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2G Whistle under heavy load (BOV?)

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Violet Crime

Probationary Member
23
1
Mar 7, 2008
Littleton, Colorado
My '95 TSi (stock turbo system) has recently developed a new sound under heavy boost; it's like a high pitched whistle. It's not a completely constant sound, though; it whistles for a short interval, seems to cut, and whistles, cut, ect. at a rather high frequency (~ a dozen cycles per second). As the rpm's increase, so does the pitch / speed of the whistle.

Also, I've never been one to pay much attention to my boost, but it seems low. Maxing at ~12-13 psi and immediately dropping back off to about 9 in a somewhat erratic manner.

Finally, with my brother looking under the hood, I redlined the engine. Wasn't able to find the leak, but he reported smoke during the test. Didn't know where it was coming from, but it wasn't a lot. :banghead: I seem to have a mild coolant leak, so that may well be the cause, but I figured I'd report it as well, just in case.

Thanks for your time guys.
 
I hope you're not on the right track... but I'm afraid you are. Apologies for omitting this back story, but I didn't want the post to turn into a book =-/

The sound first appeared about 3 weekends ago, about 4 days later, a rather large puff of blue smoke would come out of the exhaust shortly after letting off the gas (only under heavy load, again). During those 4 days, the sound kept advancing down the rpm and load range, to the point I couldn't accelerate without hearing a lower-toned version of the sound (about the time the smoke made its appearance). I immediately started taking it very easy on the car, and got it to the shop the next day.

The mechanics got back with me and told me that shaft play had developed, and the fan was rubbing against the housing. $1400 later, I had a rebuilt 2g *sigh*. Got the car back, drove it around for a couple days, and the sound reappeared at high load again. Took it back to the shop, and a couple days later, they said the turbo was getting good lubrication, and that the mechanics didn't hear anything when they ran the car, so I've been tooling around in it for about a week now. The sound doesn't seem to be progressing down the rpm range (at least not as rapidly as before).

My brother said the smoke was white, thankfully.
 
Boost Leak Test- I really need to; I'll look up the howto on this site again and get it going this week.

Shaftplay- Engine's still hot, and my ass is about to head off to work. I'll get it done this week.

Stock plastic PO... I mean BOV- yeah =-/ Looking into finding a 1G... again this week.

BCS- Newbie here; I assume you mean 'boost control system'? If so, I'm unaware I even had a boost controller (not the same thing?)
 
boost control solenoid. its a stock solenoid to regulate boost to 12 psi, because the wastegate opens at 7psi on a t25.
 
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/new...se-troubleshoot-boost-leak-tester-merged.html

I assume you know how to check for shaft play, but take off the intake and hold onto the shaft nut. Move it to the sides and check in/out play as well. If it moves an excessive amount it's bad and if it touches the housing, that's bad as well and will need a rebuild.

1g BOV is good but you'll need to get an adapter or new pipe if you still have the stock IC piping.

BCS (Boost Control Selonoid) is locaded underneith the coolant overflow bottle. It's ECU controled so that once a certain limit is hit, it'll allow the wastegate to open up. I wouldn't call it a boost controller though as a true one will allow you to adjust both positive and negative to the limit of the wastegate anyway.
 
turbo is dead for sure, i had the same symptoms couple weeks after i got my 2g, first i'd hear the whistle sound, then like a week later the car starts exhausting white smoke, did a 14b turbo swap and it fixed everything
 
Just got back from work.

You guys are pimps; thanks for the good replies.

@ LuiQUiDx- I appreciate you assume I know how to do these relatively simple tasks, but it's good that you explained it, because I'm afraid I suck at car maintenance beyond oil changes, brake pads, etc (LOL what a choice of car for a non-mechanic, right? =-P).

Thanks again for the preliminary help, guys! Be back in a couple days.
 
I know this gets asked alot but is the BOV recirculated? if its not recirculated if the seat is cracking under boost it will cause a whisteling noise and also a nice puff of black smoke when you let off the throttle. (in saying this I know some cars run perfect without it recirced)
 
Quickly checking in; I took off the turbo intake and stuck my fingers in to manipulate the fan... I wasn't able to get it to move laterally or vertically (of course, now that I'm thinking about it, I forgot to do the Z axis; I'll go back out after posting this). However, I'm pretty sure I picked up a drop of oil on my hands while in there; is that normal? I'll verify the oil while I'm back out there checking the fan for play again here in a sec.

Also... I'm pretty weak when it comes to car parts jargon, so sorry, I know it was addressed, but I want to be sure; the boost leak tester is mounted directly onto the turbo, correct? That's not a whole lot of room to work with.I'm pretty sure that's the case, but I want to be 100% you know? ("To use it, just remove the intake pipe from your turbocharger inlet, and attach this in its' place." IC Pipe Tester).

Silentscreamer; I don't know if it's recirculated, but I'd wager not. It's the dead stock 2g turbo system. The flange had crossed my mind (while reading posts indicating it's a common source of leaks =-P), but I still need to assemble and use a boost leak tester.

We have never noticed black smoke, I'm afraid; too bad, as it sounds like it would have been an easy fix.

