On my '88 TII, how can I tell that the turbo is warn out? The car dosent seem to be boosting at all, and I wanna know how exactly to tell if its the turbo thats warn? Will it have play in it? Will it make noise? How can I rule everything else out and know its the turbo? Thanks guys any info would be great!

 

well, even a bad turbo will make boost...listen for an unusually noisy turbo on throttle, does it's burn oil a lot...is there oil visible in the TID or by the BOV? if you remove the turbo itself is there a lot of play and wiggle in the shaft and do the blades look clean and straight? doesn't sound like an actual turbo problem to me...if your car isn't boosting that seems like a problem with possibly a clogged exhaust/cat or vacuum issues.

 

push the turbine in and out and check for play, then wiggle it up and down and make sure it doenst hit the walls of the turbine/impeller housing

 

On the stock boost guage, does the boost build, then drop off right away? How much boost are you reaching? And does it hold the boost?

 

it dosent boost at all, the gauge shows it moving from the bottom, up to zero.