Turbo failure wiki

[Waxball88]

They sell in-line turbo filters that are easily cleanable, would offer extra protection

[Rob_Job667]

Sorry for the possible redundancy of my inquiry, but I, like all of you, don't have the extra funds nor the extra time to blindly hand out cash to a mechanic, nor the extra funds to possibly do the work later down the road--near future I mean.

 

Long time lurker. I own a 2006 LGT with 122,000 on it. The car has ran like a champ until recently. Last week I heard the faintest of a flutter coming from the turbo area driving to work. It caught my attention and not even 2 seconds after being tuned into the sound it got worse. Didn't sound metallic but kind of like unbalanced airflow-- if that makes any sense. I immediately pulled over, popped the hood, didn't see anything but was afraid to continue my drive to work. (Still 20 minutes away). I limped the car to the gas station which was about 1/4 mile from where I stopped, and we towed the car home that night.

 

The next day my cousin and I tore it down to the turbo. Some build up of oil in the intake hose, about the consistency of molasses. Some oil blown into the intercooler, and a very small crusty coolant residue near the inlet of the turbo.

 

The turbo itself: Quite a bit of up and down and right to left shaft play, although we couldn't get the fins to touch the housing, I think they were slightly bent. Nothing seemed to have chipped away visibly. I just now read about the horrors of micro particles from the turbo ruining engines. I already drained the oil and it looked like the dark brown it normally is. No metallic sheen or noticeable variation in color or consistency.

 

Oil feed banjo screen was removed during this to check for clogging. There was a couple pieces of what appeared to be white silicone in the filter. I just tossed the filter. I'm not a mechanic by any means but know the basics and have taken this car apart more than once now, the first time being to replace the stock inlet pipe because the seal had basically rotted away at the turbo.

 

I showed the videos and pics to mechanics I know, and got mixed reviews. Some said if it's not touching the housing it should be fine, while others said replace it. I took the judgement of someone who's word I fancied more and put the car back together. Long story short, CEL light and the same turbo sound the next morning. The night before it sounded just fine.

 

Ordered a rebuilt VF40. Are there other steps I should take while swapping the turbo? The whole process and possibility of engine failure makes me want to swap the turbo and trade the car off. It's not worth the $$ I have into it at this point.

 

I'm unsure how to post pics or video at the moment but if you would like to see it, please send me an email or PM. rwasick88@gmail.com

 

Any help is appreciated and the more I read here, the more scared I get. I'm a college student just trying to make ends meet. Money isn't exactly in season right now

 

Thanks in advance.

 

-Robert

Edited January 14, 2017 by Rob_Job667
Spelling

[Max Capacity]

Replace the oil return hose and the stock inlet tube to the turbo. It may give you a little room if you lift the intake manifold at the O-rings above the TGV's. Those stock black o-rings should be replaced with the new larger orange ones.

 

Make sure you save the vacuum line on your turbo with the boost pill in it and put it on the new turbo.

 

You got lucky by replacing the turbo. good ear.

 

http://people.csail.mit.edu/ilh/vacation/ that may help too.

[turboconcepts]

Robert, this sounds like the BOV , has failed ! or the vacuum line source maybe damaged .. causing the flutter noise [ AKA turbocharger surging ] Radial play or up & down seems to be ok , However in & out play [ axial play] is main issues with failed bov system .. resulting in thrust failure , there should be no play in & out . Also when turbo starting to fail smoking or oil burning will arise . The oil residue in compressor side is due to crankcase or pcv .. Subaru has problems with crankcase ventilation overtime . A restricted exhaust can cause low boost , along with improper ventilation by restricting the oil return draining .

Suggest

1. Clean inlet

2. Check BOV & VACUUM LINE .. Use a vacuum pump to test BOV is working ,, must hold vacuum

3. Check turbo in & out play [ if none present ] Then proceed !

4. Check back pressure in exhaust [ aka cat ] not clogged

5. If all above good , then test drive see boost level

6. Any above may cause premature failure of turbo

7. Replace turbo ! with above checked or replaced !

Nick

Turbo Concepts

[Rob_Job667]

Nick, you were absolutely right about the BOV hose!

