[alphahere]

Being an 8 year old car it may be worthwhile exploring other options like rebuilding the turbo. Assuming this is really the turbo owned by the car owner and the service center guys are not trying to make a quick buck.
Please try speaking to Bay6 Motorworks on Hosa Rd. They have a liking for the VW engines and in my conversation with them understand that they do undertake turbo rebuilds as well. Please be aware that this is just a recommendation and I do not have a personal experience with them on the specific job.

[su1978]

Just like many of the members pointed out, we are not sure that how the fins would have got bent. The point to be noted is the fact that the car has mostly been driven in the city. Since the cost of replacing is pretty high, just wondering what these fans are made up of. Can we look at the possibility of straightening the fins or just replacing the Fins. Of course, the service center never believes in fixing only the damaged part. The only thing that they do is easy plug and play for each and every part.

Now-a-days, its just like the IT industry where the service center never likes to fix just the broken/defective components. Rather they replace the entire part. And when they take back the defective, same is repaired at their authorized repair center and recirculated back in the market.

[govindremesh]

Originally Posted by ChoosetoCruze

I find it hard to believe that the owner didn’t complain of any unusual sounds/vibrations from a turbo spooling with that kind of damage.

And why go open up the turbo for a fuel issue? I smell something fishy here.

Originally Posted by vigsom

Just maintain status quo and let the car run. The fact that the car performs well is enough proof that the turbo is doing its duty. The fuel issue has no relation to this turbo issue.

I'd recommend that you ask your friend to maintain status quo. As many bhpians have pointed out, your friend should have noticed some tell tale signs of an issue with the turbo. If there are none, then why fix if something is not broken? He could get another mechanic or a polo owner to drive the car without telling them the Problem to take a second opinion. If they too don't spot anything amiss, let the car run as is.

As ChoosetoCruze pointed out: why open up a turbo to check a fuel issue? Looks suspicious.

Finally, if the car does behave differently once back from the garage, then it's a good indication of how "trusty" the mechanic is

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by kit_dennis

Its the exhaust end. The mechanic also said that it must have happened recently. And above 2k rpm, he can hear the turbo whistle noise more.

That's the intake side (cold side / impeller), not the exhaust side.

In my years, I have never seen someone open the turbo to check a fuel issue. This sort of imbalance would have been felt, unless your friend drives below boost and doesn't pay any attention.

I am leaning towards the whole 'this is suspect' angle.

[Rahul Rao]

I have seen such a damage in a Tata 1616C bus that used to visit our workshop for it's Ac repair. The Driver came to us thinking that mis-aligned drive belts are making the noise, increasing fuel draw reducing acceleration and inducing vibration. We checked and found everything with Ac ok, but when some one reved up the engine the suction noise was not normal, on checking we found airfilter had punctured and piece of air filter media had been sucked into the engine, as media is paper it must have burned completely and not damaged the engine.
The mechanic we called with the filter said a rat must have eaten it, but I doubt that a bus that runs Nathdwar (RJ) to Pune (MH) 925 km in 18 Hr with 4 Hrs halt in Pune and 8 Hrs in Nathdwar ever has its engine or other components cold enough for a rat to approach it.

Rahul

[bkc]

Hope none of the broken pieces or debris have entered the engine bay.
I had seen a similar issue with the old verna and we checked the intercooler, if it was damaged or not.

After everything was okay, we installed a new turbo. Again the new turbo failed with similar damage

Kindly check the entire intake, wash and replace the air filter. If everything seems fine, only then go with the repair or replacement or the turbo.

[Ravi Parwan]

I disagree with the statement made by Vigsom that he should let the car run as is. The damage seen is extensive. A turbo damaged like this will not survive for long.
As Jeroen and Choosetocruze both said, further investigation should be done before driving the car.
If you want to drive the car as is, you should disconnect the turbo. I had heard from my office cab driver (Tavera) that he had done this as he did not want to spend on a new turbo or repairs and was ok with the lower power of the engine.
His was an old Tavera on its last legs and hence he was not wanting to put more money into it. The car was still able to ferry 8 people and their bags from Gurgaon to Faridabad on a daily basis and the plus side was that he was not able to drive as rashly as before.
I would recommend your friend to also consider disconnecting the turbo so that the engine runs as a NA engine. It will have lower power but if he does not rev it much ( is a sedate driver) it should not bother him that much.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by Ravi Parwan

I would recommend your friend to also consider disconnecting the turbo so that the engine runs as a NA engine. It will have lower power but if he does not rev it much ( is a sedate driver) it should not bother him that much.

