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New Turbo or Strip and Clean?

leon_geordie

Guest
Been having some performance problems recently on my Leon 110 so took the car to the garage this morning. Turns out that the Turbo is sticking so I have the choice of either having it replace or stripped and cleaned.

The car is only 3.5 years old (out of warranty :( ) , and has only done 41k. Surely the turbo should last longer than this? The dealer is going to speak to Seat to see if they will offer any sort of goodwill gesture, but I'm not hopeful of that tbh.

So what is everyones opinion - new turbo, or stip and clean?

Thanks
l_g.
 
Never heard of a turbo sticking - unless its something to do with the variable vane?

Usually a turbo goes either from its oil seals or bearings which make the shaft wobble. Seals you would see smoke with since it would leak into exhaust...

Is it maybe the actuator sticking shut or open, in which case thats replaceable separately??

Is it a decent garage as turbos last really well on TDIs since they arent really being pushed much....
 
Yes apparently its something to so with the variable vane. Dealer said it sometimes sticks which results in some overboost - puts the car into limp mode which doesn't reset until I restart the car.
 
Ahh I see ! - I would suggest SEAT goodwill then since 40k is nothing for a turbo, either that or balance cost of new one VS rebuild
 
surely if they say strip and clean, you may as well get the turbo properly refurbed once its off.

then wil be good as new and should soldier on another 60k
 
Yea, dealer is going to give me a price for a rebuild and a price for a new one. I'll see what the difference is. Problem is dealer said that rebuild is not guaranteed to be successful, so have to consider if I go for rebuild, then may have to get new turbo anyway...
He said rebuild is 5.2 hours - So I recon will be somewhere around £400.
 
yeah but you don't want seat doing a rebuild, i would want it sent off to a company like turbo technics to rebuild and then get it tested etc like they do, not some seat tech having a dabble over his lunch brake.
 
I would say I give it some 'exercise' and about once a week I give it a thrash for maintenance. I also use good diesel - not supermarket stuff.
If it's sooted up, will the problem happen again (maybe quicker?) - if pipes etc have got soot in them as well?
Thanks
 
Two things to try:

  1. Find somebody with VAGCOM. With the engine running and VAGCOM connected, go into "basic settings" of Group 11. The engine will go up to about 1400 rpm, and will cycle the turbo VNT about once every 10 seconds. Leave it doing that for at least 5 minutes. If you're lucky, it'll free up the mechanism.

  2. To give the turbo a really good exercise do this with the engine thoroughly warmed up: Stick it in 3rd gear at about 1500 rpm with a nice piece of open road in front of you. Hold on to your hat, and plant your foot right to the floor and hold it there at least until you reach 4000 rpm. Repeat several times. If my car's been stuck in lots of traffic jams recently, it drives noticeably better after this.
 
Got the costs for the rebuild and a new turbo from the dealer:
£350 for a rebuild
£880 to fit new turbo
Seat rejected the goodwill gesture - they said the car was too far out of warranty.
I will go and see a diesel injection specialist as well to see what they will quote.

Stew:
I got the car when it was about 1 year old - and its now 3.5 years.

David:
Thanks for the advice - I take the car up to at least 4000 revs every week or so, and have recently been doing this more often on my journey home from work. It doesn't seem to be helping.

Does anyone have any experience of a rebuild/new turbo? What would you go for?
Thanks
l_g
 
leon_geordie said:
Yea, dealer is going to give me a price for a rebuild and a price for a new one. I'll see what the difference is. Problem is dealer said that rebuild is not guaranteed to be successful, so have to consider if I go for rebuild, then may have to get new turbo anyway...
He said rebuild is 5.2 hours - So I recon will be somewhere around £400.
Click to expand...
it has been known for just the actuator to stick, I don't think they are available as a spare part but there are aftermarket ones if you search, worth checking, and by a speciallist rather than a dealer
 
I'd use a spray intake cleaner before doing anything. then if it fails, a bit of WD40 onto the VNT operation arm. if this fails too I'd get the turbo rebuilt by a specialist and not by seat. And I'd check on ebay too for a bigger turbo [VNT17 is a direct swap],,, you can certainly find one for less than £880!!!!
Mind you I remember some new vnt17's for 350 euros, not pounds.
 
Agree with Basstard as you can get a VNT 17 for approx £180-200. You would have thought that the garage would have confirmed that the VNT mech had free play. So its down to the vanes being carboned up. If you want to keep the car standard, then I would strip and do a quick clean - approx 2-3hr job. You dont need a complete strip to do this job. Otherwise go for the straight swap VNT17. Mine was cleaned at this mileage on a VNT15 and its been perfect since.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. This is all really useful stuff.
I'll try the intake cleaner (where do I get that from Basstard?) and then go to an independant specialist for a strip and clean or new turbo depending on his prices etc.
I'll keep you all informed how it goes.
Thanks
l_g
 
geordie, you can get the spray cleaner from any auto parts, at least here in italy,,, '10k diesel boost' should be the name for the biggest brand sold there in uk IIRC.
Here's a guy who stripped the VNT-15 [same as yours] down and cleaned it by himself,,, considering you don't need to take everything apart to clean it, but just need to remove the housing, I'd try and do that by myself if I were you. I don't think there's much chance to screw something up really if you're just a bit handy with the tools,,,

Before going to turbo specialists I'd seriously consider ebay.de, preferably the stores.
Good luck and tell us how it goes [but first I'd try the spray]
 
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