When a turbo goes bad...
 

Is there a good way to tell? I just put a T3 on my Jeep Wrangler a few days ago. It was making decent boost. About 5 psi at part throttle. I have never floored it because I am waiting on a wideband. Out of nowhere, the turbo is making zero boost. There are no leaks or smoke, and no boost. I checked the discharge piping and the BOV. Is this common when a turbo is junk, or could an internal engine problem cause a no boost situation. The engine seems to run normally.
I do still hear some spooling from the turbo, but nothing like when I first installed it. The turbo was also bought used on Ebay. I found the previous owner used a regular AN fitting on the oil feed with no restrictor.

Thanks,
Rob

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

Run the jeep until the turbo gets hot. Shot it off. Take off the filter and spin the wheel,

Report back.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

I will warm it up tomorrow morning and check. I just spun it by hand while it is cold. The impellar spins freely, but I can feel it hanging up a little bit then spinning free again.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

Your going to get expansion when it heats. If its hanging up there could be some particles in or around the bearing. Is this a journal bearing turbo? If there are metal particales around the bearing it can cause the turbo to lock up due to low oil flow around the bearings. I had a turbo with that exact problem. New bearings, sonic cleaning, and it was good to go.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

This is the turbo I have. You might notice where the cheap Ebay oil feed line has a small kink right at the turbo. I wonder if I starved it and screwed the bearings up.
Could oil build-up in the compressor cause something like this? I have a line going from the valve cover right to the turbo inlet. I should put a seperator in the line I guess.
Attachment 19884

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

I doubt it. A running engine's pressure would probably squirt enough oil through that kink to keep the turbo alive, I'd imagine.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

So even if an engine is in sad shape, the turbo should still make boost?

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

does your wastegate work correctly?! if it is open you will not produce boost...chek this before rebuilt....

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

I checked the wastegate. It is in the closed position.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

see if it has shaft play. IF it doesnt have any id check for boost or exhaust leaks

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

id guess boost leak. post more pics

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

wow and beau comes out of hiding to answer your question, lol just ------- with you

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

If your car is running any sort of load then yeah the turbo should build boost since it's exhaust driven. I'd definitely guess boost leak as they're #1 cause of boost related issues. I've seen way too many people think their turbo is toast when really their charge system is at fault. If your turbo isn't spinning freely that's a bad sign though. You could always convert to i-DEI if you really need some reliable power.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

The shaft play is almost zero. I'll double check the charge piping. I am using the factory bellows at the throttle body, so maybe it has a tear in it that I cannot see.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

I think the turbo is damaged. I warmed it up to operating temperature, then shut it off and spun the impeller by hand. I can feel much more resistance than when it was cold, and I can feel it catching and grabbing while I spin it.

What are my options at this point besides a new turbo? Could there be crap in the bearings that I could flush out by removing the inlet and drain lines and spraying something in there?

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

umm so if its coming from your VC haha there is no pressure behind that? no oil really either? if im reading that right? :l

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

That line from the valve cover does get oily. That oil made a nice coating in the compressor too. I am going to put a seperator in that line to keep the turbo from sucking in a minimum amount of oil mist. The engine does have some blow-by that I can feel coming out of the oil fill cap. So that line i am using to suck out the crankcase is a little pressurized.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

He means he has a valve cover vent, aka crankcase vent / breather / pcv line, routed to the turbo's air inlet. Its highly unlikely that the residue is blocking your turbo - it would have to overcome massive centrifugal forces to make it behind the comp wheel, then bypass the seal, then push past the oil pressure to gum up the seals.

If you can spin the turbo by hand, it should at least make some boost. I will bet that its an exhaust or charge pipe leak - i'm 99.69% sure.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

If your turbo truly is toast you'll have to have it repaired or get a new one. There's no simple way of doing it. Some jackasses claim you can just take it apart and replace 1 bearing, but that's nonsense if you want any kind of reliability. Rebuilding a turbo is precision ---- and requires machining of certain areas like bearing and seal areas. 90% of the time if the used bearing housing is being retained you'll have to fit oversized journal bearings.

Those rebuild kits on Ebay are hit and miss too. You may get lucky and your turbo may boost fine after a homebrewed rebuild, but more often than not it'll fail. The #1 cause for backyard rebuilds failing is the shaft nut falls off because the person who rebuilt it didn't use loctite and tighten it down properly. I would much rather buy a used unmolested turbo than some backyard rebuilt garbage. Not to mention once you take the wheels out you've essentially taken them out of balance and the scribe technique is worthless.

Then again, some of the ---- I've seen from reputable turbo rebuilders on this site is pathetic. I won't name names, but I got a turbo from a popular turbo rebuilder on this site and took it in to my local turbo shop. After the guy working there got it apart he called me and said that the guy who "rebuilt" it had mismatched some Garrett internals with Chinese internals. No wonder it failed miserably. There's only a few places that are guaranteed to repair your turbo properly and they are insanely expensive. You're running a fairly cheap and common turbo, so IMO just buy a new or used one and be done. Absolutely do a boost leak test before you spend any $ on new ---- though. Good luck.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

if you try to spin it when hot and its sticky, i think you have an oil feed problem

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

Thats for all the help. I certainly appreciate it. I took off the oil feed and drain lines and poured some fresh oil in the cartridge and spun the impeller by hand a bit. I noticed the oil was leaking out of the exhaust side and at the flange as well as draining out the bottom. Is that normal? Does the turbo actually running keep the oil from seeping past the seals?

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

My ---- bleeds a bit of oil into the compressor from time to time, but it always makes boost. When I say a bit, I mean enough to completely coat the inside of the charge pipe. Only when it's really cold out, though. The turbine should stay pretty dry, if the seals are good. Mine aren't , but it still boosts like new since the bearings are still lubed. Smoke is the downside here.

If you think about it, even if it is leaking oil past the seals it should still be lubricating the bearings. As long as the bearings are lubed, it should spin well. And as long as you have both a sealed intake system and an oily turbo bearing boost is inevitable.

Since everyone else says "check yer intake pipes" I won't bother repeating. But it might be a good idea to check your oil pressure to the terdblo, just for the hell of it. Look closely at the oil return also. A blocked return can casue all sorts of bullshitz to show up.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

hmm, do you have a restrictor in your oil feed line, and were you having problems with smoking when you first got the turbo installed? They really shouldnt leak oil, maybe you have more problems than your oil feed

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

The turbo was not leaking oil when it was running. I removed the oil inlet flange and restricted -4 an fitting, and poured fresh oil in with a funnel. It then not only leaked out of the drain line at the bottom of the cartridge, but out of the exhaust side too.