Jumping the chinese turbo bandwagon

[Surturiel 0]

Hi! it's my turn to put some chinese ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/252257907375?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT ) core into it... I replaced the intercooler, but the turbo still whines weirdly, the car is not quite as fast ( I have eddy's flashing mine) and the fuel consumption is around 5l/100km... let's  see if this is the only problem left to fix after my disastrous cross-Canada trip...

 

[LooseLugNuts 557]

1 hour ago, Surturiel said:

Hi! it's my turn to put some chinese ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/252257907375?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT ) core into it... I replaced the intercooler, but the turbo still whines weirdly, the car is not quite as fast ( I have eddy's flashing mine) and the fuel consumption is around 5l/100km... let's  see if this is the only problem left to fix after my disastrous cross-Canada trip...

 

looks like $235 roughly after shipping and import fees

 

you dont trust ali express?...i see some there for roughly $155 total to you door 

 

plus that global shipping ebay uses is slow as molasses ..straight from china is probably quicker expecially if it says DHL (mine came in about 5 days after placing order if i remember right)

Edited October 21, 2016 by LooseLugNuts

[Surturiel 0]

I got it already... I didn't know about Alibaba (never tried it before) and in my ignorance, I thought that, since the seller was based in US, it wouldn't necessarily be a chinese part. and I was wrong. Now i need to find a place for me to stop and replace it... (I'm in Halifax, and live in an apartment, so no garage)

[Surturiel 0]

Ok. The chisese turbo shaft snapped. I lost one compressor vane (the engine sucked it). Reverted back to the original. Now the car kinda behaves like original in low speeds ( a tad slower), but on highways, it doesn't pass 80. Definitely not pushing the way it was. and sometimes I can hear a rattle.  No check engine light, not burning oil (after burned A LOT because the split turbo flooded both the intercooler and the exhaust with oil...). What should I do? Also, the wastegate actuator needs adjusting, since I took the actuator out to replace the turbo and most likely messed with the calibration. Should I check the cylinders compression? who does that in Halifax? If I need to rebuild the engine, how much are we talking about? is it worth it?

[tolsen 630]

You damage it yourself during installation?

[Henry 40]

If it is the whole vane it is most likely in the intercooler.  and never made it to the intake valves.  A rattle with our tiny CDI's never. LOL but seriously I would check the timing chain/oil pump drive sprocket.  

Best of luck

Alan

[booneylander 37]

I would remove and back-flush the intercooler to try and locate that vane. Then hook a scangauge up and see if you have any codes. Unable to get up over 80 sounds like it could be overboost-related limp mode. I've had that happen recently in mine and it did not illuminate the CEL, but when I hooked up the SG, there it was, P0238 (If memory serves). I would also use the SG to monitor boost pressure to re-set your wastegate. 

If the car starts right up normally, I'd bet your compression is ok, but it doesn't hurt to check. 

Terrible luck about the shaft breaking. How quickly did you get the car shut down once it broke? Did you run without oil pressure, or did you get it pulled over right away?

[Surturiel 0]

OK. No codes, and I adjusted the wastegate actuator (the best I could). The car starts up normally, and pushes well under 3k. Above it, it gets a little bit rougher (the engine gets noisy (not much) and I feel that the car is not as healthy as it was before. I took the car to Mercedes and they said that's not worth trying to fix, and I should think about getting another car (and they haven't touched the car at all). (those assholes).  One mechanic at Canadian Tire told me that's most likely all that oil that I've burned carbonized the combustion chamber/injectors. as far as running with low oil pressure, I stopped about one minute after the turbo snapped, and drove as slow as I could until I got someone to tow me. And no, I've installed the chinese turbo correctly ( to the best of my knowledge). The thing was noisy from the get go, but was spooling freely. The weird part is that It made noise ALSO when I was not accelerating (like old diesel trucks do). about one hour driving later, it started oscilating the rotation wildly until it snapped. My father (who fixes cars for fun) told me that probably one of the injectors (or more) are dirty due to the insane amount of oil that I've burnt and that is causing it to misbehave, and should get that checked. 

 

I almost sold the car to the scrap yard at least twice last week...  I'm starting to get tired of all this...

 

[Surturiel 0]

Ah, Also, I dont have a scangauge, I used an ODB scanner, a Cen-tech one if I'm not mistaken. It resets all codes that bring me any CEL. but aside from that, I don't see any codes. In that scanner, I can find the car model by the vin, so I believe it works for everything. Am I right?

ah, and the missing pasrt of the turbo was just the tip of one vane. We're talking about 2-3mm big. 

Edited November 1, 2016 by Surturiel

[LooseLugNuts 557]

your original link shows "warranty yes"

 

you should at least get another one or money back...

[Surturiel 0]

Ok, my father was using some telepathic powers to diagnose my engine ( after all, he's in Brazil right now) and he told me that, since the entire intake was flooded by engine oil, it is possible that my loss of power is attributed to dirty injector tips/combustion chamber, and that I should flush the entire intake system. What should I do? Ah, and I also contacted the ebay seller, and they want to make sure that I bought the right turbo for the engine... Also, anyone happens to know any decent auto shop in Halifax? I'd like to have it checked ( compression, injectors, etc...)

[tolsen 630]

Can you get live data from your scanner? Use that or a pressure gauge to check boost pressure.  Maximum is 1.2 bar.

[booneylander 37]

On 10/31/2016 at 0:06 PM, GRP151 said:

 

Hi Booneylander

How were you able to resolve the overboost P0238 error code problem?

