Abnormal Turbo Whistle

[atherm3]

Hello good people of Briskoda

 

I noticed a strange whistle coming from my car the last 48 hours, at first I thought it might have been a bit of rubbing on one of my pads but i've just studied it on the way home and it's coming from the turbo (or just air intake for now). It happens if I'm giving it a good nudge on the accelerator, not necessarily foot to floor but also I only hear the sound between 2200 and 3000 rpm approx. It's not the normal turbo whistle I know what that sounds like and I rather enjoy it, more just a louder noise that sounds as mentioned like a squeaky brake. 

 

At this moment I just need to know if it's going to be OK until I can get it looked at, I'm travelling to London and back from Darlington over the weekend and need my trooper to do me a solid on this one.

 

It's Fabia VRS.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Mark.

[Tech1e]

Ultimately how can any of us know for sure without looking at the car?

[SuperbTWM]

If it was me I would be having a look at the turbo, it would be better to catch it now rather than a catastrophic failure with bits of turbo everywhere and a possible runaway engine to top it off

[atherm3]

Ultimately how can any of us know for sure without looking at the car?

You're right, the only way to truly know would be to have a car inspected fully by a mechanic such as yourself, and the car is booked in for 4th May. I was hoping for either a shared experience or perhaps a known fault of a component so I could assess whether I'm OK driving some 500 miles over the weekend,

[atherm3]

If it was me I would be having a look at the turbo, it would be better to catch it now rather than a catastrophic failure with bits of turbo everywhere and a possible runaway engine to top it off

It does seem like the turbo to me, I think I'll be taking it easy and not give it too much work to do until it goes in for it's service and I ask them to check it.

[Tech1e]

You're right, the only way to truly know would be to have a car inspected fully by a mechanic such as yourself, and the car is booked in for 4th May. I was hoping for either a shared experience or perhaps a known fault of a component so I could assess whether I'm OK driving some 500 miles over the weekend,

Two shared experiences then regarding an abnormal turbo noise. After having my first vRS mapped I was going home, I heard an odd screeching noise. After accelerating out of a roundabout there was an almighty pop and black smoke. The lower intercoolers pipe had popped off. The second I was driving someone else's vRS and it started making a screeching noise and the started to slow up. I pulled over just as the engine conked out. Pulled the boost pipe off the ASV and managed to start it and return chugging away. Turbo had collapsed on the intake side.

[atherm3]

BTW chaps, the whistling transformed to a blowing noise, it was the EGR pipe as discovered today at the garage. 

[VanhireBoys]

Hi All 

         Firstly lads Sorry for bringing this thread back again 

 

I had a noise like a whistling scraping type - about 2k to 3k RPM beginning just after spool up - no boost reduction - no smoke or oil loss

 

Started before Christmas and got steadily worse ! I had a fellow primed to refurbish the turbo !

 

I was all set to take out the turbo with the instructions from this forum and had the top half stripped. Once I got under the car and started I discovered a discoloration of the downpipe flange and a loose bolt ! Gasket was missing ! The turbo impeller blades were perfect and bearing endfloat was negligible.

 

I put a new gasket on and new bolts. Put all back together and all is good ! 

 

Again lads I could not have done this job myself without this forum. Great resource - when the noise started I thought worst case but was well pleased to find the cause !