 

So a quick breakdown of what I did to fix the issue at hand.

 

-Firstly, the turbo was shot. I knew by the way it was "whirring" or "bending air" that something wasn't right. I know the sound my car makes and it wasn't normal. *I'm paraphrasing as best I can, here* Before I dove into the mass amount of knowledge that is LGT.com, I figured since money is tight, and since I don't have the resources in my town to deal with possible issues, I went with a factory VF40. Wish I would've went for the Vf52, but again, I didn't know.

 

-The turbo arrived yesterday and today was the only day I could get the time off and whatnot to do the swap. I had gaskets, a plethora of tools and my cousins garage at my disposal.

 

-Remove the turbo. Simple enough. Without taking off the Perrin inlet the process went surprisingly smooth. Ran into some soft, rounded off bolt on the downpipe, tried to remove with extractors, but went ahead and moved down the pipe to the next flange, which was pretty fresh from an exhaust job prior. Downpipe off, inlet off the turbo nipple, TMIC off, heat shield, random brackets, etc. The hardest part on removal was getting the oil return hose to come off the nipple. Without two people I don't see how it would be possible. Anyways, after fighting that silly wire clamp and getting on top of the engine to get a better grip and with several minutes of wiggling, she came out. It was at this time that I noticed one of the small hoses coming off of the BOV hose was disconnected at the T. This would explain the odd "barking" or "coughing" sound I heard. No doubt it happened when I originally checked the turbo shaft a few days ago. It hadn't been driven since that sound. **Reconnecting that little hose (which isn't a very tight connection from the start) eliminated the CEL and the turbo cough. Makes sense now.

 

-Install was amazing. So therapeutic working on cars when things go right. Borderline meditation. Anyways, getting the oil return line back on was again, breezy. We left the hose off the turbo and just guided the the nipple onto the hose. My cousin was down below maneuvering the hose and clamp. After it was set, we torqued down the silly turbo bolt that hides behind the downpipe before putting the DP back on. Put the DP back up, torqued her down, and finished buttoning everything up from below. Up top, same thing. Added the 3/4 gallon of coolant lost---yep, forgot about draining beforehand. Banjo bolts were already removed so that wasn't necessary.

 

-Oil checked and added. Removed tools from the built in parts tray which is the windshield reservoir. Reconnected negative terminal. Commence engine engagement.

 

I turned the engine over a few times without letting it fully start--had the idea in my head that this might get the juices flowing to the turbo and whatnot.

 

Then.....................I turned her over. Beautiful. This car has never purred like this! I'm convinced it's had a little turbo chatter from the beginning. Nothing now. Test drive. Car wash. Phone call. Then LGT.com to tell everyone who sent me PM's and emails thanks so much for the advice and support. I think the car is going to be okay. The hot side of the turbo looked great. There was substantial in and out play though since I could actually get my hands inside the thing on both ends and push back and forth. Up pipe looked brand new.

 

Again, thanks everyone. I know I'm a little late to the party but these cars seem to be worth the hassle. She spools so much quicker than ever and there is literally zero hesitation in the boost at any RPM range--something the stocker never really had.

 

Any thoughts on oil changes after this procedure. As far as maybe a few oil changes between the usual 3K ?

[kpalmer]

Hello, I have a 2005 Legacy GT. It started having power loss issues which the dealership was unable to diagnose through several visits (diagnosing as the alternator etc. when those tests were fine). Finally the turbo failed with a whistling noise and loss of power when it would normally boost. Having had issues with vacuum lines I thought this may have been the case and drove it the short distance to the Subaru shop. The technicians have told me now that the turbo failed, and that the entire engine needs to be replaced. I have a few questions:

 

1. The technician didn't say that he had inspected the engine, just that it needed to be replaced. How can I be sure that such catastrophic damage had been caused to warrant replacement of the engine.
   
