Strange Noise and boost...
 

Well tonight I was driving to a location, car started up fine, drove for about 5 min. I noticed that my boost gauge wasn't registering anything. Even when I gave it some good gas in 3rd. Well the next thing there was a VERY large screeching noise coming from the front. A few things ran through my head...

1. It was either a loose drive belt that somehow aquired noise in the rain. But usually the drive belts squeal when your turning. This was not the issue.

2. There were new breaks put on but they would not make that kind of noise.

...then I thought it might be my turbo but would not know how it would make that noise. When I stopped the car and my passenger got out I smelled a thick smokey smell that I could not determin. At this point i was scared. On the way home the squealing stopped. The boost gauge came back on and all was fine.

Can anyone tell me what might cause these temporary problems?

Also on a side note: The boost gauge will go up almost to the 15 or whatever the top number is. Is that normal? I cannot read what the gauge means.

Thanks.
Evan

No helpy? I just wanna know if I should worry about anything serious. Ive got a few miles on the car........:eek:

bump

Does your car smoke at all or do anything else that's not normal?

well she does have a little white smoke on start-up but that clears up when driving.

Well....It could be that your turbo either ate something up, or is going bad and the bearings are biting the dust, could also have a horribly clogged cat, or worse case, the turbo's going bad.

From your description it sounds to me like the turbo took a shiznit. No boost, screeching noise, smokey smell. Funny how all the manual says about turbo replacement is when the compressor wheel touches the housing. Hence a metal-to-metal screeching noise. anyway

Are you saying that a foreign object went through the turbo? I didn't know it was possible that something could just fall through the turbo propellars, is it possible something fell behind the intake filter? Also it seems that the turbo is working ok now. And that screeching noise makes sense but DID NOT take effect when the turbo was kicked in and only took effect when I was in gear. When in neutral it stopped...

I'm pretty sure your turbo is on its last leg.

It's highly unlikely that you turbo ate something. That could only happen if you have some kind of break in your hose from intake to turbo. And since you're completely stock, I doubt something got through there. Looks like the turbo itself is toast my friend. Clogged cats wouldn't cause any sort of screeching, and they would hinder flow, not prevent boost. So it's pretty much the turbo.

-Kanaida

I believe exhaust flow has a great deal to do with boost. But I do think its your turbo.

Does the exhaust manifold run before the turbo? If so it might have a leak, would this effect the turbo?

its most likely your turbo.... dont worry its very cheap for your year of car 87-88 turbo2's you could prolly pick one up for less than 200 if you look....

Yeah, flow DOES have alot to do with boost, but clogged cat won't PREVENT boost. If so, then that would mean that exhaust isn't flowing at all, and the car would choke. he said he wasn't getting ANY boost. If it were just lower boost pressure, it would be a different story.

The exhaust manifold bolts to the exhuast ports and to the exhaust side of your turbo. I've never had experience with leaking manifolds, so I wouldn't know much about that in particular.

-kanaida

You might want to remove yor intake from the turbo and check for shaft play. Pull the compressor wheel shaft in and out, there should be virtually no play this way. Also check side to side play and see how close the compressor wheel gets to the housing. a couple of mm's either way is ok. Any more than that and I would say your turbo is shot. You could also try spining the turbo by hand and listen for the noise. If your turbo is toast, this might be a good time to upgrade to bigger turbo! Lots of Luck!!!