After driving my CDi for about 10 - 15 sometimes 20 minutes the engine light comes on. P0238 code. I use to clear it with my scanner a few times. Then i just left it for a couple of days of driving and it cleared itself. It happens when I push it hard either on the highway or through the city.

regards

 

Just by making an adjustment of the nuts on the wastegate actuator rod. Moving the nuts away from the diaphragm lowers max boost, moving them towards the diaphragm raises max boost. Use your scangauge and test drive it to check what kind of boost you are getting. I've found if the turbo is set too low on a re-mapped car it gets quite smokey which is no good for anyone, so I had been trying to adjust to get as close to max (which, on my SG, seems to be around 33psia). When the weather got colder, it made the boost go up just a bit higher, causing the P0238 code.

[booneylander 37]

Not to be outdone, I drove the car in to town today and as I pulled out of the coffee place, I heard the turbo suddenly get very loud, I rolled off the accelerator and as the revs dropped and the car slowed the turbo noise cut in/out a few times then finally stopped altogether. I was already coasting to a stop, and I kept my eyes peeled for the oil pressure light. It never came on, so I dared to drive the car home about 10 minutes. It was down on power (obviously) but I made it home without the oil pressure light coming on and when I got home and checked, I was still near the MIN level on the dipstick.

I pulled the cartridge out and lo and behold, it had snapped. Luckily I had purchased two cartridges at the time so it was easy enough to just swap them out. Interestingly, the production/batch numbers, or at least, what I assume are batch identification, is quite different on the two cartridges, with the failed one JX200632, and the new one JX200379. They look identical otherwise and look identical to my old, OEM cartridge which I still have kicking around. I thought maybe if there was a difference in diameter of the oil passages or something, but I can't spot any clues. 

Interestingly, when I took the turbine side of the broken shaft out, the journal you can see in the pic was caked in dry, burnt oil. 

Right off the hop, the new cartridge is much quieter, almost imperceptible. In fact, it sounds very much like my other car which is still on the OEM turbo, whereas both the original and first chinese replacement had always been quite loud on this car.

Here's hoping I've lucked out and the cartridge I've just put in is a bit higher quality, it'll be quite annoying if I have to keep swapping these out every 10k km.

[Surturiel 0]

yep, you just described what happened to me. BTW, I drove like 2 minutes tops after that happened, and when the engine started burning oil I stopped. and got it towed. No oil light. but I was VERY low on oil ( the turbo vomited out lots of it on the floor via rebreather, and the inter-cooler was also quite full, we're talking ~400ml of oil total. Today I got the car to the highway for the first time after I adjusted (more or less) the wastegate. it's drivable, going past 100km/h (I didn't want to force it more, I'm still hesitant to do so), but the car is not...quite the same. and I have some faint noise (intermittent, and not loud, sounds kinda like a louder diesel knock, and only when under load, nothing while idling). I'm thinking about taking it to a mechanic, have the intake flushed, and the wastegate properly adjusted. How can I (or they) detect if I got something damaged internally? Again, it starts right away, as usual, and I never got a CEL (well, aside from when I was tuning the wastegate, that is) and still pulls as expected from Eddie's tune. I'm just...worried about this...noise. And yeah, fuck chinese CHRAs...

[Surturiel 0]

Ok, got back from Mercedes: Clutch fork was worn, actuator "sticky", slipping clutch: oil, calibration and relearn and it's done. The wastegate actuator is opening a little bit early ( my fault) and should be simple to calibrate. As the engine being noisy... 450 CDIs are "marbly", and I should just put some diesel cleaner additive and run around and it will clear out. Nothing to worry about. So, yeah, The car STILL exists.

 

[booneylander 37]

Well that's good news!

My "backup" chinese turbo seems to be working well so far.

[LooseLugNuts 557]

over a year and 11000km on mine and seems fine

[Surturiel 0]

actually, the WG actuator is off the other way around: Overboosting just a little bit, triggering a fuel cut when I force the car over 3500rpm, uphill, over 80ish km/h (I'd say 80% or so) that persists until I stop and turn the car off. The mechanic told me to patiently turn the nuts to the right, 1/4 of turn at a time, Until I synchronize the boost with the fuel cut... Am I in the right track? Ah, he praised the flash, saying that the car pulls a lot at lower speeds, the way it should have been from the get go ( thanks, Eddie!)

Edited November 23, 2016 by Surturiel

[booneylander 37]

You've got it right. An OBD tool with a real-time readout of MAP pressure would help make the process of setting the W/G a lot quicker.

[Surturiel 0]

Yeah, I've ordered a Kiwi. Are they good?

[booneylander 37]

I've only ever used the ScanGauge2, but the Kiwi looks cool!

[Surturiel 0]

Somewhat related question: After the whole incident, my engine became noisier (and I suspect something up top). I took it to mercedes and the mechanic told me not worry about that that's nothing unusual for a diesel, but it's there and it wasn't as noisy before. I can hear mostly between 1700/2200 RPM, but not at idle or under load. Any tips? Suggestions? just ignore it? 

[LooseLugNuts 557]

test drives while watching map readings and carrying 2 wrenches

 

you can drive it just fine with rear bumper removed

Edited January 13, 2017 by LooseLugNuts

[tolsen 630]

7 minutes ago, GRP151 said:

 

Seems like a hit and miss method. Isn't there a more accurate method using the OBD unit or is it too finicky?

The method suggested by LooseLugNuts is the only way i know if you want max possible boost pressure.  Read boost pressure with diagnostics machine and adjust by turning nuts on waste gate actuator rod until you are happy.  Setting boost pressure too near limit may cause overboost and limp mode.

The easier method is setting boost pressure by adjusting distance between waste gate arm and actuator to specified length.