New Turbo whistle / leaks

[mooxie]

Hi guys,

My 04 D22 ZD30 recently developed a new turbo whistle.

I went through and check all of the air intake side and replaced the hoses with no luck.

Pulled the front of the turbo and checked for movement in the impeller, it seemed really solid.

Just checked the bolts on the back of the turbo and they all seemed tight.

I sprayed some detergent around looking for air leaks and found one at the EGR blanking plate, which should be easy enough to fix, however I found two on the exhaust side of the turbo.

Should I be worried about the turbo leaks since they're on the exhaust side?

 

[4BYFOR]

Yes, you should replace the gasket it will only get worse..

 

[mooxie]

Cheers 4BYFOR, the top one is a gasket, however the bottom leak is actually from the base of the actuator (or whatever it is!). Wondering if there is normally a bit of a leak from these as it's a moving part?

 

[Lawry]

interestingggggg i have a hiss at wide open throttle around 17psi i'll check these tomorrow

 

[bods]

As you said, the gasket will be easy to fix, the wastegate actuator not so much... I don't think there will be a lot you can do about that as you said, its a moving part

 

[Dave]

That egr pipe looks suspect too.

 

[loveit]

the wastegate almost always leak on these things....was this test done cold or hot?

manifold to turbo gasket looks suss....

did you spray around the compressor housing also?

 

[mooxie]

Cheers guys,
I responded to this, but it must not have uploaded or something!
Had a bit more of a look and another test. Compressor is fine, no leaks. Leaks in the photo are present when warm too.
I took the car for about a 30 minute drive today, noticed that the noise did quit down a little once everything was hot.
Strange thing I noticed, is that my turbo sound different all round. Used to be a deeper woosh kind of sound, seems to be more of a high pitched whistle now? Any ideas?

 

[Old.Tony]

High pitched whistles usually mean a boost leak. Boost leaks are easy to find if you don't have a catch can - look for oil coming OUT of the air path between the turbo and the intake manifold. It could be the side of the intercooler, it could be one of the hose clamps that's too loose or too tight (pinching the hose).

 

[mooxie]

Cheers old tony, just replaced the hoses and put t-clamps, zero change in the sound
I gave in and took it to my mechanic today. They are booked out till after Easter, however had a quick look and thought they found a loose vacuum hose that was causing it.... unfortunately, the noise is still there.
Gonna leave it with them for the next few days, they'll have a look at it in between jobs if they can.

 

[mooxie]

Problem fixed.... left the old girl with my mechanic for a few days and they couldn't pinpoint where the whistle was coming from as it only occurs when the turbo's working.
I cracked the shits and planned to order all of the gaskets on the turbo EGR etc.
Got up early and decided to give everything one last check before getting ready to spend a weekend under the bonnet.
I noticed that one of the new turbo intake hoses seems a little long and everything looked a little skewed. Pulled it off, cut about 1cm from it... put it back together... noise gone!
So turns out, that the one of the original hoses had a small perforation causing the noise and the one of the new hoses wasn't sealing properly due to one being slightly too long and causing everything to skew! This was causing an almost identical sound!
Couldn't believe it, I'd taken the new hoses off several times and put them back on with no luck!
For now, I think I'm going to leave my leaky turbo a little longer till I save the pennies to upgrade to a new one with a billet comp wheel!