Turbo repair on Xtrail

[Chewitt13]

There's a bit of a story but i won't get into it but basically the missus's xtrail had been starved of oil for a period of time before it was identified. OIl leak is now fixed etc, but the down side is that the turbo has developed a 'EVO/Scubby' type whirling, which i presume means excessive wear on the impellers. Garage gave me the 'sometimes this happens' line and the 'not worth fixing as the car is working perfectly fine' but the car is only 3 years old and my wife doesn't want to drive a 4x4 variant of the EVO!!!!!

The garage reckons it will cost about 500-600 for a new turbo!!!!!!

My rudimentry knowledge of the combustion engine / turbo (from uni) and looking around the engine is that replacing impellers should be a piss easy job to do, can anyone back this up with actual knowledge?

The intercooler sits bang on top of the engine and the exhaust inlet and outlet to turbo are directly below!!!

[Rich H]

Starved of oil means the bearings will suffer. The impellors are unlikely to be damaged but could be.
The bearings run at '0000s of RPM so need good oil pressure all the time to help them stand it.
I suspect the only fix will e a rebuild which will be several hundred notes.

[Alex 111s]

I would think that it would be the bearing too. I would doubt that the loss of oil pressure/flow to the turbo would change the clearances enough to wear the rotor on the housing/stator.

[BiggestNizzy]

DO they even run bearings anymore ?I thought they "floated on a cushion of oil"

[steve_weegie]

DO they even run bearings anymore ?I thought they "floated on a cushion of oil"

Aye, the turbo thrust bearing which has probably gone in this case, is effectively an oil bearing. Starvation means the bearing metal contacts and wears, creating play in the shaft and ultimately failure...

Blowing a turbo is inconvenient, but unlikely to cause engine damage.... May i suggest you take out some AA parts and labour ASAP, as the turbo will probably run fine for a bit, claim when it finally gives up...

edit: btw, while the mechanics of rebuilding a turbo are "pretty" straight forward, the balancing of them is super specialist stuff... You're looking for about 1g of force at 100,000 rpm! Replacing the thrust bearing at the core of the turbo wouldn't be a DIY job IMHO...

[tuscan_thunder]

Recently changed a turbo in a Nissan Patrol so currently reasonably au fait with this.

Can you get a hand onto the shaft? If you can, you should be able to feel any play in it.

If the layout is anything like the Patrol, when you're facing the engine, the turbo will be to your right? If it is, it's not too difficult to get to save for a couple of awkward bolts near to the block. These can be missed out on reassembly if you want....

It's easy to get a turbo out, even one with a water jacket, and the best place to get it rebuilt is at an industrial diesel engine place: the likes of Turner seem to be quite handy for things like this although the job we did needed a brand new turbo which can from a specialist, not Nissan, was the genuine Garrett item and was nearly £400 less than what Nissan wanted.

If it'll rebuild be far cheaper than going to Nissan and if you can become a mate of someone there, you never know what kind of lunchhour-using-up deal you'll get........ There is a Turner place in Dyce.

Putting it back in is fairly easy, just make sure all the hoses are in the right way round and a new boost regualtor could be a good idea. Photos before and during strip down could be helpful.