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Old 07-13-2020, 11:11 PM   #1
dneve85
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Default How long does my turbo have?

I was installing a Charge pipe and EBCS and decided to take a peak in my turbo. Needless to say I was disappointed. There are small chips on the blades of the compressor wheel and a little oil near the inlet and on one blade. I don’t know how to add pictures on here otherwise I would. How long do you think I have until this thing fails?
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Last edited by dneve85; 07-13-2020 at 11:17 PM.
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Old 07-14-2020, 11:25 AM   #2
gn4rwhals
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Time to failure? Yes.

Impossible to tell really, could be years or months.
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Old 07-14-2020, 11:31 AM   #3
noobultimatum
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Honestly, If I were you, I would source a used turbo and replace it asap. Take that busted turbo and maybe send it over to socal porting for a refresh or upgrade.

I wouldn't linger too long with a failed/failing turbo. Might be more damaging/costly to hold out too long.
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Old 07-14-2020, 12:11 PM   #4
3eyesraver
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What noobu just said ^ if the fin brake off and fly into your engine, you are not only replacing your turbo but also the intercooler or worst, something from the engine.
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Old 07-15-2020, 09:53 AM   #5
dneve85
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 3eyesraver View Post
What noobu just said ^ if the fin brake off and fly into your engine, you are not only replacing your turbo but also the intercooler or worst, something from the engine.
Any idea how to put a picture in here? I showed a local performance shop and he said to monitor the oil consumption and boost levels and to keep an ear out for odd noises while boosting. He said he would continue to run it if it were his car. Which is reassuring that he didn’t try to sell me on replacing it right now.
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Old 07-15-2020, 10:19 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dneve85 View Post
Any idea how to put a picture in here? I showed a local performance shop and he said to monitor the oil consumption and boost levels and to keep an ear out for odd noises while boosting. He said he would continue to run it if it were his car. Which is reassuring that he didn’t try to sell me on replacing it right now.
Post pics here: https://img.nasioc.com/

Paste the [img] tag link in a comment and the image will show.

Personally, I'd never continue driving around on a turbo with a busted impeller. It's begging for a catastrophic issue. Turbos spin 100,000+ RPMs. Even slightly off balance can be terminal...
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Old 07-15-2020, 10:27 AM   #7
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My opinion is the opposite.
You looked at something that 99.9% of owners never see, so you have "data" that is incomparable to anything.
I mean nobody even asked how many miles are on it?
My guess is every turbo out there ages that way and for all anybody knows yours is in better condition than average for it's age, which nobody knows anyway.

That's almost like our media comparing Covid-19 test results to a period of time when there was orders of magnitude less testing, but using terms like "skyrocketing" and "exploding" to compare the figures. Basically the most unscientific comparison of data possible outside of simply making up figures.

Did you notice any issue with the turbo performance before you saw the fins?
My guess is no.
Unless you are just dying to replace an expensive part for the sake of replacing it I'd just leave it on there.
Other than highly modified cars, turbos almost never just self destruct and obliterate the engine no matter how old.
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Old 07-15-2020, 12:09 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rtv900 View Post
My opinion is the opposite.
You looked at something that 99.9% of owners never see, so you have "data" that is incomparable to anything.
I mean nobody even asked how many miles are on it?
My guess is every turbo out there ages that way and for all anybody knows yours is in better condition than average for it's age, which nobody knows anyway.

That's almost like our media comparing Covid-19 test results to a period of time when there was orders of magnitude less testing, but using terms like "skyrocketing" and "exploding" to compare the figures. Basically the most unscientific comparison of data possible outside of simply making up figures.

Did you notice any issue with the turbo performance before you saw the fins?
My guess is no.
Unless you are just dying to replace an expensive part for the sake of replacing it I'd just leave it on there.
Other than highly modified cars, turbos almost never just self destruct and obliterate the engine no matter how old.
Despite my initial response, I generally agree with you here . If he would have never looked at it, he probably would have never noticed anything. Sure. FWIW, when i replaced my stocker with the socal v3, the stocker was 102k miles used... no chipped anything and no odd signs for concern with it.

