Following on from this thread (about a strange noise coming from the car between 4k rpm and the redline) Things have escalated somewhat today and the turbo has broken on my MINI. :(

How it happened......

Driving on the m/way I went to change lanes to pass some slow moving cars in lane 1 and I was greeted with turbo whistle akin to a Group B rally car.

I immediately knew something wasn't right, so I pulled off the m/way asap and nursed the car to a carpark [which by this point was also down on power] where I had a look under the bonnet. The turbo inlet pipe was very loose, and had split. The jubile clip however was sill attached. So I rang MINI Assist thinking it would just be a case of replacing the pipe to get me on my way. How wrong was I? :(

The mechanic had a quick look and agreed with my diagnostic, but then he asked me where I had put the small plastic ring was that attaches to the turbo to give the inlet pipe a tight fit. After me looking confused for a few seconds he got a torch and began to look for it in the engine bay. It was at this point I noticed a black piece of plastic nestling in the turbo, and what looked like oil.

He fished the plastic [about the size of a 1p] out with some tweezers and it soon became apparent that all the blades were bent. The car is undriveable and has now been recovered to my local Stealer's where they have confirmed a new turbo is needed.

Its on order from Germany and they hope to have the car on the road for me by Friday. :mellow:

There were no warning lights and no sound at all that made me think something had entered the turbo.

I'm totally gutted, and have lost some confidence in the car - could anything else have been damaged? I'm at a complete loss to see how this has all happened, but I'm just hoping BMW can fix it....

 

so you heard turbo whistle and pulled over?
high pitch whistle or wastgate whistle?

 

Yes pulled over as soon as I could and went straight into a carpark. Aboit 1/4 mile after I heard the noise. No further.

It sounded almost like a supercharger high pitched whine

 

do you have am intake?

 

No, I have the JCW Stage 1 airbox. Which was fitted by BMW as part of the JCW Stage 1 engine tuning kit.

 

I know how you feel but I wouldn't let this one issue sour your Mini experience, parts fail, nothings perfect. Once your turbo is replaced it'll all be good to go!

 

Before you think the turbo's crap, all turbos are really sensitive to damage from foreign objects, just because the turbo's metal doesn't mean it'll withstand the impact from a plastic part. Look through YouTube for footage of bird strike tests on jet engines. The amount of damage done to those blade from a fluffy bird can be quite extensive, mainly because the turbine is rotating so quickly.

 

well, at least the stealer cant pin the blame on a 3rd party mod, and deny warranty work. good luck mate

 

Sounds like a one-in-a-million problem to me. I've been driving turbo cars for almost a decade and never heard of this happening frequently. I even had a high power turbo car (RX7) run without any intake or filter hooked up to the turbo. I know the likelyhood of the turbo ingesting foreign matter exists and is quite damaging but our cars should not be at risk for this.

Now is a great time to have someone rebuild your turbo with upgraded wheels!!

 

There is another car in the UK that has ingested an object into its turbo. This one sucked in the plastic cap that covers the temp sensor where the crank case breather pipes meets the induction pipe.

Mine just sucked in the rubber seal where the induction pipe connects to the turbo.

There is also now a PUMA code out (number: 17597840) which relates to the following:

[Post copied from MiniTorque]

 

Got a call this morning from the dealer saying that the repair could not be effected under warranty. The service manager was asking all sorts of questions about the rigid turbo intake pipe from the Factory JCW, claiming that it was never fitted correctly in the first place, and that the jubilee clip must have been loose from day one etc etc.

I told him that wasnt my problem, and that in-fact the pipe had not been loose from day one as he suspected or I would have noticed it, his reply was "jubille clips dont just fail, Sir. It was never fitted properly."

He also kept asking me about where the turbo blades were and where the rubber seal was?! I had to explain to him that that was exactly his job to find out, and why on earth would I have them if they had been sucked into the turbo?!

I politely explained that several main dealers have removed / refitted the pipe since it was first fitted [air box removal and timing chain tensioner fix, twice!) and that I have covered nigh on 7k miles with the pipe fitted with zero problems and no loss of boost until now.

He then moved to asking me to ring the supplying dealer, on his behalf, and ask if they remember fitting it incorrectly?! (WTF!) I naturally refused point blank to do his dirty work.

He seemed utterly determined to find someone to "blame" for the problem and I was subject to a fairly accusatory manner for the duration of the phone call.

It seemed that once he realised he couldn't blame me, he then wanted to go on some sort of witch-hunt with the supplying dealer, and the two dealers who have since taken the pipe off and refitted it. They have all told him to jog on by the sounds of it!

Anyway to cut a very, very long story short.... BMW UK have told him to stop wasting my time and concentrate his energies on getting the car fixed ASAP.

However, here's the crunch....

They are now saying that I need a new inter-cooler, and apparently the blades have not just bent, but some have also sheared off.

So I can only assume that they have found some of the seal and/or blades in the I/C, which would also mean it could well have entered the engine?!

 

It's possible that the intercooler caught all the parts before they entered the combustion chambers. Be sure they check the condition of the turbine (hot side) of turbocharger when they remove it. If small pieces of metal got through the cylinders, then it'd be nearly impossible for them not to have damaged the turbine.

I'd also ask the shop to pull the spark plugs and use a boroscope to inspect the interior of the cylinders to be sure there isn't any damage. If the turbine is good and there's no damage to the pistons or inside the cylinders, then the damage is limited to the turbocharger and the engine itself is good.

Not suprising at all that you need a new turbo; once they are damaged like that, there's no real way of fixing them.

Too bad to hear about your maintenance superviser woes. By the way, jubilee clips do "just fail" although it's rare.