Bad turbo?

[95dsmracer95]

One on my friends has a 91 Eagle Talon TSI, and he thinks his turbo is going out.

He has lost power, lots of it, around 50+ hp.

The turbo has about 100,000 miles on it.

It is not the stock turbo, I do not know what brand, but its large, about 5 inches larger than the stock turbo.

He bought the turbo over a year ago.

How can he tell if his turbo is going bad?

It sounds good while idling, but when he takes off, the turbo sounds like its rubbing against metal, and the BOV isn't as loud as it was 5 months ago.

He changes...

oil every 2000-2500 miles
spark plugs 10,000 miles
fuel injectors every 20,000 (changed 4 times)
CAI is clean, cleaned/changed every 10,000 miles
The cat. convertor is brand new, less than 3,000 miles on it
The motor has over 230,000 miles on it.

He has NOS, but only used it once, that was about a year ago.

Any advice on detecting if it is a bad turbo, or what it is?

 

[RossY]

Take off the intake pipe and check if you piping or turbo is oil soaked or coated, this could mean that your oil seals are bad in the turbo

stick your finger in the intake side and spin the turbine, does it spin freely? Does it sound like its rubbing?

Try pushing the compresser wheel side to side and in and out. Is there a lot of play when you do this?

If any of these hold true then turbo is probably going

 

[95dsmracer95]

The turbo is just to old. My friend replaced it