Turbo Issues - BMW Content

[AS_BO]

Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong section. Helped my mate service his E91 320d on Friday. Full service carried out, Engine & Gearbox Oil changed, all filters changed and Pads/Discs. For reference car is a 56 Pre LCi with the M47 lump in it. 165,000 on the clock.

Fast forward to this morning and he text me to say his turbo was whining it's nads off. He said it drives fine, boost not lacking or spiky and no black smoke from it either. Quick inspection shows no immediate issues.

I know a lot of you drive or have driven Bimmer's so figured CS is as a good a place to start as any.

Any ideas?

 

[AS_BO]

 

[AS_BO]

Video added for reference [emoji32]

 

[azzaw93]

pop a intercooler pipe off and check for excess oil. its possible youve over filled it and its picked some up. On BM's you should fill it to right inbetween the min and max on the dipstick approx 5.2L's.
although its not uncommon at that mileage for the turbos to die, if you replace it be sure to change the oil feed and return pipes too!
azza

 

[AS_BO]

pop a intercooler pipe off and check for excess oil. its possible youve over filled it and its picked some up. On BM's you should fill it to right inbetween the min and max on the dipstick approx 5.2L's.
although its not uncommon at that mileage for the turbos to die, if you replace it be sure to change the oil feed and return pipes too!
azza

Cheers azza, that means I should be expecting fresh oil in the cold side of turbo as well yeah? If so, what's the solution? Will it burn off or will I need to strip pipe work and clean it out?

 

[azzaw93]

Cheers azza, that means I should be expecting fresh oil in the cold side of turbo as well yeah? If so, what's the solution? Will it burn off or will I need to strip pipe work and clean it out?

yes mate correct, if its present in the pipes the intercooler will be full too, so dont forget to clean that out.
generally once they start whining the damage is alreaddy done, so a replacement turbo will be required to sort that. and if its not replaced before it gets bad he could find himself in the very unfortunate position of a diesel run on, which would definitely ruin your day!
so i recommend checking the pipes as soon as you can just to confirm that is the fault (or if hes lucky deny) and go from there
azza

 

[AS_BO]

yes mate correct, if its present in the pipes the intercooler will be full too, so dont forget to clean that out.
generally once they start whining the damage is alreaddy done, so a replacement turbo will be required to sort that. and if its not replaced before it gets bad he could find himself in the very unfortunate position of a diesel run on, which would definitely ruin your day!
so i recommend checking the pipes as soon as you can just to confirm that is the fault (or if hes lucky deny) and go from there
azza

Ok pal I'll have a look at it. By what you're saying then I'm drawing the conclusion that oil has been drawn past the turbo seals? As such killing the seals potentially and in some backwards way starving the bearings of oil?

 

[azzaw93]

the whine can be caused by many things, imbalance of shafts, bearings or damage to blades. a possible cause is just age/mileage related and is just a coincidence that its happened at the time of the service. most whines on these cars are caused by the feed/return pipes blocking up. but it has been known that if there overfilled they can kill the turbos.
whichever the cause the remedy is the same.

 

[jinjur]

I had similar noises with our E91 320d and I will tell you it was an expensive lesson 😧 I hope that is not the case with you bud.

We were on around 97k miles......and I did what I think was the 3rd service since we owned it. Oil, filters etc.

When started, it was making a similar noise on boost which progressively got worse until it reached police siren levels....obviously the turbo was bucked.

What I hadn't done, was allow the motor to crank to get the fresh oil through to the turbo before letting it start. Having not owned a turbo car before, I did not realize this was the norm and ultimately, I paid dearly.

There are a number of things you can pull on these cars to allow them to crank without firing.

Did you do this?

J

 

[AS_BO]

I had similar noises with our E91 320d and I will tell you it was an expensive lesson 😧 I hope that is not the case with you bud.

We were on around 97k miles......and I did what I think was the 3rd service since we owned it. Oil, filters etc.

When started, it was making a similar noise on boost which progressively got worse until it reached police siren levels....obviously the turbo was bucked.

What I hadn't done, was allow the motor to crank to get the fresh oil through to the turbo before letting it start. Having not owned a turbo car before, I did not realize this was the norm and ultimately, I paid dearly.

There are a number of things you can pull on these cars to allow them to crank without firing.

Did you do this?

J

Well I've looked at the car today and it's evident that the turbo is on way out. I need to pull the cold side of the turbo off and have a look, my pal filled the oil and we started the car and let it idle until the oil light went out and turned it off. Normal procedure for most other cars but apparently not this one [emoji58] knowing what I know now pulling the fuel pump relay to crank and prime the turbo would've been the best way to go.

Big job on these to change them. [emoji15]

 

[jinjur]

Its a pretty horrid stripping match buddy and if it is the Mitsubishi turbo, there is no hope for a rebuild. BMW wanted 2000 for the part alone. Would be a better story if yours has the Garrett turbo.

I was lucky in that ours happened in the -15 degree winter we had a few years ago......there were plenty of E90's in the local scrappies with chassis damage so I pulled a second hand part for 300.

Much stripping and flushing later, the car was grand but we sold it on as it had been tainted.....even though I knew it was a good turbo and everything had been cleaned. Worst bit was getting the sump off to clean that......brutal job with the subframe.

J