So my stock turbo has 102k on it now and still spinning but I feel she may be on her way out. I already know the WG does not close all the way due to play in the door, I am fine with that, it just takes longer to spool. But now I am starting to hear the turbo whine a bit and I am seeing more vacuum on my gauge than usual when cruising and idle, leading me to think that I might be inching towards the turbo seizing, I could be wrong, this is my first turbo car that has had more than 20k on it. Wondering what issues I might run into if say the bearing seizes (if that could happen) or if something else fails? Obviously power would go in the dump but could still be drivable. Usually I'm proactive on this stuff but I'm in a financial crunch right now and trying not to spend unnecessarily. Any info would be great and thank you!

 

At what rom range does the turbo whine?
Al

 

lol didn't finish that message

at what rpm range does the turbo "whine" and how much vaccum are you reading.
I get around 13-14hg at idle and my turbo has always had a distinctive whine when spooling hard.
Honestly you should be able to drive it without the turbo working but will get a code and may possible get stuck in limp mode. Also without the turbo you'll be getting horrible gas mileage on the highway.
If youre really in a pinch you could buy a used turbo from a wrecked low mileage car for around $100-300 and install it yourself in an hour or so.

 

I have a scanGauge setup to read boost. Until recently, upon cold start it would settle to read -0.2 to -0.6. On the highway or any other steady throttle situations it would read the same. Over the last month or so it has began to creep up to -0.6 to -1.0 on idle and -1.0 to -1.6 cruising. I only hear the whine in low RPMs, around 800-1500. After about 1500 my open element air filter becomes louder than the whine. I haven't taken the time to put a stock airbox on to see if it continues in the higher rpms. I had the chance to do an on-ramp pull today in 3rd and couldn't top 14psi when my Manic tune should be seeing about 19psi. I've gone through the boost leak protocol back in March when I had the tune done and determined there wasn't one, it was my WG door no aligning fully to where it seats and it leaves a small crescent shape open at all times on the top.


More importantly, what turbo replacement process do you do that it only takes you an hour!?!?!?!?!?

 

It definiteley shouldn't be whining at 800rpm. A sound clip would help.
youll start seeing smoke out the tailpipe if the dynamic seal on the shaft begins to fail since there isn't a traditional bearing.
do you have good oil pressure?
Is your turbo feed line leaking?

I meant an hour just to install. You'll probably have another hour or more getting the old one off if your heat shield bolts and down pipe clamp are really rusty. use antiseize on install and it'll make It lot easier next time!

 

Oil pressure is good, no signs of anything leaking. I'll see if I can get a video clip on my lunch break. Thankfully my heat shield and DP bolts are all "loose" and have anti seize on them from my DP install less than a year ago. So tell me, how do you get the turbo off in an hour? I'm assuming you don't take the manifold also, just the 4 bolts holding the turbo. Do you have a special tool? MarioKart advised me to get some pivoting/ratcheting wrenches that supposedly fit on those turbo nuts without removing anything else, is that what you do/recommend?

 

Have you inspected for bearing play?

If you apply vacuum to the wastegate actuator does it move smoothly, or does it seem to move notchy?

On cold starts do you get a lot of wastegate rattle?

You'll get a boost pressure deviation fault and usually limp mode when the gate isn't closing all the way.

The K03 is a small frame turbo spinning at high speeds, so a whine isn't totally uncommon a noise to hear from them, but they'll also make less than pleasing whines when they're unhappy with their life.

Turbo replacement usually takes us about 3-4 hours depending on what all else we're replacing in that area.

 

Very slight bearing play, not enough to cause concern. The wastegate does rattle at start and if I stick my hand down there with the engine off the whole thing moves around quite a bit. Movement of the WG is good, back when I was searching for my low boost issues I drove around with a vac gauge on the line and got 20 whatever units when applying some throttle. I also applied vac to the WG and instantly got boost. I drove with the vac applied to the WG so it was constantly closed and still couldn't get more than 16psi (at that time the turbo seemed healthier). There was a brief period when I was seeing 18-19psi after all that fumbling with the turbo but it slowly faded and now resides around 14-15 max boost. I might go futz with the WG on my break and see if I can get those elevated boost levels again. I checked all hot and cold side pipes, replaced clamps, replaced hot side with a silicone pipe, new wagner intercooler, new stock type recirc with upgraded spring and none of that help. What's weird is she pulls hard, definitely harder than stock but then takes forever to build boost. If I sit in 4th on a full throttle highway pull it wont hit 14 psi until around 5k.


I've had 1 really good pull in the car since the tune where I was like "whoa" that feels like what people are saying it should. and then never again.


EDIT - just took a look and cant futz with the WG while the heat shields are on. I'll have to wait to do that.


