Bad Turbo Noise - Whats The Best Action To Take?

[Trav33]

My turbo started making bad noise the other day. It is louder at higher revs, but also audible at idle. It sounds like a ticking noise, not a constant hum. My mechanic believes its probably the exhaust wheel, he said he replaces a lot of these on R33's.

He can't see it for the next couple weeks because he's really booked out, so it's sitting in my garage.

(1) Do you guys agree it may be a good idea for me to pull the turbo off to save him some time, and save me some money? I have some mechanical skills, and there are some good posts on here to do with removing Turbos.

(2) From what i know about turbos, they are only serviced by specialised mechanics, due to the balancing issues. If i pull the turbo off and find it is an exhaust wheel, is it best to take this to a turbo builder for repairs?

(3) Any idea what it costs for a stock R33 turbo to be rebuilt?

(4) Any idea how much i would need to spend to get a slightly bigger turbo. I may be able to find between one and three grand, but not sure what i could expect for that dough.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.... still fairly new to Skylines & Turbos!

[mad082]

gcg highflow the standard turbo for $1950. you send your turbo away and they put new internals in, with bigger wheels, and a steel exhaust wheel so you can run higher boost. they rate them at 450hp.

[ctjet]

$2000 bux is a bit steep for a hi flow isnt it? surely there is a cheaper option....

[RANDY]

A good condition stock R33 series 2 turbo can be had for around $500 in the FS section here.

Whack it on, then sell your turbo as it is, cause there'd be a few people interested in it for a high-flow jobbie. Blown turbo's sell on ebay for $200, so you'd get some money back.

[sproosy]

www.slidingperformance.com

Aaron does some very good deals!

[siksII]

since it is a ticking noise i would suspect that it is not the turbo, and more likely the exhaust manifold gasket.

check the gasket for leaks (carbon around where the manifold joins the head) as a leaking exh man gasket will cause a ticking noise.

Its not hard to see even with the heat shield still on.

[Trav33]

Randy - good idea, buying a second hand stock & selling my stock as a damaged turbo will not cost a lot of money.

SikSII - it sounds like a "mechanical" ticking though, not a ticking caused by gases leaking... I am missing the heat shield from my turbo, so shld be easy to feel any leaks if there were any. The noise can be heard from the turbo using the "screw driver stethoscope" trick, and can also be heard thru the pod filter. That leads me to think its internal...

Can a stuffed exhaust wheel on a turbo create this noise i am experiencing?

[siksII]

Randy - good idea, buying a second hand stock & selling my stock as a damaged turbo will not cost a lot of money.

SikSII - it sounds like a "mechanical" ticking though, not a ticking caused by gases leaking... I am missing the heat shield from my turbo, so shld be easy to feel any leaks if there were any. The noise can be heard from the turbo using the "screw driver stethoscope" trick, and can also be heard thru the pod filter. That leads me to think its internal...

Can a stuffed exhaust wheel on a turbo create this noise i am experiencing?

when the exhaust man gasket goes it is also a ticking, sounds like a metal ticking against metal so you could call it a mechanical noise too. Just have a check anyway, usually the way that the turbo fails is that the exhaust wheel comes off and thats pretty obvious, hard to say without hearing it in person like you can.

[Trav33]

siksII - sounds like you know a fair bit about this, if it was an exhaust manifold gasket, would it be likely to get worse over time, or just blow out and sound terrible straight away?

Is there any better way to determine if it is a gasket failure, apart from looking for carbon build up, and feeling for a hot-exhaust leak?

[siksII]

siksII - sounds like you know a fair bit about this, if it was an exhaust manifold gasket, would it be likely to get worse over time, or just blow out and sound terrible straight away?

Is there any better way to determine if it is a gasket failure, apart from looking for carbon build up, and feeling for a hot-exhaust leak?

you wouldnt want to feel for it, you should be able to see it..its not hard to spot.

it will get worse with time and eventually blow out and sound really bad but usually after a while.

it ticked louder correspondingly to load, so light throttle was usually ok but then as soon as you load it up a bit (ie a hill or speeding up quicker) it would tick louder. the load point at which it ticked got lower and lower as time went by if you know what i mean.

to give you an idea, i first heard mine leaking (ticking) and by the time i replaced it i had driven probably another 4000kms, and it had been very slowly but steadily getting louder with more use. i knew what it was from the start because i saw the leak, plus i could see there was two studs snapped off which would have caused it to leak in the first place due to not being screwed down.

in the pic i attached if u look where the arrow points u can sort of see what it looks like where there is a leak.