2. What further work needs to be done to determine the root cause of the turbo failure? I plan on checking banjo filter when I get the opportunity.
   
3. Could this problem have cascaded to any other systems due to the distance I drove it to the shop after failure (~7 miles)?
   

 

The quote for the engine replacement was $7k so I had it dropped off at my house and am contemplating just selling as scrap. If a replacement turbo would solve this though, I would rather just do that.

 

Thanks

 

Kyler

[StkmltS]

Hello, I have a 2005 Legacy GT. It started having power loss issues which the dealership was unable to diagnose through several visits (diagnosing as the alternator etc. when those tests were fine). Finally the turbo failed with a whistling noise and loss of power when it would normally boost. Having had issues with vacuum lines I thought this may have been the case and drove it the short distance to the Subaru shop. The technicians have told me now that the turbo failed, and that the entire engine needs to be replaced. I have a few questions:

 

1. The technician didn't say that he had inspected the engine, just that it needed to be replaced. How can I be sure that such catastrophic damage had been caused to warrant replacement of the engine.
   
2. What further work needs to be done to determine the root cause of the turbo failure? I plan on checking banjo filter when I get the opportunity.
   
3. Could this problem have cascaded to any other systems due to the distance I drove it to the shop after failure (~7 miles)?
   

 

The quote for the engine replacement was $7k so I had it dropped off at my house and am contemplating just selling as scrap. If a replacement turbo would solve this though, I would rather just do that.

 

Thanks

 

Kyler

 

Welcome to the forum, but too bad this is why you're here.

 

When a turbo dies it can send very small pieces of metal throughout the entire engine. Air, coolant, and oil all run through the turbo, so the entire engine could have small pieces of metal shards everywhere. I say "metal shards" to communicate to you the serious damage that could be done if there's metal in the engine. There's no simple way to check for metal in every nook and cranny inside the engine other than totally disassembling the motor, and at that point a new motor is the cheaper option.

 

There are a ton of "if's" in that statement, and that's the end-of-the-world absolute worst case scenario that certainly doesn't apply to all turbo failures. There's just no way to know if your problem is terrible, or really terrible.

 

If you drove the 7 miles home very carefully (low RPMs, no boost, etc.) you probably didn't do any more damage than what's already been done.

 

Consider the exact root cause of your turbo failure a mystery. There are just too many factors. It's an often discussed topic on here that we'll probably never see the end of, although I think most people agree that turbo failures are usually oil-related.

 

Around half of he dealer's $7k quote is most likely labor. Find a local non-dealer Subaru specialist and talk to them. You'll probably find that you can save a decent amount just by avoiding the dealership. High horsepower builds are fun to talk about, but specialty shops are also very competent at installing stock motors. Either way you're probably looking at $5-6k.

 

Some people choose to only replace the turbo and move on with life... or sell the car and pass down the potential problem to the next owner (that's a terrible thing to do in my opinion). Sometimes replacing only the turbo is enough, sometimes it isn't. It all depends on if/how much metal your motor ingested.

 

So... do you take a chance and put a new turbo on an engine that may have metal in it, do you play it safe and replace the turbo and the entire motor, or do you junk the car? That very difficult decision is yours and yours alone.

 

If you do sell the car as-is, you'll have a reasonably good chance of finding a buyer on this forum. Many of us aren't as discouraged by potentially-blown-up motors as we should be, and I think some of us actually get turned on by it

Edited February 1, 2017 by StkmltS

[kpalmer]

Welcome to the forum, but too bad this is why you're here.

 

When a turbo dies it can send very small pieces of metal throughout the entire engine. Air, coolant, and oil all run through the turbo, so the entire engine could have small pieces of metal shards everywhere. I say "metal shards" to communicate to you the serious damage that could be done if there's metal in the engine. There's no simple way to check for metal in every nook and cranny inside the engine other than totally disassembling the motor, and at that point a new motor is the cheaper option.

