Compressor Surge and Shaft Play...

[tsi1991awd]

I had a compressor surge issue while under boost. The turbo had the normal side/side shaft play but had some in/out play as well.

I decided to rebuild the turbo (it is a TD05-20g)....the journal bearings had grooves in them and the thrust plate was grooved around the center. Would this amount of wear on these parts cause it to have compressor surge, or is my issue lying somewhere else? I have not run the car yet after rebuilding the turbo because I have a couple more issues to fix before driving.

Pics of the old journal bearings and thrust plate:

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[JusMX141]

Journal bearing #2 (in the last pic) is definitely showing signs of damage from surge.

You can see by the clean metal that the bearing has made contact with the housing....makes sense, because the discoloration on the first bearing tells me that the first bearing was on the turbine side and the second bearing (cleaner, with scoring) was on the compressor side.

 

[tsi1991awd]

I had sent you a PM with the same pics but figured I would post here iin case anyone else had the same questions later on. You are correct though, the first bearing was taken off of the turbine side and the second picture is the first bearing as well. The last picture was on the compressor side and the grooves can even be felt.

Is this normal wear or is it kind of excessive? How bad would you say the wear is on the thrust plate?

 

[JusMX141]

The one-sided journal bearing wear is a result of the compressor surge....the bearing will score on the outside of the bearing from the quick up/down motion that the surge is causing. Unexplained thrust plate wear with no metal clogging the oiling hole normally points toward a lack of lubrication, but if the turbo was under-oiled the journal bearings would suffer damage WAY before the thrust plate.

If you rebuild the turbo and the thrust plate fails again in a short period of time, you may want to move your oiling source to the filter housing. There may be an unexplained low pressure situation occurring at the head.

 

[tsi1991awd]

I bought the turbo off of a guy on this board. I have no clue what he did to it before I had it. The turbo had in/out play before I installed it...and I am running the oil feed from the OFH with a .75 restrictor I believe it is. I just got the car running again a couple of weeks ago and then ran into all of these problems. So I am assuming the turbo was under oiled previously

When I took it apart, the insides smelled really bad. Smelled kind of burnt and just plain gross. Not an oil smell....something else but I couldnt put my finger on it. I cleaned it all up nice though.

So I need a new oil feed line and then once that is put in, I will see if it still has compressor surge. Do you think the amount of wear on these parts made the surge in the first place or could it be something else attributing to make it surge?

 

[JusMX141]

Do you think the amount of wear on these parts made the surge in the first place or could it be something else attributing to make it surge?

Not sure on that one....you'll have to see if the surge disappears when you get the turbo back on the car and then you'll know for sure. I honestly don't know of one 20G owner who has complained about surge yet, so I'm going with the former of your suggestions.

 

[tsi1991awd]

You saw the two videos of the compressor surge I sent right...the boost bounces pretty violently. I am not sure what is causing this or how to get rid of it.