Cougsfan

I was curious, when a turbocharger bites the dust, how does it do it? It is a catastrophic failure where it explodes and kills everyone within 100 ft (Ok, I doubt that is the answer). Do the cease up and just quit turning? Do the impellers just wear over time and they eventually just don't reach high boosts anymore? Do they start making noise? All of the above?
Under normal operation, approximately how long do they last?

cj360trider

how long they last is relative to how its treated and maintained. there are many things that can go wrong with them. seals fail shafts break and foreign objects can go thru them just to name a few. if the seals fail or a shaft breaks the engine can actually feed off of its own oil and not shut down till A: all the oil in the crankcase is gone or B: the air supply is choked off COMPLETELY. So in that instance you cud shut the key off and the motor wud still run (usually overspeed) unless 1 of those 2 things i mentioned happens. a blow off valve greatly aids in the life of a turbo. also anti surge compressor housing help as well

Tate

If you overspeed the turbo, the compressor wheel can come apart. Once that happens, there is nothing holding the turbine wheel/shaft assembly in place and it can exit out the back.

If you bark it enough, the shaft can snap, the compressor wheel will spin and flop around in the compressor housing and make little bits of aluminum that will go to your intercooler, while the turbine/shaft assembly makes an exit out the back.

More than likely, you'll just wear on the bearings and develop excess radial and axial play. If the wheels aren't touching the housings and the shaft is in good condition, new set of bearings will make it like new again.

1-5-3-6-2-4

show and tell?

ok. this is the most carnage I've seen from a turbo. compressor wheel exploded, splitting the compressor housing in half. MBE4000.

Tate

Need pictures of Kevin's Silver Bullet after it went kaboom. Turbine wheel in the exhaust, and speed holes down the down pipe.

1-5-3-6-2-4

or this was older pre-EPA04 Series60 in a dump truck. buddy drove it to the shop. we drove it in.......








I fished the turbine wheel out of the base of the stack. it passed through the muffler. Now after the carnage you see there. what do you expect the compressor wheel to look like?







































How about **** near mint. still spun free. the shaft bent "just" enough at the break. to keep it in exactly the right position. after the turbine wheel gutted the housing and most of the center section.

cj360trider

how in the hell!?!?!?

1-5-3-6-2-4

Ya I don't know. lots of the smaller jibblets you see there. I pulled out of the oil pan.

infidel

If you want to see a worst case scenario check out this video of a Chinese counterfeit Holset turbo like are sold on ebay blowing up.
http://www.myholsetturbo.com/video.html

Tate

I imagine that Garrett is the same as the s300 I rebuilt, it has the thrust bearing right behind the compressor wheel. So as long as the shaft breaks behind the thrust bearing, it'll stay in position and rotate relatively freely.

1-5-3-6-2-4

this is generally what you get with name brand turbos. you still have to pull and clean the CAC, replace the air filter. and clean out all the pipes. you have to change the air filter and clean the intake pipes when the compressor wheel pops. when the wheel explodes under load, the shrapnel goes supersonic back up the intake and embeds in the boots, pipes, and all the way back to the air filter. if you get enough back up there. as soon as you slap the new turbo on and put it to work. the new turbo will eat all that shrapnel. might get away with it. but you might take out a brand new turbo too.

d22019

What exactly cause these bigger turbos to grenade like that? I don't believe I've ever seen one just wear out, they always look like the one in the pics. Is it from nobody ever checking them or just driver abuse?