Hello everyone. I am posting this thread on behalf of a friend. Let me give you a short background. My friend and his wife recently bought a 2007 mini cooper S. They have had the car for about a week now and just the other day the check engine light came on. She took it into the shop and the mechanic told her that the intake hose had come undone from the intake side of the turbo. He "fixed" it and told her that her turbo is going out. They paid for the car in cash so money is tight right now for them. Neither of them are mechanically inclined at all so I am a bit skeptical that something is wrong. I sort of suspect that the mechanic was just trying to get $3000 out of them for an unnecessary repair. She (friends wife) says that you can hear that the turbo "is out of sync with the engine." I think that this is something that the mechanic convinced her of. That doesn't make any sense to me...but I will check it out.

I took a quick peak at the engine this afternoon to see if the turbo is even accessible, but could not investigate the problem any further because I was short on time. I did notice that the "fixed" air intake is just zip-tied to the turbo, so that will need to be addressed. It also looked like the flange that the intake tube connects to on the turbo might be damaged. I am going to go over there tomorrow to pull the intake tube off and check for play in the bearing inside of the turbo. I will also see what the intake tube flange looks like. After that I will button it all up, start it, and listen to it.

I have a pretty fair bit of experience dealing with engines and turbo's, however all of the turbo's I have dealt with have been on diesel engines from heavy mining equipment.

If it does seem that the turbo needs replaced, I would like to help them do it to at least save them the labor costs. How difficult would it be to remove the turbo charger and replace with with a new/reman turbo? Also, does anyone know of a good way to check for correct oil circulation to the turbo? Will changing the turbo cause computer errors with the car? Is it worth it to buy a service manual or can I just pull the old one off and install the new one in the reverse order?

I have the common hand tools, jack & stands, etc.

Thank you for the advice.

 

Not that difficult as it's located in the front of the engine.
You may have to put the front end of the vehicle in "service mode", where you literally shift the front clip forward a few inches for space.

Remove the oil feed line(s) and check for coking or build-up. That's a clear indicator if there's abuse / neglect.

No, it's a mechanical part; make sure to replace it with the same unit.

Simply remove and install is all you need; only buy / access a manual if you get hung up on installation and removal.

- Erik

 

bluefox,

Thanks for your reply. Other than some tight working spaces, it seems fairly simple to replace the unit. I will take some time in the next day or two to see what putting the front end into "sevice mode" entails...but other than that I am confident.

I will also speak with the car's owner about the budget and see what they are willing to do.

Does anyone here have any experience actually rebuilding a turbocharger unit? I have access to a machine shop with presses, etc.

Thanks again guys,
-Cole

 

This is something you don't do yourself. Yes, you're mechanically inclined but you don't have the tools necessary to balance the turbine/compressor shaft once rebuilt. This is so important for something that spins at 100,000 rpm. I work in the off-highway diesel market too so I've seen some really entertaining turbo failures. I'm sure you can imagine what can happen once that shaft is out of balance. Have a trusted turbo repair shop overhaul it if needed.

 

Thats sort of what I figured. We didnt rebuild the turbo's in-house at the mine either.

 

I'm facing the same issue with my 08 R56s, and have been looking around for information about removing the turbo. I'm going to have mine rebuilt by GPop Shop, and probably upgrade the internals to k04.

I'm pretty confident with my mechanical abilities but wanted to figure out exactly what I'm getting myself into before I start the removal process.

 

Checked the car out yesterday. Removed the air side hoses and felt inside. I couldn't feel any play in the shaft. There was a small amount of oil, more like a film, inside. Buttoned everything up and fired it up, around mid-way through the RPM range it started making a noise...sort of like a really loud whirring noise. The noise reminded me of blowing accross the top of a bottle but it was really loud. In my experience, when a bearing is going it makes a loud ringing noise. This noise was loud, but I wouldnt call it ringing and it was a bit lower in pitch than I expected. Apparently the mechanic told them this is a sign of the early stages of turbo failure. What do you guys think?

 

Here's a video on how to put the MINI Cooper into service position.

https://wiki.bentleypublishers.com/d...(R56,+R55,+R57)

P.S. I don't know if you need to to replace the turbo. Just posting the link because I found it a while back while replacing my coolant (for which it was not necessary to do!)

 

Thanks for the video! Very helpful, but I too am wondering if anyone has experience in this, and if this whole process is necessary to remove the turbo. I understand that the extra room would be very helpful, but I would like to know if anyone has done it without this extra step (I've taken my front end off several times, but never needed to get under the car to remove the mentioned frame extension bolts). If not, I need to find a friend with a lift/driveway I can borrow for two weeks while my turbo gets rebuilt .

 

sry double post

 

I agree that that video is very helpful. A bit more work than I was hoping it would be though :S.

Still haven't had much on the specifics of the R&I though...

 

My turbo exchange was not a direct replacement, but there's a lot of extra stuff involved, i.e., I had to remove the entire exhaust manifold just to unbolt the turbo. If there's a special wrench for this, I didn't have one! The manifold gasket was pricey too.

As mentioned earlier, be sure to check the oil lines for blockage.

I didn't use the "service mode" but sure banged up my knuckles a lot. Think about it if you have large hands.

Heat shields are kind of fragile and awkward to work around. Mine were removed permanently 'cause they wouldn't fit around the new parts. Be careful when putting yours back on. Service Mode might make this easier.

Best of luck ---