Had an accident in my 2006 MR a while back – the nose had to be replaced including the intercooler - once I got the car fixed/back - the turbo had audible leak/whistle directly proportional to the turbo spooling/boost. I thought this would be a simple fix for me rather than have the body shop guys try – so I built a pressure test fitting as shown on this forum (that tests starting at the intercooler) and found that my throttle body plate seals were leaking – I finally got around to replacing them and that problem is now fixed – but I still have the damn leak/whistle – but it doesn’t show up in a pressure test. So the problem must be somewhere on the turbo itself right? Any advice on specifically what, where and how locate the problem? Thx

 

Take off your intake and inspect the turbo. Wiggle the compressor wheel to see if there is shaft play and see if there is excessive oil leaking around the intake/compressor wheel area. The turbo might be on its way out.

 

Ok - i took it apart and see a bit of oil in the rubber inlet pipe - and there is quite a bit of play in the compressor shaft - maybe 20mils or more.. so maybe not so good? If the turbo really is making an exit - it's pretty strange that it happened after the front end repair - it really wasn’t touched in the accident.

Assuming the turbo is shot - i can probably have it rebuilt? Or use it as a core on a replacement? Any recommendations if I want to take the opportunity to upgrade?

 

I heard the same noise when my stock turbo was going out. You can have it rebuilt or theres usually a couple floating around in the for sale section if you dont want to much down time... Or you can go big turbo! lol

 

It would cost almost as much to have it rebuilt than it would to get another stocker off the forums. Like Liquid said, you could use this opportunity to upgrade.

 

fp red

 

Yea - looks like red or green may be the best bang for the buck..

Can anyone recommend a tuner or shop in the San Jose Ca area? I can likley do some of the wrenching - but will need some help getting tuned.