why do you believe your turbo will fail with 19K miles on it?

 

I don't think it will fail at 19K, however, I feel it will sometime, either before or after the warranty expires. The issue I have is the damage the failure can cause to the motor and everything else. If there aren't any signs that I can look for that my turbo might give up soon I thought beating it to the punch might be better.

 

There is no damage a blown turbo can cause to the engine.

Usually - the bearings die first, which makes the turbo sound aweful and not spool, but that just robs you of power until you can get it replaced - no biggie.

Alternatively - the exhaust turbine can break up - that's the turbine in the exhaust stream that experiences extreme temperatures & can and has failed on rare occasion. All that does is throw chunks of turbine blades down to your catalitic converter in the downpipe - once again, no biggie. They'll dump the chunks out when they remove the pipe to replace the turbo.

Even if - and I've never heard of this happening EVER - but even if the compressor turbine flew apart - the chunks would get caught inside the intercooler & never make it into the engine to cause problems.

Anecdotally - I had my 05 XT up to 65k miles and had nearly every form of engine modification - stage 2 ecu mods, headers, uppipe, downpipe, full cat-back exhaust, air intake, intercooler...all since about 10k miles. The turbo was alive and well at 65k with no early signs of problems. Many owners have much the same experience well into the 100k+ miles.

In summary - don't worry about the turbo. Do your regular maintenance & enjoy your car.

 

Well Jazz not directly. A blown turbo can suck all the engine oil out of a car and that gets nasty.

After a hard run let the turbo spindonw for a minute. After a casual drive allow it 15-30 seconds to spin down.

Do a search here and you can see a few blown turbos, but i think its more from not understanding how they work then the turbo itself.



nipper

 

Well Jazz not directly. A blown turbo can suck all the engine oil out of a car and that gets nasty.

Ok, I suppose that is possible. I haven't heard of it happening though & you'd get a low oil light if it blew an oil line and sprayed it all out. Mostly the oil journal bearings just seize without further ado.

 

Ok, I suppose that is possible. I haven't heard of it happening though & you'd get a low oil light if it blew an oil line and sprayed it all out. Mostly the oil journal bearings just seize without further ado.

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17697&highlight=turbo+failure

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16661&highlight=turbo+failure

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16157&highlight=turbo+failure

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11087&highlight=turbo+failure



They happen. Some of those are recent. Last one with an engine failure. Some on USMB too, but seems more posted here. The last one i think the dealer may have the circumstances wrong.

nipper

 

I stand corrected.

 

I stand corrected.

No thats ok, you can sit


I've just been watching it with interest to see how sooby handles them, and if there is a pattern.



nipper

 

JazzyMT - could you post your mod list. Been looking for a cat back for a 06 XT and have not found anthing that fits other than "custom".

 

Ok, I suppose that is possible. I haven't heard of it happening though & you'd get a low oil light if it blew an oil line and sprayed it all out. Mostly the oil journal bearings just seize without further ado.

I blew a turbo in my VW GTI a couple years ago and I went through oil like crazy until I put the new turbo in. I felt like spyhunter driving down the road because of all the smoke caused by sucking oil in through the turbo! Good times... Other than that I could actually hear the turbo going out, was loosing boost pressure and it was spooling up slower and slower. This was all at about 17k miles. This car was heavily modified though and usually it wouldn't happen like that if you don't have modifications and treat the car in a normal manner. I'm fairly new to Subaru's but not to FI vehicles and I wouldn't think you would have to worry about the turbo that bad unless you are beating on it. If you are worried, pick up a turbo timer. It helps cool down the oil that runs through your turbo and this will increase the life span of your turbo. Of course you could always do what was stated in a post above and just run your car for a minute or so after driving also which will do exactly what the timer would do. I'm just impatient...