However, if his is chipped now, and notices any degrading performance or signs of further damage down stream... then replacing the turbo earlier might be cheaper than waiting till later.
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Old 07-15-2020, 12:31 PM   #9
BostonShaun
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No chips here, but a decent amount of shaft play with oil consumption. (Originally thought it was the valve seals but they are fine)

I'm replacing it.
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Old 07-20-2020, 05:10 PM   #10
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My stock turbo also had an abnormally high amount of play in the wheel assembly (per my tuner when he installed my J-pipe, which he showed me on his phone - I agreed with him), and that was at ~25,000 miles. He said similar to what has been said here, that if one of the blades flew through the engine it would be very damaging. My tuner said it's one of those things that may not get any worse, but it also won't get any better and that if it were him, he would prefer to have peace of mind and replace it if he was going to continue modding it.

I drove on it for another ~18,000 miles and didn't notice any deterioration in performance before deciding to go further down the mod path. I did the SoCal v3 upgrade as part of a slew of other bolt-ons, not only for performance gains but also for peace of mind.
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Old 07-20-2020, 05:39 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dneve85 View Post
There are small chips on the blades of the compressor wheel and a little oil near the inlet and on one blade.
Would like to see pictures of what the actual damage looks like. Sometimes what you think it looks like initially is actually something else but I can understand the initial response, even if it turns out to be wrong.

As mentioned, shaft play is a biggie. Definite sign of turbo on it's way out but also depends on the degree of play, much like the degree of turbine damage, if any.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rtv900
That's almost like our media comparing Covid-19 test results to a period of time when there was orders of magnitude less testing, but using terms like "skyrocketing" and "exploding" to compare the figures. Basically the most unscientific comparison of data possible outside of simply making up figures.
Like that actually really happens.?

Unfortunately, we see this almost every night on the news. It's called fear mongering. Only give some of the facts to present a certain point of view.
But, I digress
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Old 07-21-2020, 05:54 PM   #12
dneve85
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stretch18 View Post
Post pics here: https://img.nasioc.com/

Paste the [img] tag link in a comment and the image will show.

Personally, I'd never continue driving around on a turbo with a busted impeller. It's begging for a catastrophic issue. Turbos spin 100,000+ RPMs. Even slightly off balance can be terminal...

Here’s the photo of the compressor side of the turbo.
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Old 07-21-2020, 05:57 PM   #13
dneve85
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rtv900 View Post
My opinion is the opposite.
You looked at something that 99.9% of owners never see, so you have "data" that is incomparable to anything.
I mean nobody even asked how many miles are on it?
My guess is every turbo out there ages that way and for all anybody knows yours is in better condition than average for it's age, which nobody knows anyway.

That's almost like our media comparing Covid-19 test results to a period of time when there was orders of magnitude less testing, but using terms like "skyrocketing" and "exploding" to compare the figures. Basically the most unscientific comparison of data possible outside of simply making up figures.

Did you notice any issue with the turbo performance before you saw the fins?
My guess is no.
Unless you are just dying to replace an expensive part for the sake of replacing it I'd just leave it on there.
Other than highly modified cars, turbos almost never just self destruct and obliterate the engine no matter how old.
Didn’t notice any issues before. Car has 40k miles on it. Checked the shaft and there was no shaft play. A local performance shop took a look at the pictures, he said he would continue to run the turbo if it were his car. Given I found water in my air box last winter, I’m guessing it’s from ice. But who knows.
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Old 08-06-2020, 12:06 PM   #14
dneve85
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Bumpitty Bump
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Old 08-06-2020, 04:20 PM   #15
vtwinjunkie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dneve85 View Post
Here's the photo of the compressor side of the turbo.
What modifications do you have done to the intake of the car? must have gotten contaminates in there some how.
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Old 08-22-2020, 07:13 PM   #16
izzi426
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You can't know for sure. Turbos don't die from use, they die from heat cycles or poor design. Example: it's -40 outside and the housing shrinks more than the blades.
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