...it's because the primary turbo is seized. It's wierd because it never made any noise. It also didn't violently seize or start blowing smoke. It just stopped boosting one day, so I drove the car home and parked it. It ran fine except for the no boosting.

I thought it was a controls issue but when I pulled off turbo inlet to get to some vacuum hoses I went to give the blades a spin and they were stuck.

My first thought was that somehow it got starved of oil. Wouldn't it start to squeal though?

My other thought was that it was related to the Apexi intake I just installed. I installed it on a Tuesday and the car stopped boosting Friday so maybe they are related. Possibly something I didn't notice inside the intake got sucked loose? The car didn't act strange at all those few days.

Anyway, it sucks because I just installed these "low mile" turbos about a month ago to replace my leaky ones. Them only lasting a month leads me to believe I might have screwed something up installing them, but there was never oil leaking from that area or anything to suggest that I hadn't.

Anyone ever try replacing the primary with another seconday

Anyway, any thoughts?
Thanks,
-ray

 

You might have inadvertently dropped something into the turbo's intake while installing the filters. Might be worthwhile to remove the compressor housing and see if there's something jammed in there.

That's the only reason I can think of for them to suddenly stop spinning - a seized turbo usually gives plenty of warning (smoking, noise, etc.) before it seizes up.

Dunno if it's possible to pull the compressor housing with the turbos on the car - might have to pull the turbos.

Dale

 

I guess it is possible that I dropped something in when I put the intake on, but I would imagine it would have locked up that turbo almost immediately.

I'll be pulling the unit this weekend and seeing what's up in there.

Probably just throw my old, dying ones back on or something also.

 

Just replace the bad cartridge with your best old one The pri and sec cartridges are the same .M ix and match the best parts to get going . Then send the leftover parts to a rebuilder or what ever you want . That way you will still be rideing . LETS GO .

 

The cartridges are the same? If they are then I'd consider that.

Anybody actually done this?

-ray

 

Yes Garfinkle has , the cartridges are the same . The aluminum intake is different ( pri -sec ) as is the exhaust houseing . Just pick the best parts and clock every thing back in to line up the pipes and oil,water lines .

 

did you make sure there were no packing peanuts in that filter?

 

I pulled the turbo apart and found what caused the primary to seize. A piece of metal was wedged between the blades and the housing on the exhaust side. Parts of all the blades were missing.

Any idea what this chunk of metal could be from? Whats left of it is about 3/4 inch long and looks like it owuld be about the same wide if i uncurled it.

Thanks...

 

I'm glad you at least found the cause! It's also good that it stopped in the turbos - hopefully none of it made it to the engine!

Might also want to pull off your intercooler and see if any metal is stuck in it.

Hard to say what it is - could be any little thing that fell in the turbos. But, it's good that you definitely know what the problem is!

Swapping the cartridge as suggested by another poster is a good idea - it's *really* quite easy. The only real trick is making sure each piece is lined up right, since the cartridge can spin relative to the turbine housing and compressor housing. Make little marks with some paint or something - that helps out a lot.

Dale

 

The piece of metal was on the exhaust side, which means it couldn't have gotten to the intake side right? The exhaust either goes to the turbines or out the wastegate straight to the exhaust right?

I'm a bit stumped as to where this big of a chunk of metal could have come from. Apex seals aren't metal are they? And, the engine was running fine even after the turbo seized.

The cartridge swap does look "pretty easy". The seized turbo came apart without any problems. Hopefully the one from my other set will come apart too. Right now I'm trying to find a set of big snap ring pliers at work.

 

could it be part of the exhaust sleeving in the rotor housings?

 

I missed the "exhaust side" part . Wow - that's a tough one. It might be something that actually went through the engine to the turbo. If the engine still is running fine, I wouldn't worry too much.

Dale

 

I guess I'll pull the exhaust manifold off and check to see what the exhaust sleeving looks like. That should be fun.

Any other ideas of what it could be?

 

hey Ray I'll be home this weekend, if you want I can give you a hand. Give me a call or hit me up on AIM.

 

I pulled the exhaust manifold off and this is what I found inside? What is this jagged opening in there? It looks like something ripped off. I'm guessing that's where my mystery metal came from. What is that thing though, and should I get another manifold or what?

 

The gasket shapes look ok unless I am missing something . Mark the spot you think is bad, that may help , because it looks fine to me . Show the small part of metal also . I will check back with you .

 

Here are some more pictures. What I'm talking about is circled in red.

 

double post.

 

And another.

 

One last one.

 

So, those are the pictures. I'll get a picture of the metal piece once I can round up a camera here at work. It's magnetic so it could have come from the manifold.

My question is "What is that jagged opening that I have circled in red?" Also, what does it normally look like? There is an opening on the engine side of the manifold, but it looks like it maybe used to be capped off or something insde the manifold. And, do I need to get a new manifold?

Thanks for the help.

 

That's where air pump air is directed into the manifold. I *think* - it's either that or an EGR pickup.

It's supposed to look like a little tube sticking in to the manifold. Looks like yours got pretty cooked!

If you have no emissions on the car, grind it down flush and flip the gasket around so the hole doesn't go to anything in the engine.

Hard to say if that's the culprit, but it's a possibility. Typically metal like that slowly erodes over time - it doesn't really just suddenly break off. Who knows?

Dale

 

So, that's the egr port. My car still has egr (california car), but I live in Michigan so it doesn't need to pass any inspection. I agree that things like that usually erode over time, but its really jagged.

I'll post some pics of the chunk of metal.

 

Metal Chunk 1