 

Well Jazz not directly. A blown turbo can suck all the engine oil out of a car and that gets nasty.

nipper

nasty doesn't even come close to describing that.

a couple years ago i had the pleasure of cleaning the oil/soot off 5-6 cars when a truck came into work with the turbine side leaking oil. it took all day, most of them came clean but one white fullsize van got the worst of it and it stained the paint.

we had one towed in the shop and after we fixed it, the tech started it in the shop with nothing covering the stack. theres a 8 ft circle of oil on the ceiling now. it stopped dripping after about a month but its still there over a year later.


it is possible to have the compressor fly apart and make it into the engine. we found parts of one after intercooler on a truck, it didn't make it into the engine yet but there was nothing in the way and didn't have much farther to go. i'm not sure if diesels have bigger openings inside the intercoolers then the subarus. i would think so.


i know they make turbo timers. you turn the key off and walk away and a few mins later the car will shut off.

(for anyone that doesn't know...)
turbos keep spinning for a little while after you turn off the car. when you turn off the car, the engine stops pumping oil. which stops giving the turbo fresh/cool oil to lubricate the bearings. so the turbo sits there and frys the oil in the bearings, which leads to sooner turbo failure. easiest way to prevent this is let your car idle for a min or two before you turn off the key.

 

(for anyone that doesn't know...)
turbos keep spinning for a little while after you turn off the car. when you turn off the car, the engine stops pumping oil. which stops giving the turbo fresh/cool oil to lubricate the bearings. so the turbo sits there and frys the oil in the bearings, which leads to sooner turbo failure. easiest way to prevent this is let your car idle for a min or two before you turn off the key.

Also they arent just spinning, the are spinning like mutha######a. They spin anywhere from 80,000 to 200,000 rpm, and have quite a lot of mass to them, so they don't just stop. Also when the car is running even with a light pedal they are spinning fast (just not fast enough to do any work). They have to get into the high RPMS to start moving air.

nipper

 

Just to repeat everyone else... dont forego your oil changes. Hell, do them a little early just to be safe (I have changed mine every 2500 on every car I have owned, just for the hell of it). And use good oil too, something brand name (it doesn't have to be synthetic or anything, just no mixed-barrel ****).

If you really want to do everything you can, go for synthetic (depending on mileage and service history). The more uniform oil molecules help disperse grit, dirt, sludge, and shavings more evenly so you dont have a big chunk of crap that gets stuck in the line filter.

Lastly, stick to the high octane hooch. Even just a little bit of detonation occasionally can cause extreme wear and tear on the internal components, which may affect the heat and flow that the turbo takes adversely.

 

I purchased a 2005 Subaru Outback last yr with 93k miles on it. The turbo charger was replaced at 86k miles and the timing belt plus water pump and valve cover gasket done at 88k. At 99k I had the radiator and all hoses replaced. And at 102k had the valve cover gaskets and inlet elbow gasket to the turbo replaced. Now at 103 I had smoke coming from the exhaust pipes and the mechanic says thinks it is the turbo charger but is still diagnosing. I have never owned a Subaru until now and is this normal to have so many major parts go out. Especially the turbo booster now a problem when it was replaced just at 86k? Any input greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Is the check engine light on? If yes, what faults are on the ECM?

If the oil feed banjo bolt screen was not removed, the turbo gets starved for oil when carbon/sludge builds up on it.

If a cheap turbo was installed, it may be a seal failure and oil is getting into the combustion. Is there oil in the intercooler? Charge hoses after the turbo under the intercooler?

It's not common. I have an 05 BAJA that went 200k on the original turbo. Then it blew and took the engine with it. Kinda. Engine rebuilt to STI spec with ARP and Mallory parts; 8.2:1 compression.

 

I'll add, my stock turbo went 142,000 miles before I had to replace it. The vf52 I installed at that time was still running great some 164,000+ miles later. My car was driven hard, but taken care of. Other than routine maintenance, it ran great. It still had most all OEM sensors, etc. other than O2's when I sold it at 306,000 miles.