How to detect a bad turbo?

IF it is an Aerocharger call me I will help you.

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If it a Garrett ball bearing turbo thay do have some shaft play when thay are cold, when you shut your engine off you should be able to here the turbo spin for a few seconds, the bearings are noisy at low rpm. If it spins freely and is getting oil you have no worries.

The shaft will have some play in it, as long as the vanes do not contact the housing and it is not leaking oil past the seal and into the discharge side it is probably good. You can take a dial indicator and measure the axial and radial play of the shaft and then measure the clearance between the vanes and housing, but it makes a difference what turbo you have as to what the specs should be.

If it was purchased in 08/09 there is a chance that it had the plastic bearing cage which has been known to have some issues (hence my pics, lol) and have been updated to a better design. If it is making any noise at all I would check end play and be suspicious as hell. If you catch it before any real damage you can/should qualify for a center section exchange program. PM a couple of the turbo suppliers on here and see what they say.

When I had my issues I was pretty low mile and had been running without the coolant plumbed. Silber on here offered to do the exchange program for a very fair price even though I didn't buy the kit from him. Very appreciated. I got updated and no problems since.

You may want to check your oil filter and look for pieces of bearing cage like those shown below. Here's a few pics. Good luck. EW

Heres what was in the oil filter (bearing cage pieces), if you see any of this you might consider an oil pump replacement too.



How it looked in the sled



How it looked apart. Not much contact, but enough that Garrett ran from it. I heard what you describe and towed it back right away. As posted above I noiced it on a dead motor spin down.