Seen this before? A little background. New to me 2010 Cooper S Camden edition. Car was sold to me hemorrhaging oil and in need of a cat. Spent many weekends fixing the oil leaks. Have now moved onto the cat. Upon removing it I was greeted with what you see here. Was told the turbo was replaced recently. Obviously this is not going to build boost. Repairable? Adjustable? Shot?

 

Turbine housing can be replaced, but depending on mileage, probably easier to replace the entire turbo. Good time to start upgrades if that's a goal.

 

FWIW - My Indy says wastegate failure is common at around 80-100K miles. No way to repair, Only option is to replace entire Turbo.

Good luck.

 

That's false info from a lazy or simply inexperienced mechanic. You can replace just the turbine housing by removing the collar band and release the housing from the turbo. New turbine housings will usually be fitted with a new wastegate. If you go on ebay now and type in the search words "mini cooper s turbine housing" you'll see a bunch for 250-300 dollars coming from overseas.

I myself had done this replacement on quite a few customers' cars. And most times, I also went as far as taking out the turbine components and rebuild it with new upgraded turbo internals. TurboLab of America supplies a bunch of goodies for this kind of work. Besides the regular mechanic tools, you'll also need a propane torch to burn the joint and beat it off the turbocharger with a rubber mallet. This isn't too difficult provided that you're able to get the turbo out of the car first.

 

+1 on rebuild yourself. +1 on propane torch.