Can someone give a quick tutorial on how they swap a turbo so quickly?
In my mind, its -
Drain oil and Coolant
All intake and exhaust stuff off the turbo
Remove oil/coolant feed and drain lines
Remove 4 bolts holding turbo to manifold with ratcheting/flex head wrench
Remove bolt from turbo support and that should be it, yes???

 

Still sounds like a tired wastegate to me, I wouldn't spend the thousands of dollars in throwing charge piping, intercooler and clamps at it to fix it, while the car would benefit from a quality intercooler. That isn't the problem, the car is monitoring intake pressure heavily and if there was a problem the car would let you know immediately, they don't take well to boost/vac leaks.

No need to drain the oil and coolant, but if you're installing our super kit which requires the loss of basically all the coolant and some oil it makes your life and floor a hell of a lot less messy.

Couple of hose clamps to take off the cold side, wastegate vac source, recirc valve electrical connector, downpipe heat shielding, downpipe, turbo stanchion, oil feed/return, coolant feed/return, remove the turbo and manifold from the head, and reverse the process.

 

Ive already replaced those parts as part of my Stage 2 Manic upgrades. Do you not recommend just removing the turbo from the manifold? I've heard some of the manifold studs are tough to get to on the r60 because of the reduced space in front of the turbo. Any special tools needed? I've found a cheap junkyard turbo local I'm seriously considering grabbing and swapping in for now til I can go for a bigger turbo. I don't have air tools, just hand.

 

I don't usually drain the oil and coolant. I just plug up the ends of the oil and coolant lines to keep crud from entering when I remove them and leave them hanging loose. Other than that you're spot on! Is your upgraded downpipe catless?

 

Yes, it is catless.

 

Ok so that rules out a clogged cat not allowing the exhaust to spool up the turbine properly.

When you checked your shaft play did you take a good look at the compressor blades to make sure everything was in order. Ie no chipped veins?

 

I did not look at the blades, only checked for play.
- So on my break I put the car back to stock tune to see how it performs just for comparison. Very much the same situation just lower on the psi range. The build is slow, I'm only at about 9psi by 3k rpm and topping out at 13.7psi around 6k rpm. These are 3rd gear pulls, the boost just seems to struggle to build but it held 13psi pretty high in the rpm.

 

No special tools needed, and it's easier to remove the manifold and turbo as one.

We have a great deal on stock turbos as well as JCW turbos, and we have both options in stock ready to ship, we'd also recommend our Turbo Oil Line Super Kit.

A junkyard turbo may leave you in the same situation sooner than later, if you're planning to go with a new turbo in the future here I would just limp around on what you've got for now. No sense in doing the job twice.

Stock Cooper S Turbo


JCW Turbo


Detroit Tuned Turbo Oil Line Super Kit

 

Thanks for all the help everyone. Going to have to mull this over and make sure I don't regret putting a JY turbo on there. I like to do it once and do it right. If I have to use the CC a couple months of interest aren't going to kill me haha.

 

Best of luck! If you decide to reuse your oil lines (which is fine as long as they aren't leaking at the seals) be sure to order new crush washers!

+1 on the Detroit tuned line though

 

Quick opinion... local yard got a wrecked Mcs. 40k on the turbo, $300. What we think!?

 

Was it a rear end or front end collision and would you be able to pull and inspect it before purchase?

 

T-bone. It's already pulled and attached/included with manifold. I can go there and inspect before purchasing.

 

This could be another option http://gpopshop.com/services/turbo-upgrades/

ive read on a few threads here that they rebuild for around 350 or upgrade to a hybrid ko3/ko4 for around 500.

 

If you go with the parts yard turbo be sure to check for :

cracks or chips on the housing exterior

cracks chips or scuffs in the turbine housing

cracks chips or scuffs in the compressor housing

cracks chips or scuffs on the compressor

cracks chips or scuffs on the turbine

oil in the compressor housing

Excessive carbon in the turbine housing

shaft play no more than 1mm

wastegate seats and opens properly

stripped oil or coolant taps

Wastegate actuator not bent

vaccum test accuator

turbine or compressor scraping the housing when rotated

 

http://gpopshop.com/services/turbo-upgrades/

hyperlinks are better 👍

 

Thanks again! Trying to hold out as long as possible because I want to upgrade to a 42mm and don't want to have to spend/do the job twice. AARRGGGHHHH haha

 

So I put a JCW turbo on last night and holy crap! My original turbo must have been failing for a while. This is a whole different animal. Clutch slips in 3-6th on partial throttle. Time for a new clutch! In 1st and 2nd I'm seeing up to 22psi in map B manic stage 2 tune. Finally! But I will be stuck on stock tune til I get a clutch now. At least that hits 15psi real quick and will do for now.