** All right; I've tested the Z-axis (pushing pulling) on the turbo fan, and it's solid. I was unable to verify oil, but everything I touched seemed lubricated. It felt like oil, but it'd have to be an impressively small amount.
 
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The mechanics got back with me and told me that shaft play had developed, and the fan was rubbing against the housing. $1400 later, I had a rebuilt 2g *sigh*.
Can you clarify exactly what was rebuilt? The whole engine or just the T25?

However, I'm pretty sure I picked up a drop of oil on my hands while in there; is that normal? I'll verify the oil while I'm back out there checking the fan for play again here in a sec.
Is there oil inside the compressor inlet tube or just on the compressor wheel?

Also... I'm pretty weak when it comes to car parts jargon, so sorry, I know it was addressed, but I want to be sure; the boost leak tester is mounted directly onto the turbo, correct? That's not a whole lot of room to work with.I'm pretty sure that's the case, but I want to be 100% you know? ("To use it, just remove the intake pipe from your turbocharger inlet, and attach this in its' place." IC Pipe Tester).
Try this.

I don't know if it's recirculated, but I'd wager not. It's the dead stock 2g turbo system.
Stock system is recirculated. It should look like this, except for the missing Mass Airflow Sensor:

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The boost leak test should be your next step.
 
I'm pretty sure I picked up a drop of oil on my hands while in there; is that normal? I'll verify the oil while I'm back out there checking the fan for play again here in a sec.

Unless the system is modified it's normal to have a small amount of oil in the intake pipe and turbo inlet. This is because there is a tube that connects from the top of the engine, left side of the valve cover, to the intake pipe before the turbo inlet. It's there to relieve pressures in that area of the engine and a small amount of oil is taken along with it.
 
^Thanks for reading the link...

OP, I also wanted to mention that since you have a confirmed coolant leak, you should keep a close eye on your overflow bottle and make sure there's always enough in there for the engine to suck back coolant instead of air when it cools. Depending on the severity of the coolant leak, you could end up overheating and seizing the engine without much warning.
 
The turbo was rebuilt. The oil was just on the wheel and housing.

Kick ass link- I'll follow it to the letter. Again I'm crap at engine jargon; 'TB Elbow' (step 3)?

I managed to slap a pressure leak tester together, will test once I roll my ass out of the rack tomorrow.

Thanks for the heads up regarding coolant levels; I'll make sure to keep an eye on it! ^_^ b
 
so your saying you had them rebuild your turbo for $1400?if so you over paid by alot not tryin to give you hell just saying.i have a t25 i would have gave you or still will if you need it for like $100
 
That 1400 brought in a rebuilt stock 2g turbo (T25?), I guess the old one was pretty messed up. I have my concerns about that shop if I'm honest (thus I'm doing my own work atm), despite having a number of national 'good shop' awards.
 
The price seems steep, but at the same time everyone must remember where most shops get their parts.

Sure, one can find a T25 on ebay for $100, but a shop will either buy a brand new one or buy one from a parts store or wholesale parts store.

Have any of you ever looked up the cost on a replacement turbo from a parts store? It's right around $1400... It's ridiculous.

So, I'm not trying to defend the shop or anything, but I dont think they intentionally screwed him/her over.
 
All right; after playing under the hood for a few minutes, I think I found a leaky line (at least the worst leak, kinda sounded like I may have 2 or 3). I have no idea what this line is, let alone whether or not it can actually BE a leaker. SO, what am I looking at here? It's the line on the top of the engine (thank god) with the 3 green arrows (no way).

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Wrong, wrong, wrong...I was close, but not there. For reference, the red arrow is indicating the line show in the previous image, the green arrow shows where the air is actually leaking from. Don't know how I missed it the first time, but it feels like the air is leaking out from around the black thing on the throttle body. I need to know what that is so I can buy a gasket for it.

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the red arrow is pointing to your throttle cable, your not going to have a boost leak there. test it again and put some soapy water on you throttle body. they are know for leaking alot of times. hope that helps you alittle. before you buy from a shop check prices online you could have saved alot of money on that turbo. im not being mean im just saying.good luck:thumb:

thats your throttle positioning sensor sry i forgot to put that in there
 
All right- so while I was trying to get at the lower screw on the TPS (what a goddamn nightmare), I noticed the intake to the throttle body didn't have a gasket. To add to the fun, it is missing a bolt on the far lower side as well. After replacing the gasket, the leak by the TPS is 90% gone. When I get the bolt replaced, I bet that leak will be taken care of.

Meantime, another leak showed up in the BOV. Took it out, and there's a gap forming in the side where it seems two parts of the BOV are molded together. I have a line on a 1g BOV so I can do the conversion, but I'm now wondering how hard is the conversion?
 
Im glad you got the first leak taken care of and the conversion to the 1g is pretty simple you just need the adapter piece, i didn't get the 1g bov i have an rs type with an adapter but the 1g should be very simple
 
Yar- didn't seem too hard to simply install a converter flange. Unfortunetly, the IC pipe is in bad shape, so I decided to purchase a Dejon IC pipe, and a new K&N air filter (I was lead to belive the Dejon would not fit with the OEM airbox in place). Those parts will come in about a week, and while I'm not looking forward to the debacle that will inevitably occur when I go to install them, I'm looking forward to getting full boost again =-P
 
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