Has my turbo gone?

[SteveFabiaVRS]

coming home yesterday my car suddenly seemed to lose all power, like the usual kick when the turbo spools up and started to make a noise, the best way i can describe the noise is like the wind whistling in the trees.

started the car this morning same thing, except the EML kicked in and the noise stopped, although theres still the loss of power.

Car is making a little black smoke, has my turbo gone? car has done about 70k with no remap or anything. Or have i just popped a pipe or split one?

[Johnny50]

Or have i just popped a pipe or split one?

Would get my vote !

[WW_VRS]

As per Johnny50's post - check all that first

[SteveFabiaVRS]

cool, anyone know the symptoms of a turbo going?

[WW_VRS]

It depends on how it goes, but generally it will sound bad, and if it goes badly it could end up dropping the oil into the engine causing it to run on the oil instead - a *bad* thing.

The smoke is because the car now overfuels like crazy as the turbo is not working (EML has come on and that means the ECU has detected a boost leak beyond limits, so it has shut it off in safe mode).

If you check the pipes/hoses from the turbo down to the SMIC, and then from the SMIC back to the engine again, it is most likely one of the clips has come off. I doubt a pipe has split, although it could have happened I guess.

Without a remap this still happens, with a remap (generally increased boost levels then) it is more likely to happen as the clips are pretty weak.

Hopefully it is just a clip, in which case the dealer will hopefully have them in stock, and they are cheap (few quid tops, probably less). They should have these at most VAG dealerships, in my case the Skoda dealer ran out and I used the VW one, but no problem

Generally the pipe does not get damaged.

[SteveFabiaVRS]

what kind of bad noise does it make? sorry im just trying to determine if the howling like noise i did hear was the turbo or not lol

[WW_VRS]

rattling etc.

When my pipe blew off, I was on max boost in 5th and mine has a hybrid turbo so the sound was a very loud whoosh followed by a large cloud of black smoke and the speed dropping like a stone.

In your case I'd imagine a bit of a whoosh sound followed by a large amount of the black smokey stuff, loss of power, and about 5 seconds later, the EML coming on.

[SteveFabiaVRS]

fingers crossed its not gone. How much am i likely to be raped if it has? for the part really the guys looking at it are relaitvely cheap labour wise

[ultra_joel88]

If it has gone I'd be tempted to go for the Garrett item fitted to PD130 Golf's and A3's- I think you can pick them up for £400ish

[Sy.]

You cant drive it when the turbo has gone. Simple eh

[WW_VRS]

Urm - I bet you can drive it without the turbo, well, that is assuming it has not self-destructed into your engine as such

It would run the same as the car runs now, in limp mode, as that turns off the turbo too. Without the turbo hose it just smokes like f*ck, and it has very, very little power compared to normal.

That said, in fairness, if the turbo is gone in a 'falling to bits' kinda way, I would not run it for much longer than it takes to get to the dealer/specialist

[SteveFabiaVRS]

interesting how it took a good 5mins of driving or so for it to go into limp mode, leads me to think the leak is smaller then a complete hose blow off, also the howling noise suggests air being forced through a small(er) gap

[WW_VRS]

More than likely - that's why I reckon the turbo is not dead either

Check the hoses / clips etc - they are a known weak point. I think Emily-Elizabeth posted up some pics on that at some stage, where the pipe directly attached to the turbo seemed quite loose. Try to clip it all back in as much as you can do, that might be enough to get it going again, then you can get to some place to get it sorted properly

[SteveFabiaVRS]

the garage is looking at it today

its hard to describe the noise but it reminded me exactly of the windows in our house, we live in an oldish style house and some of the windows arent quite air tight and when the wind blows on them they make a whistling noise, was just like that lol, like a low pitched whine/howl

[thewilfmeister]

when my turbo blew it sounded like a supercharger and there was a constant whine and loss of power!

after 5 mins of limping along the engine shut down and wouldn't restart! and didn't restart until the turbo was changed at jabba!

[WW_VRS]

Based on your description I'd also say it is a small boost leak. Fingers crossed, as that's much much cheaper

[Sy.]

Urm - I bet you can drive it without the turbo

Well I couldnt. It self destructed and was pressurising the crank

[WW_VRS]

Well I couldnt. It self destructed and was pressurising the crank

Hya - just to clarify - I meant in the case of a popped boost pipe/hose.

You're absolutely right, don't do that if your turbo sounds like a box of bits etc, as that would be a *bad* thing.

[Sy.]

Ahh get ya. Ignore me then haha