Is something like disconnecting the turbo and the engine still able to power the car even possible?
Isn't this a modern car with an ECU that is calibrated to run with the turbo? If turbo plumbing is disconnected, the engine is going to drink more fuel and get more noisy.

Replace the turbo.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by kit_dennis

Even though they could not find the root cause they found another issue. The turbo fan blades were bent.

Due to lubrication failure the bearing has failed, causing a wobble, it has hit the housing and bent the blades. That is what I can gather from this picture.

A rebuild of the turbo is possible, the mechanic should have given you the option by now else find a different mechanic. There are dedicated turbo rebuild shops in every city \ town, you should be able to find one through parts shops \ mechanics.

[Anilnair80]

Originally Posted by kit_dennis

My friend's 8 year old Polo 1.6GT TDI had its coil lamp warning light come on one day. He took it to the service station. The error code was for Fuel drain. They kept the car under observation for one day. The next day the error was gone. Nevertheless they did extensive diagnosis to find out the exact issue.

Even though they could not find the root cause they found another issue. The turbo fan blades were bent. The technician said it is ok for now but it could fail at any time. My friend is not a rash driver. And in his 8 years he has driven only about 51k kms mostly within Bangalore city.

Replacement is an expensive affair costing more than a lakh.
What do you suggest my friend should do?

Bro, Turbo charger replacement through ASC is a costly affair. I have a Chevy Captiva, I had problem with Turbo in my car. When I took the car to the service centre, I got an estimate of 1.10 Lakhs including labour. I took the car to my local mechanic and he initially tried to restore the turbo. Turbo servicing and core replacement may work, but in my case the core was not available for my model, hence I had to replace the Turbo assembly. 'ASH Turbo' in Bangalore is the best in servicing turbo chargers. You can reach out to ASH Turbo guy Mr. Santhosh at 9483508848. As I mentioned, in my case I had to replace the turbo assembly and I have done quite bit of research to figure out the dealers and I bought the Turbo from 'Turbo Tech Engineers' based at Mumbai and Mr.Surinder can be contacted at 9888603082. I have paid 32k+ GST for Garret brand Turbo made in Korea.

Replacing Core is actually not a good idea and you will end up paying around 16-18k for the work and 70% + chances are there for failure of turbo even after servicing. It's better to replace the whole turo assembly to fix the problem.

[SSO]

Originally Posted by bkc

After everything was okay, we installed a new turbo. Again the new turbo failed with similar damage

Running a car with a blown turbo is a very bad idea. I had the seals go on the F40s turbos. It ruined the cats and then debris got sucked back into the engine and damaged a few of the values. Fixing it was a major engine out undertaking.

[greenhorn]

I had a core replaced on my Indica's turbo 3 years ago and it's doing fine. Tata motors quoted 18k for a replacement turbo. Google was giving me quotes of 12k for remanufactured ones. Thanks to the advice of some tbhpians, I found out that the turbocharger was locally made - so local that the factory was only half an hour from my house in Chennai. They pointed me to an authorized service center in the city. They said that they are the ones who do remanufacturing, and if my case was intact, they could do a core replacement for just 8k. In fact the owner of the service center who was a friend of the bhpian who pointed me there said that probably in my case, since my core was fine, and the issue was with the seals, the seals were all that were needed to be replaced and he could do that for just 2k, but if I were planning to keep the car longer, then it might be a good idea to replace the core. For another 6k, which was not a big deal for me.

Details here https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...o-failure.html (Indica V2 Turbo - Turbo Failure)

[kit_dennis]

Just wanted to update you all that after getting a scary picture from this thread, he sold his car to cars24.