Thread: What is going on with my turbo?

Hello everyone, I'm hoping someone can help me a little. Here's the story: So a week or so ago I was driving to the store and what not. On the way back I noticed that she seemed a little slow to spool up, and as in slow I mean she wasn't at all. I got on her a little and noticed that she wasn't boosting at all. The gauge would go to about -2ish but never to 0 and then build boost. This of course freaked me out. There was no smoke, no noises, nothing on the car ride to the store, and yes she was boosting on the way to the store. So I kept her in the low RPMs for the mile or so back to the house and parked her.

I looked her over and couldn't see anything wrong. Went to pull codes of the ECU and got back nothing (well, 55, but that means all's good acording it it). Took the inlet to the turbo off to look at the turbine and no oil, nothing odd. Went to spin it and she seemed siezed. I wiggled it back and worth some and she started to come free then *pop* she spun again just fine. No force really used at all. But when she "poped" free it sounded like something fell on the exhaust side. Not good I though. Well the exhuast was still hot as hell so I had to wait to look at that. The wheel on the intake was not against the wall, had zero shaft play, and spun alright from what I know.

So it's been a few days and its been cold and rainy. I finally got a chance to look at her again. I took her for a quick spin to see if freeing up the wheel did the job, but she still is not boosting. She is acting like a normal NA car. Parked her and let her cool. Droped the downpipe: nothing in it, no oil, everything seems fine. I cant see the exhaust side of the turbine due to the J-pipe. Took off the intake piping and looked at the turbine and it still looked fine. Went to spin the wheel and it was caught up again. Not nearly as bad this time. A little giggle and it was free. I don't know how freely it should spin. I can give it a turn and it will spin for about 2 seconds give or take. I did notice this time some build up of thick oil on the turbine wheel. It was just on the turbine.

It looks like I have to take the entire exhaust off to get the j-pipe off the turbo, and that sucks. Any help would VERY much help. I have no clue what is going on, and everyone I talked to seems to have no clue.

Yes, I have check many times fro both boost and vaccum leaks. There are zero. It is a tight system, so I know that can not be it.

Here's the setup: SR20 w/ gtir mani, t28, and jpipe. Running gtir ecu with gtir maf. Never had problems till now and shes been running fine, though i think she might have an exhaust leak at the downpipe.

The impeller wheels should spin freely no matter what. Sounds to me like bearings are completely toasted, and that's a bad thing. Now that your bearings are gone, I'm sure you have too much shaft play, and the CHRA (wheel) is getting caught up on the compressor housing, or exhaust housing, or both.

Well, there is not shaft play at all. Which is why I am confused on it, though I agree with you 100% on it sounding like they are shot. And I know it's not getting caught up on the compressor side.

Whatever the case, you would agree that I should just take it all off and have the turbo rebuilt? I saw a nice kit on G-Pop Shop. I was thinking of going with a steel 360° thrust bearing also instead of the 270° one. Thought?

all you had to do was giggle?! this man is amazing

i agree though sounds like bearings are toasted.

If the bearings are toast would it not smoke?

Is there a turbo rebuild kit available? Maybe someone should do a write up, i would like to know how to rebuild a turbo , so if mine takes a dump.....

Mine had some smoke, not a lot, but some. But I would imagine that the smoke would not be required if the bearings went out. Sounds like it's time to rebuild.

I actully just took my turbo off today and was waiting for new gaskets and the rebuild kit to come in. I will try to document it the best I can for a "How to" write up.

Nice!!! I think it would be a first. So what all is included in the rebuild kit?

Is it turbo specific ( i.e kit made only for a T25, T28 or T3/T4, etc ) ?


I kinda wanna rebuild my turbo just to do it and to have a write up.

Nevermind i found it. http://www.gpopshop.com/rebuildkits.html

The kit provids just about everything outside of the wheels & shaft, compresor housing, and turnine housing. And yes, they are turbo specific. But the shop I am getting mine from seems to offer kits most turbos.

Here's the link: G-Pop Shop Turbo Rebuild Kits