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I believe that my turbo's done.....

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fstfcs

Banned Member
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0
May 5, 2009
Bowling Green, Kentucky
I'm no stranger to diagnosing turbos. I installed a holset on my old ford focus and quickly realized the need for a restrictor haha.

Anyways here recently, my talon has decided to go death race on me. Pouring out clouds of smoke when driving. When i'm at about 2700rpm's i see little to no smoke. But when coasting while in gear or coming out of gear into neutral big clouds.

I know my oil pressure is where it's supposed to be. My only inclination is that the seals in the turbo are bad.

Sadly the previous owner installed an ebay 16g.

Just trying to find out if i am right about this being the issue. As well there is a bit of shaft play.

If it is guess it's time to start looking for a used 16g. And if you have one feel free to pm me of course.

Oh the woes of cheap owners.
 
Sounds like you answered your own question.
Why not just get a new 16g and eliminate any doubts of a used turbo ? If money is an issue then i reject my statement.
 
+1 on the new turbo, its always iffy buying a used turbo just save yourself the hassle and buy a new turbo...:D
 
Money is an issue.

Currently i'm on a strict budget. So finding a decent used 16g will be my only option. Wish i had the money for a brand new one =[
 
I know my oil pressure is where it's supposed to be. My only inclination is that the seals in the turbo are bad.
How can you be 100% sure? Where is the oil source coming from for the 16G? Restricted/Not restricted?

The only thing that kills turbine seals and causes smoke are:

- Too much incoming oil pressure.
- The inability to drain properly (kinked oil drain, poorly routed oil drain).
- Excessive shaft play.
 
or if something scores the bearings.. thats what happened to me.
....which eventually leads to excessive shaft play, which eventually leads to turbine seal leakage.

No matter what type of damage your turbo receives, it almost always leads to smoking of some sort.
 
It has shaft play. Not minmal but it's not like it flops around.

It was an ebay turbo so i can only assume this is a huge part of the reason why she went kaboom.
 
I have some different DSM bolt-on turbos at the shop- all would be rebuilt before they ever leave my shop.

I could also rebuild your current turbo for a reasonable price as long as there's no wheel damage- my customers are having GREAT results with eBay 16G's after I rebuild them with more durable internals.

The only other option if you're really on a budget and your turbo is damaged beyond repair is to bite the bullet and just buy another eBay 16G. They're like $200, and you have a 1 in 12 chance of getting one that lasts longer than 5k.
 
There inlies my problem.

I'd love to have have it just rebuilt and be done with it.

But my IC piping is for a 16g. The only other spare turbo i have laying around is my stock T25. And it doesn't utilize a j pipe like my 16g does. So if i send it out i'm undrivable.

This whole thing has been rediculous. I have been fixing his issues from day one. The car mechanically is fine however.

I pmed river to see what he wants for his. So we'll see.

BTW while i have an open topic i guess i can go ahead and ask another question.

Being that the turbo is well at most times pouring smoke. Do you think this would trip a CEL.

Because no right away but after driving for a little bit i get a CEL. And the only thing i'm coming up with (haven't had it scanned yet) is that the smoke is clouding the O2 sensor causing it to pop.
 
Yeah I would say it's probably an O2 sensor CEL. I had a spark plug wire pop loose a couple days ago and also had a CEL pop up for O2 out of range. Code went away as soon as I fixed the wire. You can check the codes to be sure, but that would be my first guess
 
I just got his pm.......little more then i have available right now...you might want to pm him about it.
 
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