I was doing some work on my friends stock TII today and I took the intercooler off to get to the alternater bolts. Low and behold there was antifreez in the intercooler and the pipes coming too and from the intercooler. My question is.... has any one seen this before?... the only thing I can think of is the Turbo has let go.

 

Yep thats the first thing that hit me too, that the turbo let loose. But I've never heard of coolant leaking through the bearing.. If anything, I always thought that the coolant just surrounds the bearing housing, and the oil is what hits the bearing directly. At least thats what I can see down the coolant tube of mine.

 

time for a turbo

 

if the turbo housing cracks internally i guess it would be possible to pump coolant into the intake but that is not a common problem with the FC turbo.

 

This is the same thing I have heard.

 

if it does have an internal crack, likely cause of failure and some things to look for:

high mileage engine and it was just the turbo's time
overheated turbo, cooling system problems
improper running engine, sensors failed or out of spec causing the engine to be running lean
improper ignition timing

if the turbo surely has failed i would look for some of the symptoms i posted and correct them during the turbo replacement, i wouldn't want an untimely death of a new or replacement turbo to happen.

 

Man the only way you'd crack the internal jacket would be if it overheated, real bad IMO. If that were the case, then you'd be looking at some extreme shaft play and oil deposits as well in the intercooler/intake

 

not necessarily, have you seen the cracks that develop on the turbos and manifolds? these exhaust systems really take a beating but i haven't seen a coolant jacket crack internally before but i wouldn't say it is impossible but that is the coolest part of the turbo aside from the cold side.

 

Thanks guys, I'll tell the guy its time to dump some cash...

 

Hey Kevin, I have a S5 manifold and turbo that was on my TII you can try out. I thought it was blown because I could'nt get any boost. It was just that the idiot who installed it only tightened the nuts finger tight. $50 and it's yours, (I paid $350 for it and the gaskets) just come get it. You can give me the money later just in case something is wrong with it.