Turbo Near Death?

[MatthewT85]

Hi so mods are:

R33 GTST

Pod Filter

JJR Return Flow FMIC

JJR Front dump

High flow cat

Cat Back

Power FC

9-10 PSI

Problem, a few months ago i started to notice, randomly, after usual warm up in the morning and driving to work just going into positive pressure(light throttle) there would be a whine, back off and do it again and it would whine again. Then back off and go again and it would be fine, no weird sound. When upto op temp I would boost like normal and everything was fine. It then stopped doing it in the mornings.

More recently(for a month i guess) its now doing it anytime I'm hitting boost above 4-5psi. But still hits boost.

I have a feeling its too loud to be some sort of boost leak... but still... I looked for leaks, loose clamps and it seemed fine, but where the throttle body meets the intake plenum there was what I thought was a fair bit of black stuff(carbon?) cleaned it off, drove it for a while, still hitting boost, but very rarely and it was back, cleaned it again and for this past week or two havent seen anything, BUT I havent been boosting, or only a touch of boost. I sprayed it with carby cleaner at idle but nothing changed, I might change the gasket anyway just incase.

Before noticing the throttle body though, I did check for shaft play, taking off the intake pipe. It has little, to none side to side, up and down. BUT it has 3+mm In and Out(back to front of car) no oil, but if I tried to spin it. it wouldnt rotate much, possibly a quarter turn...(stock turbo)

So I am about to go see a mechanic and have a chat.

But after a bit of googling today im thinking the turbo isnt getting oil and its about to blow.

Also at idle I cant see any smoke from the exhaust other than what I feel is normal when cold started in the morning

[tridentt150v]

How did you go???

[MatthewT85]

well i talked to a mechanic and from what i described he said do not drive it anymore....

so its now parked in my garage till i can figure out what turbo and other parts im gonna need to get it going again... doing lots of reading on turbo options atm

hopefully its just the turbo and engine is still ok

[tridentt150v]

I'd talk to Hypergear Stao has a good rep with some top turbo's. I sort wish I'd used him but I got mine a bit earlier.....as he was coming onto the market. Or he could hi flow yours for a less than a new one.

[MatthewT85]

Yeah I've been considering hypergear for a while now. Have been looking at the 43ss2. But I'm gonna talk with my tuner about a few things. Tossing up with keeping the power fc and buy an ebc, and z32 or upgrade to a haltech while I'm at it,

Also working out what injectors to go with

[sonicz]

Man I've had that exact same "issue" maybe for the past 5...years? I hope that helps you not to make any rash decisions over a little noise like that which could be perfectly normal. When I first heard it I thought the same thing as you, turbo whine, its on its way out, started looking for options to change the turbo, better do it before it blows and maybe takes the engine with it I thought! What a great excuse for an upgrade!

When you hear the noise you can keep it going as long as you keep the throttle the same, then as soon as you press more or less it goes away right? IF the turbo was dying it would whine non stop.

If the car is running good and you are happy with it just drive it, in fact boost it as much as you want up to the normal recommended amount for your setup and don't worry. Your turbo could be better than you think. If it does blow chances are it wont get past the inter-cooler and you can replace it then. But I think you will find the turbo will outlast your grankids. The R33s turbos are tough.

I am not saying in your case your turbo is fine, but I am 99.9999% sure its not what you are imagining it to be. In my case it was just being overly concerned as it it has been nothing.

Have you tried disconnecting the speakers and radio to see if the noise is not interference from the speakers? I mean really physically disconnect the cables.

[MatthewT85]

Sound is definitely from the the engine bay,

Once the sound starts if I back off sounds gone, if I use more throttle it continues, also there's a fair chunk of shaft play, does yours?

Also if the turbo starts getting side to side shaft play and files away at the compressor side I don't think the intercooler is going to stop that.

Thanks for your input I'm not rushing to get it going again, I just think regardless it's something I had been planning to do this year, early next anyway and I never felt comfortable hearing the sound, so if I left it I wouldn't be going near it,anyway