Thread: Seized turbo...

Originally Posted by shack

Hi all, the turbo in my d2 has just seized, wasn't playing up at all, started it, drove 300 meters, was fairly heavy foot I must admit, funny pop, no boost, the shaft is locked tight and the nut undid itself from kinetic energy I guess and got lodged in the flutes in the intake hose, anyways I've bought a chra hybrid job, thing is my car is somewhat modified and I'm wondering if it's possible the turbo went over speed and that's what killed it, is there any way too calculate this? I.e boost x engine speed or something like that, I'd like to know as I intend to avoid the same happening on the new one.

Of course it may just have spun one too many times....

Do you have any EGT figures? When you say "somewhat modified", what do you mean?

When was the last time you changed the turbo, if ever?

Personally, I'd whack in the hybrid ( after making sure that the lube/return line was working properly ) and monitor EGTs. Just my 2 bobs.

The egt gauge is sitting in the boot.....in a box....
It's mainly just the map, I've had a few different things I've trialled but mostly stock now apart from running a more aggressive fuel map,d2 intercooler and 1.4-1.5 bar boost, the turbo has not been on it that long, but was one that was gifted to me a while ago and seemed tighter than the one in it, so swapped, maybe a year or so ago, hasn't been used much in last twelve months so guessing possibly only 25-35000 km since it was fitted

Usually in my experience a turbo seizing is from oil coking on shutdown. The oil bakes in the bearing and it seizes next time out.

Did you do a hot sudden shutdown?

It sounds pretty severe to spin off the nut.

What oil do you use and when did you last change it?

Regards Philip A

Normal shutdown, not idled down, but also not driven that hard, oil I was using was nulon 5-30 synth,I think the last change or two was havoline full synth c3

Edit: Actually we had a turbo do the exact same thing about ten years ago on a John Deere tractor, had been running for hrs, nothing untoward, thing locked up, spun the nut off, new turbo fitted, all good no other damage

Turbos are remarkably reliable given the rev and heat stress they endure. FWIW I reckon you have experienced a 'normal' failure, although the nut coming off might be unusual. Make sure there is no metal in the intercooler etc. and bung in the other one. Apart from an oil feed problem, or a hard shutdown as mentioned, it's hard to see an external problem that has caused this. Unless there has been some foreign body enter the intake downstream of the filter, but I'd guess you would have checked for that.