For any Renault experts

[under pressure]

I have a 1.9 03 Laguna DCI and I believe the turbo is blown.

The car has 108,000 miles on the clock and I have had it since new.

At 54.000 miles the engine blew up, revved its head off, smoke, would not turn off etc, etc. Renault paid the whole cost of the repair. New engine, new intercooler, turbo etc, etc. £7000 worth. That was in about 2007/08.

Now 50,000 miles later the turbo has blown and yes I have been a bit casual with servicing, my bad.

My question is should I bother replacing the turbo or is there a good chance it will have done a lot more damage.

The turbo whine increased in noise a few weeks ago and now it only does 50 mph and makes a hell of a noise when I try to accelerate. It starts fine and still ticks over lovely.

Any advice ?

 

[jonnyfishing]

If it starts and ticks over ok, the damage is probably just to the turbo blades
Change the turbo and clean the oil feed lines out then make sure you change the oil and filter at least yearly. dirty oil will wreck a turbo charger, along with other things.

 

[under pressure]

Thank you here is hoping, it still revs up ok just extremely noisey and a fair bit of grey smoke out of the back

 

[Belle427]

double check all the hoses are connected properly to and from the turbo and intercooler

 

[under pressure]

Well today saw me take the dreaded turbo unit out and what a fiddly job that was. Just to really improve my mood I slipped and put a minute hole in the rad as well lol. (Dont ask ok lol)

The turbo bearings are gone, the blades are all totally intact but the centre shaft moves from side to side about an eighth of an inch which I dont think is a good thing. The blades are clearly hitting the case of the turbo.

How it never broke the blades god only knows as I did about 40 miles home in it with the turbo screaming like mad. Bad idea I know but it was 3 in the morning and I was on the motorway so had little choice really. The engine is covered in a fair amount of oil there so it looks like there has been a slight leak for a while but a lot of it look very old oil.

Do I order a turbo (found one at £265) or should I order a kit at half that price and rebuild the turbo myself ? The radiator is a pin prick so I aim to whack a bit of solder over that and it can be reached very easily.

Anybody got a better price on a turbo ?

A final question, how the hell do you get that oil pipeback on once the turbo is bolted on, or should it be bolted on beforehand cos it was a right so and so to get off.

 

[Belle427]

id order a turbo that has been built and tested properly. I didnt think you could just rebuild a turbo yourself but my mate reckons he rebuilt his shogun turbo with one of these kits and its running ok (at the moment)
i thought they had to be rebuilt and balanced professionally?

 

[under pressure]

Thanks for your help I did order a turbo unit in the end as you say its probably better to get a unit thats been rebuilt professionally, mind you at least they threw a gasket set in for free

Mind you there is a U tube video on how to rebuild a turbo and it does look very easy

 

[Burnerman]

Obviously the most important part about a turbo charger is its balancing - I reckon its easy enough to replace bearings and seals on the basic units but thats about it.
Turbo's use floating bearings which rely on a good stream of pressurised oil to keep them sweet. Even with a new turbo the play in the shafts can be alarming.
John

 

[under pressure]

John

Are you telling me it might not be my turbo thats faulty <yikes>

 

[Burnerman]

No, not at all mate - your turbo is goosed alright!
I fitted a second hand turbo to a Mitsubishi not long ago, and was really quite surprised at the play in the shaft...however it was perfectly ok.
Go for a Millers oil after your rebuild - 5W-30 grade, XF series. Brilliant lube.
Good luck with yours!
John

 

[under pressure]

John is that fully synthetic oil cos I believe thats what Renault advise ? I do aim to keep up with my oil changes etc his time mind

I am still stunned that I drove about 40 miles with the turbo really screaming and yet it never disintegrated.

 

[Burnerman]

Yep, go for a fully synth. lube specified for diesel turbo's, change it every 6k with the filter and the problems are gone!
The turbo screams because bearing wear and play allows the blades to go out of balance....eventually it would have let go, I guess.
John

 

[under pressure]

John

I have to be honest I was using the oil that we put in the trucks at work. They are diesel and turbo so I thought if it was ok for an artic lorry it would be ok in my car am I wrong ?

 

[Burnerman]

Not necessarily - it all depends on what the specification of the oil is that Renault require, against the spec of the oil that is used in the trucks.
All I can say is that truck engines rev much slower than car engines and therefore run a bit cooler. On the other hand, truck engines are expected to cover many thousands of miles before needing major attention.
Any oil you use should have a spec of B3 or ideally B4 for diesels - this is as good as it gets. Other oil classifications can be rather confusing!
John

 

[under pressure]

Thanks for your advice John