Turbo whine?

[mrmeme1212]

Greetings brains trust.

My 07 D40 has been making this slight whine since I bought it, seems to spool up and down with the turbo but can't be heard when fully spooled up. Never worried too much about it, seemed to be worse when cold and gets better so I'm assuming cold oil with mildly worn bearings? But a few months ago it started making another noise with the whine intermittently that's really hard to describe, like a metallic vibration. I have never been able to get a video of it when it actually happens, or make it do it when I've happened to be at my mechanics. I've FINALLY found a video that has the exact same noises, both the whine and extra bit.



There was no explanation attached to the video, so I'm hoping they who are wiser than I can help. The normal whine can can be heard throughout the video, then at about 1 minute the extra noise kicks in. What do you guys think?
I've been putting off going to a diesel mechanic/turbo place as money is rather tight but I'm moving at the end of the year for work and I don't want the thing to blow while I'm in bumb-f@#$ nowhere.

Cheers,

Jay

 

[mrmeme1212]

I've done a bit more of a Google and could the vibration noise possibly be the turbo-exhaust gasket leaking, seen a few posts saying it can be played a bit like a reed?

 

[Ziad]

Hi Jay,

It seems to be turbo bearing wore sound, recently i had the same and had to replace the turbo with the new one.
If is the same then in around 500km or so, it'll increase and laggish on the pick..

Regards

Ziad

 

[joe2006]

Mine had a turbo to manifold leak and and the shyte mechanic couldn't find anything wrong with it, even after showing him this video. Sends us away to keep an eye on whilst going on our caravaning holiday for the gasket to completely fail. About the 1min and 1min16s points are the most obvious, although noticeable every time I gave it a squirt.

 

[mrmeme1212]

Hi Jay,

It seems to be turbo bearing wore sound, recently i had the same and had to replace the turbo with the new one.
If is the same then in around 500km or so, it'll increase and laggish on the pick..

Regards

Ziad

I know the normal whine is the turbo, it's been doing it since I bought it. But is that second noise with the whine the bearnings too? It's been doing it for moneths now intermittently and I haven't noticed any loss in power or what not.

 

[mrmeme1212]

Mine had a turbo to manifold leak and and the shyte mechanic couldn't find anything wrong with it, even after showing him this video. Sends us away to keep an eye on whilst going on our caravaning holiday for the gasket to completely fail. About the 1min and 1min16s points are the most obvious, although noticeable every time I gave it a squirt.
View attachment 35913

That noise doesn't sound like the one mine is making (though how you could miss a noise like that as a mechanic idk). I pulled off the turbo heat shield and squirted it with soapy water and couldn't see any leaks, but it wasn't making the noise either so I dunno.

 

[Phunk]

Sounds like turbo bearings to me.

Heard that noise enough in my years and still makes me cringe.

The whine and now vibrations sounds like it's just getting worse.

Check the shaft for any play starting to happen.

On a side note, are you 100% sure it's coming from the turbo? not coming from a pulley or gearbox etc?

 

[mrmeme1212]

Sounds like turbo bearings to me.

Heard that noise enough in my years and still makes me cringe.

The whine and now vibrations sounds like it's just getting worse.

Check the shaft for any play starting to happen.

On a side note, are you 100% sure it's coming from the turbo? not coming from a pulley or gearbox etc?

I've done the old breaker bar stethoscope technique and the whine is 100% coming from the turbo, but I've never been able to get it to do that vibration on command to really sus it out. I've checked the play on the intake side, can't see any in-out play but there is a little side to side, not enough to be super concerned about in my opinion. The back side is a bitch to get to tho and if I'm going to dismantle half the engine bay I might as well replace it.

Cheers for your help guys.

 

[Phunk]

I've done the old breaker bar stethoscope technique and the whine is 100% coming from the turbo, but I've never been able to get it to do that vibration on command to really sus it out. I've checked the play on the intake side, can't see any in-out play but there is a little side to side, not enough to be super concerned about in my opinion. The back side is a bitch to get to tho and if I'm going to dismantle half the engine bay I might as well replace it.

Cheers for your help guys.

You can always take it to get rebuilt and flowed. I would.

Don't be tempted by the ebay turbos for $600, they'll last about 600 seconds.

If you're in Syd, I've had a good experience with GCG when it came to blown turbos needing a rebuild.

 

[mrmeme1212]

You can always take it to get rebuilt and flowed. I would.

Don't be tempted by the ebay turbos for $600, they'll last about 600 seconds.

If you're in Syd, I've had a good experience with GCG when it came to blown turbos needing a rebuild.

Cheers mate I'll look into it.

 

[Old.Tony]

The other noise could come from elsewhere, too. Places to look: EGR tube (particularly on the intake manifold side where it's least expected). Check the radiator fan for blade deflection - really easy to spot, because if the blade is deflecting, it'll leave scrape marks in the back of the radiator and if it keeps doing it, not only will it require a new fan but you'll be minus a few litres of coolant too, and may not notice that until well after the engine's heated up enough to cook itself.

