wait to long. If you ever hear it whistle stop driving it there and then.

 

I got lucky and just had to replace the turbo.

[Charlie hermens]

Update: I couldn't find the problem so I'm just taking the loss and having it checked out by my mechanic on Wednesday haha.

[mars_volta]

Waste-gate flapper sticking open? The bushing can walk out over the years and cause the flapper to drag on the housing. The round door is then free to flap in the breeze. Mine made all kinds of racket on rev downs.

 

Is it making proper boost quickly?