Gah - My Turbo Is Dying! Help!

[Clowndog]

Hi guys - after I made it all the way to 150,000 km my turbo has finally decided it's going to that great junkyard in the sky.
I live in Brisbane and am a little concerned about who can repair/replace the turbo and what my best options are.
Has anybody got advice on either where to take my car, and/or what my best repair options are?
I love you long time for help!

CHeers!

[Clowndog]

Oops - forgot the important info: it's an M35 RS4!

[Josh080691]

Get it highflowed by hypergear.

[DaveM35]

Yeah hypergear in Victoria do highflows, probably best option, replacement genuine turbo is very expensive. You can find info about hypergear on here by doing a search or they even usually advertise on eBay for m35 turbo rebuild options. Don't know anyone doing them in Queensland but someone on here might.

Edited October 26, 2013 by DaveM35

[MrStabby]

People often suggest highflows, but never seem to ask what the use case is or mention the downside. If your car is stock and going to stay that way i'm sure Hypergear can just rebuild your turbo with a stock like, but alloy wheeled, CHRA. You may well prefer the responsiveness of that option to a highflow.

[scotty nm35]

It's still a highflow Adam, the housings need to be machined either way, even for the smallest wheel options he has.

The M35 stock ecu can handle most turbo upgrades, but the larger ones are simply too laggy on the factory map. Only go for the more expensive SS2 billet option if you plan to run an Emanage Ultimate or similar.

[MrStabby]

It's still a highflow Adam, the housings need to be machined either way, even for the smallest wheel options he has.

Interesting - are there no CHRAs to fit the stock housing, or does he just not supply them? How much laggier is the smallest highflow he does?

[Jetwreck]

This is an SMS I got from a guy I did an precision ss1 turbo for:

Hi, I've finally got around to fitting the turbosmart bleed and I also replaced the bov with a turbosmart plumback. The car is driving great and has even less lag with the leaky bov replaced. I just took the car down to is motorsports to do a few dyno runs to check the a/f's and the car made 183kw's at 6000rpm with over 150kw's from 3400rpm with a max of just under 17psi boost dropping to just over 15psi. The a/f's were surprisingly good too sitting on about 11.5 at full load.

This is just an FYI that these cars have quite a bit more in them with the standard ecu and injectors. It's not so much the power that interested me with the car....it was the amount of torque!

[colourclassic]

What symptoms is your current turbo showing?

[Gottastag_M35]

I'm in the same boat with my wife's stagea, it's always had the banshee wail but recently has started to puff out a little grey smoke under boost. Can't complain though as it's got nearly 170k on the clock.

I will going the hyper gear rebuild/high flow route so will let you know the results once it's done, I am lucky in that I have a spare turbo needing rebuilding that I can send off and have the car drivable in the meantime. The biggest concern I have is changing the thing over as by all accounts this is seriously a PITA (I will gratefull accept some how to advice via PM from any experts in the house)

If you want a spare turbo to do the same I would be happy to sell my old one once the changeover is done.

[Jetwreck]

Advice: band aids and beer!

[Clowndog]

THanks for the replies guys. My car was basically undriveable, I limped it to my local mechanic friend and he's attempting to get to the source of the problem in the next day or so.
Being a regular mechanic though, he will have to send the turbo off to get repaired/replaced and I actually think he's going to a local turbo specialist - but I'm expecting the cost to run into the thousands...