 

There are a ton of "if's" in that statement, and that's the end-of-the-world absolute worst case scenario that certainly doesn't apply to all turbo failures. There's just no way to know if your problem is terrible, or really terrible.

 

If you drove the 7 miles home very carefully (low RPMs, no boost, etc.) you probably didn't do any more damage than what's already been done.

 

Consider the exact root cause of your turbo failure a mystery. There are just too many factors. It's an often discussed topic on here that we'll probably never see the end of, although I think most people agree that turbo failures are usually oil-related.

 

Around half of he dealer's $7k quote is most likely labor. Find a local non-dealer Subaru specialist and talk to them. You'll probably find that you can save a decent amount just by avoiding the dealership. High horsepower builds are fun to talk about, but specialty shops are also very competent at installing stock motors. Either way you're probably looking at $5-6k.

 

Some people choose to only replace the turbo and move on with life... or sell the car and pass down the potential problem to the next owner (that's a terrible thing to do in my opinion). Sometimes replacing only the turbo is enough, sometimes it isn't. It all depends on if/how much metal your motor ingested.

 

So... do you take a chance and put a new turbo on an engine that may have metal in it, do you play it safe and replace the turbo and the entire motor, or do you junk the car? That very difficult decision is yours and yours alone.

 

If you do sell the car as-is, you'll have a reasonably good chance of finding a buyer on this forum. Many of us aren't as discouraged by potentially-blown-up motors as we should be, and I think some of us actually get turned on by it

 

StkmltS thanks for your reply! Would any of you worry about used motors pulled from a junked car or found on ebay? If this is a common issue then I wonder how to tell that a used engine has not already had metal shavings passing through it.

[Rhitter]

You hit the nail on the head. Most of us here would worry about those motors. How do you know they aren't in a junkyard for the exact same reason.

[StkmltS]

StkmltS thanks for your reply! Would any of you worry about used motors pulled from a junked car or found on ebay? If this is a common issue then I wonder how to tell that a used engine has not already had metal shavings passing through it.

Depends on why the motor was pulled from the original car. Was the car wrecked and they're selling an otherwise good motor? Or maybe they replaced the motor and they're selling the old (bad) one. People can get really shady when it comes to money. Combine that with the anonymity of the Internet and you never know what to expect.

 

It all comes down to how much you trust the seller. Run away if it's just some guy online with questionable feedback, but if it's an established company with a physical location and a good history (and a reputation to protect) you'll probably be ok.

 

If you find the motor in a junkyard:

If the body and interior look good it probably has terrible motor problems. Why else would somebody junk an otherwise good car?

Is the car wrecked and totally destroyed on the back or sides? Bingo! There's your new motor.

 

What part of the world do you live?

[kpalmer]

I'm in Oregon. It looks like it will be pretty tight on whether replacing the motor and selling will net me any more than just selling on Craigslist as blown turbo. The shop offered $1000 to take it off my hands, but I've had quite a few hits on Craigslist for $2500.

[StkmltS]

I'm in Oregon. It looks like it will be pretty tight on whether replacing the motor and selling will net me any more than just selling on Craigslist as blown turbo. The shop offered $1000 to take it off my hands, but I've had quite a few hits on Craigslist for $2500.

 

How many miles are on the car?

$2500 seems reasonable unless it's a 5mt wagon, has low miles, or is a spec.B (though none were made in '05).

[Max Capacity]

This was about 5 years ago but here's my old vf40 after 142,000 miles. The banjo filter was removed a 1000 miles before this.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/th_VID00002.mp4

 

I had no metal in the oil oil system, I got lucky.

 

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/DSCN4602.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/DSCN4601.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/DSCN4598.jpg

[Jrod342]

BNR supercars turbo and recommended parts dropped off at the mechanic today!!! Sad I can't do the install myself but no time to wrench it....

