Pretty sure I blew my turbo...

[bryan_tberry]

So today I was driving like normal, had the boost set to about 13lbs, pretty mild, but it had been making some weird noises, so I figured I'd keep it light. I went to accelerate past a car that had just turned off the highway. The boost reached about 14psi and as my revs got to about 5k, everthing just dropped. Boost fell to about 4psi, revs dropped almost instantly. Car shook pretty bad. I hit the gas again to see what was up, and it just just a muffled sucking sound, followed by bucking, followed by soft metallic sounds, and I actually lost speed. It was bucking all over the place and I wasnt sure I was gonna make it to the next gas station. Once I got there, I popped the intake off and sure enough, I couldn't move the compressor. What I dont understand, is, why? Before I put my intercooler pipes and BOV on, everything was perfect. That turbo moved right along, with NO shaft play. I havent turned the boost up past 16psi. It spiked to 25 once when I have an MBC issue, but thats all. Any input?

 

[kwaliph]

Sorry to hear.

The only thing other than high mileage that would cause turbo failure would be low or no oil flow to lubricate the bearings. If you had no shaft play then somewhere or somehow, oil stopped being fed to the turbo center section.

Quick check: take off the return line and see if there is oil inside the line, inside the turbo.

I can't think of anything else that would cause the seizing of the comp/turbine shaft.

EDIT: WOH! 25 psi on a stock t25!! That may be the soul cause of your premature failure. Although it may have not seized up right then, it may have damaged the bearing with too much heat or possibly "cooked" some oil onto the bearing. That's is a very small turbo to hit 25 psi.

 

[sandman7000]

looks like you need to buy a fp Red now