Turbo failure

[mrchrisr]

Sorry about the ramble....

My previous post was about a small oil leak on my 2016 xc90 - this ended up being a crack in the block behind the gearbox which cost a total of nearly £7,000 after Volvo gave 10% towards the cost of a new short block.

1 week after this repair the car wouldn't start one morning and was recovered back to the dealer. They couldn't find an issue and all was good for a couple of days when it lost power while driving. After going back to the dealer 4/5 times they eventually found a wire going to a fuse box which looked alright but failed some kind of pull test. They remade this wire and didn't charge me. Since then it has run well....

Maybe a month later the steering rack started making a nice binding noise and eventually failed. This would have been nearly £2,000 from Volvo I think - but i found one from a breaker and my local garage swapped the original motor over to the good rack and ended up costing about £300.

After having the block replaced it would occasionally make a screeching noise for the first minute or 2 after starting (only when driving). The dealer felt it could be the turbo after possibly being starved of oil earlier in its life when it had the oil leak. The noise soon went away for a few weeks and then when i was driving last month the turbo failed. At present my local garage has taken the high pressure turbo off and found that the turbine wheel has completely disintegrated and mostly vanished. Part of it has bent/jammed the variable vane part and the rest is nowhere to be seen.

Questions - Where are these broken parts likely to have gone? Exhaust/engine/other turbo? They haven't had chance to take off the low pressure turbo to check that yet - could it have destroyed that as well?

A set of turbos from the dealer are about £2500. I have found a turbo cartridge for about £160 .... but can't find the variable vane part. Does anyone know if this is available anywhere? Volvo only want to provide the full turbo setup.

For reference the engine is a D4204T11
The high pressure turbo is a 31441451/36010079
Borgwarner part number 16389700015

Last question - when did Volvo go from being really reliable cars to voted the most unreliable car?

[Mad Malc]

Sadly as far as I can tell there is only 'one way out' after the induction system and that is via the exhaust!!! Sorry, you seem to have been very unfortunate with your Volvo experience.

VW appear to have had some trouble in this are with turbos wrecking engines as it appears they find it hard to process pieces of metal without some sort of 'damage'!!

[GrahamBrown1]

The broken bits will more than likely be in the intercooler. Have this removed and checked. You do not want any debris in the intake as this will be curtains for your new engine.

The low pressure turbo is next down the line from the smaller high pressure turbo. Chances are it will also be in need of replacement. But with this sort of failure you have to ensure you find all the bits.

You have been unlucky but I can’t help think some of the issues may have stemmed from the initial process of engine removal and replacement

[sk546]

Originally Posted by GrahamBrown1

The broken bits will more than likely be in the intercooler. Have this removed and checked. You do not want any debris in the intake as this will be curtains for your new engine.

The low pressure turbo is next down the line from the smaller high pressure turbo. Chances are it will also be in need of replacement. But with this sort of failure you have to ensure you find all the bits.

You have been unlucky but I can’t help think some of the issues may have stemmed from the initial process of engine removal and replacement

Hi Graham, the OP mentions that it was the Turbine wheel that had disintegrated (i.e. exhaust/hot side), not the compressor wheel. As such, the debris is very unlikely to make it anywhere near the intercooler as that is on the intake side, not the exhaust.

[autorev]

Sadly my experience with volvo is somewhat similar.
Failed head gasket cracked a cylinder with new shirts block replacement at £7300.
5 months later, turbo, inter cooler and whole engine trashed - this time they are looking for £18k to fix.
Claiming duff injectors caused the problem but not accepting liability…