XC90 Turbo gone
 

I have a 2009 XC90 D5 SE Lux bought as demonstrator from agent. Have used Volvo Shrewsbury for all servicing and has now done 200100 miles. Lovely car and can't afford to replace it. Just spent £650 on new front suspension. Engine seemed to have same power as always (until 2 days ago). It had been making more smoke on startup lately but that cleared when warm. Agent said 'customer to observe' and emissions were within spec. 2 days ago it spewed out a lot of oil from the exhaust and stopped. The AA took it to the agent and their guy said it was probably the turbo. Volvo cars have just confirmed that. Our plan had been to keep running it. They want £2,200 to replace the turbo, clean out the exhaust and set it up again. The unknown is whether the engine is damaged. Anyone got any advice? If that money sets it up again I am inclined to tell them to go ahead, but . . . . . A new one would cost more than 2K even high mileage. Difficult decision. Thanks to all who try to answer an impossible question!

A halfway house - and a lot cheaper - might be to fix / recondition your turbo, or buy a reconditioned one from a specialist or get one from a lower-mileage car from a breaker. Lots of turbo specialists around who can help - a new one from a dealer sounds a bit of overkill on a high-mileage car. A good indy garage will be much cheaper than a dealer and either sort it all out for you or fit anything you have reconditioned / buy. In terms of cleaning out the exhaust, on my old e39 BMW 530d after fitting a new turbo the general advice was to drive it until the smoke cleared, apparently it usually did before too long.

Bmw had no dpf....

If it spewed oil out and the engine didn't "run away" with itself then you might be lucky - it might be the seal on the exhaust side of the turbine housing, in this case there will be no engine damage.

This may the point that you can halve the bill by getting a reconditioned turbo fitted at an Indie. There's not re setting up to do as such, but the exhaust system does need to be taken off and drained/flushed out - it would be irresponsible to drive the car whilst it spews the remaining oil out onto the road for motorcyclists to find on a damp day...

This isn't such as bad job, but often the bolts have to be cut off. I would expect the dealer would replace with new, but I would block off one end of the exhaust, pour about 2 litres of neat gunk into it, invert it every 5 mins for around an hour and then flush with water. Do similar with lower volumes for the DPF & CAT.

But yes if the car is in otherwise good condition - definitely worth saving.

Ah, yes, of course - forgot it's an 09 so that'll be the 185bhp / DPF setup. I've still got the BMW and when you put your foot down at night you can see an ominous dark cloud in the rear view mirror. Not ideal to be breathing in!

I've just replaced mine with a reconditioned turbo last Friday for £600

mine is a 2004 D5 so cost may be slightly different.

Whilst looking around in Birmingham the cost of replacement was consistent with most garages and the turn around 48 hrs for an exchange unit.

As mentioned above - if there is no other damage then definitely worth considering. So far the replacement is doing very well but with a minor issue which should be an easy fix.

https://best-turbos.co.uk



These guys are highly recommended and very helpful over the phone.

I didn't actually use them because they only do turbos - I had some other minor work done so went to a local indy.

Thank you all very much. Very helpful. Trouble is the car is already at the dealers 25 miles away. I asked the AA to take it there - perhaps not the best decision but I'll have to live with it now. I am inclined to go with the dealer. At least they do seem to be very competent. I'll report back on whether the car is restored to health, or not. Very grateful for all your efforts.

They are talking about cleaning the exhaust out. There is a 'chap down the road' who specialises in it, I gather.

So, How did it go?