Edited April 30, 2006 by siksII

[mad082]

i had my turbo loosen a bit on the manifold and there was no noise until i got into positive boost. i could see the gasket moving between the turbo and the manifold. if you look around the turbo with the engine running and rev it, just look to see if you can see anything moving. if that doesn't show up anything, then it may be that the gasket has given way but everything is still tight.

or just go through and tighten the exhaust manifold bolts and go for a drive and see if that fixes it. if it doesn't then tighten where the turbo bolts onto the manifold and go for a test drive again. then do the same for the compressor side of the turbo and see if that solves the problem. if any of these stop the noise, then you might want to completely undo that part to make sure that the gasket isn't stuffed.

[siksII]

i had my turbo loosen a bit on the manifold and there was no noise until i got into positive boost. i could see the gasket moving between the turbo and the manifold. if you look around the turbo with the engine running and rev it, just look to see if you can see anything moving. if that doesn't show up anything, then it may be that the gasket has given way but everything is still tight.

or just go through and tighten the exhaust manifold bolts and go for a drive and see if that fixes it. if it doesn't then tighten where the turbo bolts onto the manifold and go for a test drive again. then do the same for the compressor side of the turbo and see if that solves the problem. if any of these stop the noise, then you might want to completely undo that part to make sure that the gasket isn't stuffed.

Randomly tightening the manifold bolts is definetly not something you should do, this will mean the manifold is torqued down unevenly and will lead to warping/more leaks and probably a cracked manifold. even when u do it up for the first time u must use even torque and do them in order from the centre to the outside ones.

u could get to all(4) the turbo-manifold ones easily so you could check them for looseness (they probably are due to heat age etc) but ticking noise indicates manifold to head more likely than manifold to turbo anyway.

[mad082]

Randomly tightening the manifold bolts is definetly not something you should do, this will mean the manifold is torqued down unevenly and will lead to warping/more leaks and probably a cracked manifold. even when u do it up for the first time u must use even torque and do them in order from the centre to the outside ones.

u could get to all(4) the turbo-manifold ones easily so you could check them for looseness (they probably are due to heat age etc) but ticking noise indicates manifold to head more likely than manifold to turbo anyway.

Do you know what percentage of mechanics and exhaust fitters use torque wrenches? very few unless they are builing a motor. so its no different to taking it to a mechanic and having them do it. and if they are tight you are going to know straightaway.

And i'm only speaking from my experience with the noise. i had my turbo come loose on the manifold. just giving my 2 cents.

[Trav33]

Just had a price from ATS in Adelaide, about $1800 to rebuild a stock R33 turbo. My jaw dropped when i heard the price, so i didnt ask too many Q's, but sounds too much for a rebuild?

I think i may look for a second hand stock R33 turbo in good condition, and upgrade the turbo later in the year!

[raz0r$harP.UK]

That's about the price for a rebuild and highflow of the stock turbo.

[Trav33]

The damage in my turbo is not catastropic, it is still running. Could it not be something small like a buggered bearing? I can understand if I had a blown turbo, and all internal parts needed replacing then the cost would be high, but shouldn't this repair be less work, less parts, and not so pricey?!

[Trav33]

Someone suggested to me to try pulling the air-inlet to the turbo off, to reveal the compressor wheel, and give that a bit of a wiggle to determine how much play there is on the axle.

Would this help to diagnose the fault? Having trouble looking for a gasket leak... can't see anything.

Anyone want me to post an MP3 to hear what it sounds like?

[Trav33]

I have described my turbo problem to several people, only one believes it is the exhaust wheel in the turbo, 3 others believe it is an exhaust leak on the manifold!

I'm guessing to repair this and replace the gasket, you need to remove the turbo... will attempt to do this to confirm the gasket has blown.

Anyone have any thoughts or similar stories with their Skylines???

[Abo Bob]

I also think it's an exhaust leak between either the head and the manifold or between the turbo and the manifold. The second one is the one that I did.

[siksII]

I'm guessing to repair this and replace the gasket, you need to remove the turbo...

you do need to remove the turbo to change it. its easy to remove