As the title states, trying to change the turbo on my 2009 with 137,000 miles. I have the car apart. The pics below show the Cat half off as I cannot get the flange past the studs on the turbo, any suggestions. Also when the cat comes off, how the hell do you get to the 4 bolts that bolt the turbo to the engine block!?!?!?

any help is greatly appreciated, or if anyone knows a shop in north New Jersey USA that wouldn't mind taking on a 1/2 taken apart mini, that would work if I cannot get this resolved

 

you have to pull the manifold, then the turbo off it.

 

makes sense! thanks!

 

The studs that hold the cat to the turbo have backed out. Try to remove the studs completely of you can. If you trash the studs no big deal, they are a few dollars at the dealer. Be careful that they don't "seize". It happened to me, and it was a PITA.

You've disconnected the cat from the rest of the exhaust down below right? You will need to remove the O2 sensors also.

 

The studs can be taken completely out if they are not seized to the turbo housing. On mine, the nuts did not come off but the studs came out instead.

Just curious but have you disconnected the rest of the exhaust from the bottom of the cat? It seems to me if I recall correctly that once it is hanging free you have more room to get it lose at the top.

 

First if it's not in service mode your not removing the exhaust manifold/turbo. You can look at the charge pipe leaving the turbo going to the intercooler is very close to the fan assembly and it's not going to clear. Start there

 

ok here's where I am, I took the turbo, cat, and manifold off. bolted the slightly used turbo and cat to the manifold and slid it in as one unit (thanks for the advice rckrzy1!). Put 2 new oil lines in let the car come to temp. Seemed to be running ok took it down the block and back with no issues except a check engine light and a leaky oil line on the turbo. Found out the leaking oil line was my fault, the copper fitting that goes under the line was the one for the coolant line so it was too big, so I thought it was smart to keep tightening it until the bolt warped and oil came pouring out. But on the test drive I didn't notice the turbo whistling so that was a good sign, I didn't hear any exhaust leaks and the car seemed to just run a little better. Now I didn't really get on it but the check engine light is a bit of a concern. The bolt I'm going to pick up tomorrow and hopefully have in Friday morning (time constraints) but I do plan on check out what the check engine light could be, any thoughts? I'm going to try to pull a code from the reader I have first before I go to Mini but didn't know if this was common on such a large service?