sorry guys i will post either some pictures or video tomorrow, i need to find my camera

 

What the hell is that? lol

 

here you guys go as promised, i have a picture and a video

my friend who checked my wastegate had told me when he tried pulling an 8lb spring on a eclipse's turbo he was struggling with it versus mine lol




please excuse my spelling

 

Thanks for the picture and video. I plan to check mine to see if it is any different.

 

no problemo d00d! <-- gf typing

 

Yep you can move your wastegate rod way to easy. I checked mine over the weekend and it seems fine.

 

so i went to the dealership all stock trying to get them to warranty my car, but turns out they really cant do anything about it. my wastegate passes the vacuum test and when i showed them how loose the spring was they were like sorry! nothing we can do about it.

oh well i guess its time to save up for a jcw turbo or bigger turbo

 

Did you ever do anything about this?

Just checked mine and it was pretty stiff.

 

yeah i went to the dealership but no luck with that. but i did actually get another valve cover gasket. i'm on my 3rd one.

im thinking of just saving up for a jcw turbo or gt28rs. just depends on how alta's tune comes and jans bigger turbo tune. i know alot of money is going to be invovled, but like they say "you gotta pay to play!"

side note, also saving up to drop a ls1 in my 69' firebird

 

This is a great thread. I got a tune from Jan a few weeks ago. Great results but three days ago I lost all boost. The dealer just notified me I need a new turbo and they will not do it under warranty...$3300.00 for parts and labor. They know I autocross and do a little track time and my recent CAI and pipe mods and tune negates the warranty. I think that's BS but...

I'm considering doing it myself. The short video showing the wastegate problem was helpful and I'll check that too. I'm not experienced at this and want to know about the basic procedure to change out the turbo.

First question is do you have to put the car in service mode to get to everything to change out the turbo? It looks very tight but it looks like I can get to everything without service mode....i hope, i hope, i hope.

Second question is what is a good source for torgue info? I've found basic guidance on installing turbo's in general but will need specifics on the R56 JCW turbo. If I need to dig through online manuals...well, it's a bummer, but I will.

If I do this I hope to post pics (maybe video) under "Novice Replacement of R56 Turbo." I'm sure it will be more of a "how not too" as opposed to a "how to" but if it gets too bad I think I have a couple of good resources in town I can pay to help.

I'm confident the tune by Jan was not a core factor in this failure. The higher boost levels might have contributed but I think the core issue is the Turbo itself. At one point when Jan was tuning he said the wastegate was not acting quite right and went back to the tune process for awhile before he came up with the final. As a side note, a local mini tech said they replace turbo's quite often. I'm getting the flash tool from RMW and other tunes soon anyway. I'm hoping I won't have to replace a turbo every 30,000 miles, though. I'm also hoping I can do this myself.

I'm open to any advice. I'm actually looking forward to this learning project, albeit expensive. But, curious if many of you think it is too crazy to pursue this given my very limited experience with cars. I am an electrical engineer by background but have only recently jumped into taking care of my own ride. Despite this development I still love this car.


Btw, if ScottinBend reads this...maybe you're right about the autocross vs track time regarding wear and tear.

 

GreyLens

You can have you turbo rebuilt much cheaper than buying new from MINI. It will probably be better in the long run as well. Google G POP Shop. They do great work and are very reasonable. Make sure you check their turn around time.

As far as MINI USA goes, don't be surprised by them not warrantying the turbo. I have seen them deny a bone stock MINI still under factory warranty and refused to provide written documentation as to why. Even the local dealer thought the turbo should have been covered. When the lack of satisfaction by the customer was pushed up the corporate chain of command at BMW of North America they stopped communicating and BMW turned the situation over to their legal department in NJ.

Best advice is take your time. Some nuts are very time consuming getting off. A self ratcheting wrench with a pivoting and locking head helps greatly with removing the nuts on the studs from the turbo to the manifold. Other than that, everything else is pretty straightforward. Replace you oil feed and return lines. Good luck.

 

Thank you, indeed. Someone mentioned getting it rebuilt yesterday but didn't know much more about than I do. I checked out the site and I'm encouraged. I will definitely check this out thoroughly.

I've been told I need to put it in service mode which I helped do once a few months ago. I just picked up the car and will get it on jack stands early tomorrow morning and start cranking.

Thanks for the moral support. Yesterday this seemed a more formidable task than it does today. I also confirmed the availability of some professional help to call in at the right time. I'll post the results and lessons learned.

 

Thought I would share my experience with replacing my turbo. I am no mechanic and decided to replace my turbo and turbo-back exhaust at the same time. Replacing the intercooler was much harder to me that the turbo. The turbo bolts were a bit hard to remove at first but spraying them with WD40 and waiting about 30mins allowed me to take them off with no problems. I also have an upgraded G-Pop turbo and told them to just do the works on mine. I upgraded both wheels and once I finally get it dyno tuned (probably not until spring) I think I will be very happy. I have put 10K on the upgraded turbo so far with no problems.

Good luck! I had fun taking my time installing my upgrades and I'm sure as long as you don't rush or panic you will be ok too.

 

When I changed my turbo, we did it in "service mode." Removed headlights, bumper, intercooler, front crash structure and slid the radiator forward...allowing much easier access to the downpipe and studs on the turbo manifold. I can't see how its even possible if you don't do this, it's extremely tight in there, and there are a total of 10 studs you must access to remove the manifold from the head. We had absolutely 0 idea what we were doing, basically just were taking stuff apart until we had access to everything we wanted access to . Looking back on it though, it's not hard at all. PM me if you need any assistance. (I also have the BMW/MINI TIS, which basically does not help much)

If you haven't already bought one, PM me and I know where you can get a JCW turbo for a lot cheaper.

Also, why is the dealer denying your warranty? How did they know the car was tuned, and did they say what failed on the turbo?