Thread: Help - 3 Blown Turbos in 9 Months

First of dont flame me guys.. I was told you guys are highly knowledagable when it comes to turbos. I drive a nissan maxima v6 equipped with a full t4 turbo..

.70 a/r cold side and . 68 a/r hot side..

Turbo 3# has just went on me.. They all die the same way and make the same high pitched whining noise while putting out no boost...

I went for a quick spin on the highway.. Boosted the car in 3rd gear caught 8.5 pounds then a coupler blew off near the ground and i heard the whine... I knew what it was so I didn't boost the car all the way home. I put back on the coupler, crossed my fingers and went for a drive, I caught 6.5 pounds WOT and knew i was screwed..

Boosted the car again, caught no boost and the whine is now extremely loud..

Any ideas before i give up guys?

On the last two turbos i ran a restrictor, this time no restrictor as i thought that was the problem.. I also made sure that the drain was no longer on a weird slope... I did however take off the feed line and pour oil into the turbo and it took a while to go down..(is that a major problem)?

Were you keeping an eye on your oil pressure? Is your return line big enough to let all the oil drain quickly. Do the turbos get lots of shaft play? What kind of turbo is it?

it sounds like the bearing or bushing is failing, did you take the previous turbos apart and find what failed?

Known causes of turbo failure to me:
compressor surge
foreign material
lack of lube
too much heat for the lube
not letting the turbo cool down after hard runs, oil cooled turbos...
cheap ass chinese turbos

This sounds a little nuts but the first thing I would do is disconnected the drain. Start the car and make sure it squirts oil everywhere. That elimnates oil flow being the problem.

I'm surprised your maf wire hasn't burn the hell up. My little t25 gets TOASTY. I can't tell if your turbo is water cooled, it doesn't look like it is, you might want to invest in a turbo that can be water cooled, manufacturers do it for a reason, longevity.

I bet that thing hauls when it's working right Good luck on solving your problem.

First turbo was a recently rebuilt garret
Second turbo was a master power t70
Third turbo was a godspeed t 62..

There isnt much shaft play on anyone. I guessing it my drain and im definately gonna try the oil disconnect thing.. That might be the problem i guess.. Also i have a oil pressure gauge but its not connected, but will be on the next turbo install and oil return change.. Also that engine bay pic is old i have a heat shield on the turbo and different turbo.. This is a pic of the very first setup..

I just recently turned this bad boy up to 10 psi before turning it back down to 8.5 and it hauls ass.. Us maxima guys see about 350 whp on a full t4 at about 8 psi with a great tune so me at 10 psi put me at about 320ish untuned.. im guessing

do you run a turbo timer? sounds like you have a drain problem which will kill a turbo fast.

ya, if you poured oil in the turbo and it went down slowly you definitely have a drainage problem and that's probably ruining your turbos so quickly. Especially since you ran 3 different turbos and they all broke the same way.

Goodspeed turbo sounds like a china turbo. Did you prelube the turbos before you started the car? Or did u just stick the oil line on and fire away?

Also do a boost leak test on your system you might have a leak some where else in it.

turbo times arent needed and you def have a crap drain setup. Can you show us a picture of it if possible? Glad you asked for some help after 3 blown turbos

boost leak wouldnt cause a turbo to shiat the bed let alone 3

check your oil line make sure they are not clogged. i know a few people that had this problem and some where in their oil line was clogged with debris. Check your entire oil line system, down to the fitting that screws into your turbo to the drain on the other side to make sure that it is flowing well