 

 

UPDATE:

 

Got the car back from the mechanic... WOW what a change and I haven't even gotten into it yet just driving around a little!!!!

Edited January 11, 2018 by Jrod342

[Cheapas]

Can anyone let me no where this hose goes just rebuilt turbo and am puzzled as to location ov this hose its sum sort ov coolant hose cars a ej20 turbo

[Cheapas]

Can anyone let me no where this hose goes just rebuilt turbo and am puzzled as to location ov this hose its sum sort ov coolant hose cars a ej20 turbo

[Crokeefe 2.5GT]

Code coming up is P0021, often related to the oil control valves or clogged banjo bolt filter. Want to make sure the filters not clogged and starving the turbo of oil. Car idles rough when not moving or during a stop light. Throws the CEL and will lose power while stopped or while driving, all of a sudden you can floor the gas and nothing will happen. After you pull off and restart it will run fine again for awhile. The throttle is also laggy like you can give it some gas and it won’t steadily accelerate, it will hesitate for a second and then almost jerks all at once. Could be a vacuum leak or boost leak issue.

Also throws engine codes

P2138 and P0420.

 

Took it to shop and they said that by banjo bolts were probably bad and wanted 325 to replace them and they also said that if that didn’t fix the problem I might need a new turbo entirely. Any advise? Thanks

[laughdamon]

Surprised I haven't seen this yet, but any talk of a poor oil pickup design? When mine went the shop recommended going to Killer B and so far so good (knock on wood). Updated to VF52 at the same time though.

 

http://www.killerbmotorsport.net/blog/pickup1

[boxkita]

Surprised I haven't seen this yet, but any talk of a poor oil pickup design? When mine went the shop recommended going to Killer B and so far so good (knock on wood). Updated to VF52 at the same time though.

 

http://www.killerbmotorsport.net/blog/pickup1

 

In the early days, there was a few cracked oil pickups. So the aftermarket came up with replacement pickups. The windage tray and the deeper oil pan are a better purchase.

[SBT]

I installed all three when I upgraded to the deeper oil pan.

[boxkita]

I installed all three when I upgraded to the deeper oil pan.

 

I'm not saying I didn't buy into some of the hype as I replaced all of mine, too.

 

In the early days, a few pickups cracked. Or were reported to have cracked.

 

Keep in mind if you hit something hard enough to crack your pickup, you need a new engine.

[autoximpreza]

I've been lurking on here for awhile. I bought a 05obxt in Feb with 150k miles. It's stock except for a Grimmspeed upipie I installed. Last week I replaced all the vacuum lines intake gaskets. This week my I heard a funny noise thinking it was a boost leak and pulled right off the road and shut the car off. Checked everything and started the car and listened under the hood turbo was making a rattle so I shut the car off and had it towed home pulled the downpipe and the turbo had play. Bought a vf46 and installed the boost pill out of the vf40 in it. Took it for a drive today and got a wastegate cell and misfire in cyl 2 and 4. I've double checked everything. When I looked at my btssm it showed that my peak boost had hit 17. I wasn't logging so I have no other data. Any ideas? I've been searching everywhere and can find information that it should be actually underboosting.

 

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[autoximpreza]

Pulled the pill and now all is normal.

 

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[KRYPTO]

Can you only remove that banjo bolt that's behind timing cover by removing the WHOLE assembly? Can I reuse timing belt and components?

[HAMMER DOWN]

Can you only remove that banjo bolt that's behind timing cover by removing the WHOLE assembly? Can I reuse timing belt and components?

 

 

No, their's another option;

 

https://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1326330&postcount=158

 

 

Yes, you can reused timing belt & whole assy. Up to you, but it would depend on mileage of old parts & if you are doing the work or paying someone to do it. IMO, more then 60k on original parts, plus paying someone to the work. I would replace everything.

 

Mike