On Saturday I noticed a lot of lift off flutter and a different turbo noise so plugged in VAG COM and got the 17608 code - DV was basically knackered. It's a Forge Eliminator DV bought a few months ago and look at the state of the diaphragm now:

So took that straight off and put the old 007 back on. Wastegate flutter went and 17608 code went to intermittant after a test drive so I cleared it.

However, turbo still sounds weird - to the point of ridiculous. It screams like mad. Is it possible that the rubber that tore away could be stuck in my turbo or somewhere in the intake making resonance or worse still - actually damaged the turbo?? :( :confused:

I emailed Forge about it and they will send me a new diaphragm (there's no way I'm putting it back on). They reckon that loads of the old standard bosch DV that tore would have had the same problem and that none of the owners of those cars had problems. They didn't even reply to my second email :( I get the feeling that they couldn't care less if it has damaged anything.

Next month I was planning on coming back to the UK and buying a forge FMIC, don't think I will now, might need the money for something else. :(

If anyone here has an eliminator, I suggest you keep a close eye on it!

well if the piece is missing then it has obviously gone into the intake trunking..

If the Forge valve is plumbed in the same way as the standard 007, then the port that faces the missing piece would be the vent, and hence in front of the turbo compressor.. :( putting a piece of rubber that size into the compressor blades will do it no favours at all - only real way to tell is take the inlet trunking off and have a look at the compressor wheel. At best I'd think it was likely to distort a blade or two and throw it out of balance, that's enough to cause the compressor to make wierd noises.

forge & email = no respomse. I'm still waiting... call them instead

Don't know if this helps but:

You need to check your turbo hasn't been damaged by an ingested foreign body.

I'm no professional auto technician, but as I understand it those things spin really fast, and an imbalance will eventually cause total failure of the bearings at the least.

If they ignore you long enough, your turbo will fail several months after the DV failure, and they will claim that there is no connection between the two.

A phone call and a faxed report on your turbo to Forge would be in order. The fact that they sent you a replacement diaphragm free of charge is an acknowledgement on their part of responsibility. make sure you keep any receipts/ letter or email from them as proof.

Speak to a manager who has authority, not a regular "customer service" person who is probably overloaded and doesn't know what to do in this situation.

Their part failed, and your turbo's been damaged.

Failing suitable restitution, a solicitor's letter usually puts things in motion, as they would want to avoid paying solicitor's fees and the negative image of their product.

I hear that Jabba is developing a FMIC sometime in the near future. Hope it's cheaper than the Forge! (I'm sure it'll be better!!!)

Cheers,

Bas

Dr Octavia, 'phone up and speak to Pete. He should be able to help you.

i doubt it has got to the turbo, as the DV is on the boost side of the compressor. If anything it will have made its way around the boost pipes to the intercooler and got stuck.

So everyone feels it shouldn't be ignored then?

Ok, spoke to forge on the phone, Pete is away at the moment. They reckon the rubber is designed to disintegrate on impact with something like a turbo but they don't know if it has done that on mine. I'm going to take it to them to have a listen next month when I am in the UK with the car, there's not much they can do until then. I'm going to keep running the car until then but at least now I've told them and they know of the problem.

i run an elliminator on my vrs and noticed the diaphram was looking a bit dodgy so i spoke to forge and they sent me a couple of new diaphrams,my car runs 22psi and it lasted until i bought the boost in and split then i got the same noises as u but i was only 5mins from home,replaced it with the original and all was well,spoke to mark at forge and he sent me another couple of diaphrams but they dont look as heavy duty as the original so im gonna stick with that one,it seems that the new diaphrams from forge are'nt up to the job well not on my car anyway.

i doubt it has got to the turbo, as the DV is on the boost side of the compressor. If anything it will have made its way around the boost pipes to the intercooler and got stuck.

but the vent return is on the compressor inlet side, which is where the diaphragm sits, so the bits will drop into the inlet hose.

In my experience anything going into the compressor blades at 100,000rpm will cause some degree of damage - I've seen compressor blade damage which has been due to small pieces of foam becoming detached from the inside of foam cone-style air filters.. :(

Well did some boost logs with Vag Com and everything seems normal, boosting well and wastegate not maxing out or anything. So it's ok for now, but whether this noise is indicative of long term damage I don't know.....

"damage" is quite likely to be a balance issue due to bent blade(s) which will not neccesarily show up as a boost problem, but longer term will wear the bearings and may well make a strange "whistling" noise.

Pete is away at the moment. They reckon the rubber is designed to disintegrate on impact with something like a turbo but they don't know if it has done that on mine.

Just my two-penneth and no disrespect to the guys but I think someone has been misinforming them with a bit of Bullpoo.

If a piece of vulcanised rubber gets between the edge of the turbo casing and one of the rotating blades ,running at tens of thousands of rpm, it will be subject to such a huge shear force it will not behave in its normal elastic manner. It will effectively act as a hard plastic. The effect of this will be the same as dropping in a hard wedge between the turbo blade and the casing. The turbo will be trying to stop in an instant creating huge torsional forces which will either cause a fin to bend or even shear off at tip. Yes the rubber will disintegrate but not, in my opinion before it has done the same damage to the fins. The more you design a rubber compound to disintegrate in a brittle manner or fail under a small loading due to low cure or 'filler re-inforcement' then the more you are reducing its elastic mechanical properties and the more likely it is to fail when subject to cycled elongation/recovery forces...not a good design for a diaphragm then...

To give you an example of the damage polymer shear can do I have seen a 7ft long x 3ft diameter hardened mill roll snapped completely in half by a 10mm thick sheet of rubber (uncured!) passing through it. So a 2mm thick turbo fin tip is no match even for a 0.5mm thick diaphragm flap

So it's 99% gonna be a new turbo for me then. What happens when the bearings fail then? I take it the turbo stops but can the car still run? I'm amazed that the turbo still works now.

any imbalance will put abnormal loads into the bearing structure which will cause accelerated wear, which will eventually allow enough movement of the shaft to allow the compressor/turbine wheels to contact the housing(s) this will be very obvious by the noise it makes! It will also very quickly cause wheel damage that will impair or stop the turbo making boost.

all along here we are assuming that rubber pieces have gone into the compressor - it logically seems reasonable that is the case, but inspection of the compressor wheel may be prudent to see if there is any visible damage.

Dr octavia, Give me a shout if your doing any work on it, I'd be interested to see it. I have a few bits and pieces if ya need tools.