Maybe just maybe someone has an answer for me, as I am stumped.
So since I got my vehicle, I could always hear the turbo spooling while driving with my window down. And more so when passing cars in traffic. I have since confirmed that all vehicles of my model does this.

So about 9 months ago, this audible whistle just stopped. It's not as it was before. I can only hear it now when I stand by the engine bay, and the hood is open. I have since checked all pipes for leakes, replaced clamps, checked the VNT which is moving without issues. There are no error codes.....

I have checked exhaust and cold side blades, they look fine. There is no noise from the Turbo. It runs fine, but there is a lack of power. No smoke, nothing....
And it's not my hearing lol, I can hear other diesels spool 2 cars away from me

Anybody?

#ad


#ad

 

The pic makes me think the compressor wheel is touching the housing... might be time for a new turbo, and a better air filter. Move the intake wheel side to side, it shouldn't contact the housing.

 

I should have included and will edit now, there is no play on the shaft.

 

Does it spin freely? Check the oil feed make sure it's not clogged?

 

Oil feed is clean. But...... if I spin from the cold side, it spins and nothing weird. But if I spin from the hot side, it feels like it sticks and then spins and stops, sticks then spin and stop. Not sure if it was just me having a hard time getting in there to spin it. Not sure if this can cause it, and maybe slow down the turbine....

 

So yesterday I took the car to a tuner for dyno diagnostics. I check the boost request and boost given on the Manufacturers diagnostics and everything showed fine.

On his diagnostics it showed the request but the given was down.....requested 1.4 bar, given was around 0.9 bar.
Geez, don't want to replace the turbo and then it's not the turbo.....

So this morning, I checked again, since I could not hear the whistle anymore while driving, I knew with passenger windows down, driving between walls, I could slightly hear it. Now this is also gone, and my wife confirmed it.....she also could not hear it anymore. What ever it is, is progressing.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with turbos but I think .9 bar is vacuum not boost.

I assume you have an exhaust leak, boost leak, your waste gate is hung open or your turbo is bad. I would check for leaks then, I would look for a replacement CHRA. BBI sold me one for my Chevy Cruze. I am very pleased so far.

 

Very strange. Checked for leaks, none found.

Did a glove crank case pressure test and it failed. So at idle I have possitive pressure in the crank case. Pcv pipe is also blowing air......maybe turbo seal leaks air into oil flow pipe?

 

What vehicle / engine are you working on? How did check for leaks? Some say you should pressure or smoke test for leaks.

 

Its a Volvo V40 D3 5 cylinder. Yes we pressure tested.

 

I am no expert. I have put a eBay turbo on a mustang, and replaced the CHRA on a Chevy Cruze but that was an easy decision the shaft had snapped.

If I was you I would pull the turbo and replace the cartridge or drive it as is.

My advice is worth what you paid for it!

 

Yeah this so weird....I always get tue weird and not so wonderful. Looking at some options now to either recon, replace chra or maybe whole turbo. A friend can source me a new garret for a decent price.

Leme replace and see what happens....seems like my only option for this weird behaviour. Thanks for your input.

 

So I have been going over some things before I decide it's the turbo. Stripped, checked EGR, no issues, inlet manifold, no issues. Waiting on a compression test kit to do that. But I stuck an endoscope into the turbo inlet to see if the shaft struggles to turn when running. And nope looks like its turning without issues.

I took a video, would you also say, there is no issues with the shaft, rotation? I am stumped all over again.
The camera drops when there is suction, when it pops up, that's when the engine was switched off. Blade rotates for 8 seconds before stopping.

Let me add, my dyno run on the Polestar software in 2018 was 131kw and 410nm dyno calculated to engine power. That translates to about 117kw and 372nm on the wheels.
Dyno a few weeks ago with diagnostic showed on the wheels 114kw and 333nm. The kw is about right, but that's a huge loss on nm!?

 

I realised yesterday that my injectors, when I removed them just before these symptoms, I put them into the wrong cylinders. Had some people bother me while working. They are ECM IMA coded.....

1-IMA x.......
2-IMA x.......
3-IMA x.......
4-IMA x.......
5-IMA x.......

Just had a look on the coding I have on file, and no 1 is on Cyl 2, 2 is on Cyl 5, 4 is on Cyl 1 and 5 on Cyl 4.....no 3 is on Cyl 3

Not finding much info, but it makes sence. Some I have found:
In theory, your cylinders will not be firing as efficiently as they could. Many electronic injectors have calibration codes that tell you ECU how that particular injector flows, so that the ecu can change the pulse width to ensure the exact amount of fuel needed. By changing the injectors around, the ecu is now running the wrong calibration code for the injector on a particular cylinder, which means the engine will not run as efficient since some injectors will now be injecting more or less fuel than required.

 

Many people, myself included, have replaced injectors without updating trim codes so i'm curious to see the outcome of this. I've yet to see, or feel a noticeable difference, but i've only replaced a few.

 

That first pick looks like the wheel has been chewed to bits and there's nothing left of it. To me it looks like something was protruding into the turbo and the wheel got ate up...no wheel no boost.

ks

 

lol okay. You can check the video

 

I did.
I'm not talking it's literally gone. The front edges of the fins looked all chewed up. Maybe that's normal for that type of turbos, I dunno.

Even the diagnostics show that it's requesting boost but not getting enough... maybe b/c the wheel is all chewed up..

Need pics of that exact turbo for that vehicle in order to know what it's supposed to look like.

ks

 

I questioned whether or not the wheel had touched the housing, but it must've been just how it looks. With the exception of the leading edges of the blades being a little beat up, the compressor wheel looks okay to me.

 

Yes it was just the angle, difficult to get in there to level and take a video. Only thing left is moving the injectors, I have gone through everything.