My car's gasket (between the turbo and the exhaust manifold) thinned out and that's how it became like a reed, it made the car sound like a poorly played clarinet. Spotting it was simple - look for black soot. Soapy water probably won't reveal much, because in neutral the ECU won't command the turbo to full boost so your engine isn't breathing hard and may not pump enough gas out the exhaust to make the sound - but in gear the ECU will happily "open the taps".

You can defeat this by taking the vac hose off the BCS and connecting it directly to the turbocharger, BUT - and this is important - if you drop the throttle quickly, with the turbo boosting like mad, it will overpressure the intake and probably pop the hose off the intake manifold (personal experience here, too, mine did exactly that on the Putty Rd late one night). The trick is to back off slowly, so the turbocharger can also back off and not flood the intake with high pressure air the car's unable to use because the revs aren't high enough.

 

[mrmeme1212]

The other noise could come from elsewhere, too. Places to look: EGR tube (particularly on the intake manifold side where it's least expected). Check the radiator fan for blade deflection - really easy to spot, because if the blade is deflecting, it'll leave scrape marks in the back of the radiator and if it keeps doing it, not only will it require a new fan but you'll be minus a few litres of coolant too, and may not notice that until well after the engine's heated up enough to cook itself.

My car's gasket (between the turbo and the exhaust manifold) thinned out and that's how it became like a reed, it made the car sound like a poorly played clarinet. Spotting it was simple - look for black soot. Soapy water probably won't reveal much, because in neutral the ECU won't command the turbo to full boost so your engine isn't breathing hard and may not pump enough gas out the exhaust to make the sound - but in gear the ECU will happily "open the taps".

You can defeat this by taking the vac hose off the BCS and connecting it directly to the turbocharger, BUT - and this is important - if you drop the throttle quickly, with the turbo boosting like mad, it will overpressure the intake and probably pop the hose off the intake manifold (personal experience here, too, mine did exactly that on the Putty Rd late one night). The trick is to back off slowly, so the turbocharger can also back off and not flood the intake with high pressure air the car's unable to use because the revs aren't high enough.

Detailed answer as always! Cheers Tony, I'll have a proper look on the weekend.

 

[mrmeme1212]

Checked all of the above during the week and couldn't spot anything. Decided to bite the bullet and put a new turbo in (prick of a job if you're a rookie like me) and so far so good! No noises and the performance increase was for more than I expected, cheers for the help guys.

 

[Phunk]

Checked all of the above during the week and couldn't spot anything. Decided to bite the bullet and put a new turbo in (prick of a job if you're a rookie like me) and so far so good! No noises and the performance increase was for more than I expected, cheers for the help guys.

Good stuff, I kinda gathered it would be the turbo.

What turbo did you use and from where?

 

[mrmeme1212]

https://cctturbo.com.au/collections...san-navara-d40-pathfinder-yd25-2-5-14411ec00c
One of those things ^^

 

[Old.Tony]

Chucking a new turbo would be a last guess for me. Imagine if everyone came along with a particular problem (example: the SCV) and I told 'em to replace their fuel pump ($4K). It would fix the problem, absolutely, but the SCV is a small separate component on the fuel pump and costs under $300.

Likewise with the turbo - it could have just been a gasket, and although getting you to replace the turbocharger would have resolved the gasket problem (because you'd assemble with new gaskets) there's a tonne of cash thrown at it - and if it was just a gasket, that wouldn't make sense, especially these days with prices of stuff going crazy.

Anyway, glad to hear it's working again. And good stuff doing it yourself, that's awesome.

 

[mrmeme1212]

Definitely could have been one of the gaskets, but I figured if I was taking the turbo off for the gaskets it'd be the easiest time to put a new one on. Especially considering how old manifold studs are, I snapped one this time (still enough thread to play with thank god) and if I needed to replace the turbo down the line i'd likely snap another one or do something else silly with old rusty parts.

 

[Phunk]

https://cctturbo.com.au/collections...san-navara-d40-pathfinder-yd25-2-5-14411ec00c
One of those things ^^

I know that website well, I've stumbled on it many times and it always makes me laugh that they advertise "snap on tooling" as a part of their pro's to buying from them

 

[mrmeme1212]

That does have to make you chuckle haha. As long as the turbo works they can continue their poor ad campaign.

 

[user 52794]

Checked all of the above during the week and couldn't spot anything. Decided to bite the bullet and put a new turbo in (prick of a job if you're a rookie like me) and so far so good! No noises and the performance increase was for more than I expected, cheers for the help guys.

Hi. Is the turbo still working okay? I've got exactly the same whining siren noise, without the metallic noise yet. Did you buy new or refurb turbo? Can you suggest a good supplier?