Hi all

This morning driving to work, my 4x4 saph suddenly lost the ability to boost!

One minute seemed fine, i accelerated to get past a car and there was no power. Pulled back in and tried accelerating but no power at all. The needle doesn't even get fully to 0 on the boost gage.

Also whilst idling it seemed to puff out a bit of bluey/white smoke, but strangely it was at regular intervals - every 20 seconds or so it would chuff.

I've put a holiday in and drove back home - all boost pipes look ok, intercooler looks ok, just waiting for it to cool a bit so I can check the turbo shaft for play. Could it be the actuator? Any ideas?

Thanks for reading...

 

sounds like maybe the actuator rod has come off, but being a cossie it would be easy to spot so maybe the wastegate has broken off??

 

The turbo shaft is seized solid!

Any ideas as to cause of this? I change oil regularly - castrol RS. Never thrash it when cold, always let it idle for 20-30 seconds after a good thrashing.

Gutted.

If i take the oil feed off top of turbo and start engine will that be good enough proof it was getting oil? Should i attempt to start the engine with the shaft seized as it is?

Cheers

 

disconnect the lead from the coil and then turn the engine over, ( with the oil feed pipe removed ) this should give you a steady flow of oil.

if you do get a new turbo be sure to get a new feed pipe.

 

Cheers bud.

With Christmas and a new baby on the way, it's gonna be the new year before I think about a new turbo unfortunately...

Ah well. Blown engine would have been worse I guess.

Thanks for help.

 

iv just siezed mine at the weekend,so i hope that makes you feel better

 

Sorry to hear that cossigreg.

Does anyone know what the most likely cause of this is - or is it just something that happens with use ?

With the shaft seized solid, is it safe to drive it to a garage to get a new turbo fitted - I'm worried something might happen to cause even more damage.

Any help most greatfully received.

 

i wouldn't recommend it to be honest, if summat does break and gets sucked in it could be rebuild time,

 

Just had a thought. A while back a sparkplug failed on me - when i removed the plug, the tip had gone. Is it possible that this has worked it's way somewhere and has caused oil starvation?

Can't say exactly, but I've probably done less than 100 miles since the plug incident.

 

definatly check the oil feed pipe first before replacing the turbo,ive had one colapse and starve the turbo of oil and sieze it up like you described.

 

you can disconnect the boost pipe off the Turbo to I/C it will still run but little power,Tape some foam over the inlet of the I/C to stop any crap entering.The most common reason for a missing tip on a plug is a head gasket prob allowing water into the cylinder it drastically increases the temp in the cylinder and the tip melts. On a cossie it is usually plug 3 or 4. regards

 

Thanks to all for posting.

Looks like I'll have to get it to a tuner for new turbo & check the head gasket etc.

Cheers
Boon