Another Ng 9-5 joins the forum

[carrera]

Agreed, I have one of those already. Will hold voltage & start a car in normal conditions, but leave the doors open for a while, or hazard flashers on for 10 minutes and the cold cranking amps is pretty close to zero

[carrera]

Well, I tested the battery this morning, early on, but cool. It showed 12.17V, so had dropped 0.13V over 3 days, I even calibrated against another meter. I suppose the alarm must take something. The car started just fine.

The original battery showed 12.7V, so holding a charge, I have used my little Lidl charger to recondition it overnight.

Batteries OK, some high current drain when parked, but not locked?

[carrera]

I'm following the WIS diagnostic to identify what the problem is with the wastegate control, having replaced the boost controller.

There's a good 12V supply 

The GDS software allows you to control the PWM signal from 10-90%, and on one occasion I have managed to get the test light to go from dim to bright, as expected.

Connecting via the software I am having many disconnects, which isn't helpful as I'm unsure whether it's a software on the laptop(s) issue, or a car issue

Next step is to trace the earth side of the circuit, the earth being done through the engine ECU.  I wasn't expecting / hoping to get into this type of problem, but anyway, just for reference, here's the "K20" ECU, in case I need to replace it, along with the appropriate codes

I note that it seems the ECU has already been replaced - manufacturing date 10th May 2017 ?

[carrera]

Well, the wiring checked out & I applied some contact cleaner to the ECU "just in case"

Reassembled and the boost appears to be fully working again, with the replacement wastegate controller 

Looks like she'll be back in service for another 500 miles this week

[carrera]

So, 500 trouble free and full boost miles this week. It seems that MPG may be a little better than before too.

I had a present waiting for me when I got home. Oldish tech, because I understand how they work, not so sure about the newer digital type ones.

Then I tested it on the battery that was on this car. It was still holding voltage, but under load (allow a 10 second short through the heating element), the voltage dropped to 8 volts, which is officially declared as bad

I have another battery coming, but not quite of the same rating as the Bosch. 70Ah and 680CCA, which is what is on all the other 9-5's and agrees with the spec in WIS

For now, I'll leave the current battery in situ and the new spare will sit on the shelf. You never know when you will need one

The Bosch will probably be fine for starting a car in good health, so it may sit around for a while until my next weigh in.

[carrera]

One step forward, one step back.

Having done the sump drop on the TTid, I set off for home.

There was a screeching from the car upon startup, which I rapidly discovered was turbo speed related.

Oil level is fine, strange that it appears to have failed so rapidly. Started the car this morning and its just the same, screwdriver as a stethoscope. I doubt the oil feed pipes are blocked

She was running so sweetly. Is she jealous of the TTid, or simply in a massive sulk because I visited a Vauxhall dealer yesterday 

[carrera]

Little update:

The oil was on 3/4

Topped it up and on restarting the screeching at fast idle was gone, though it did return as a little boost was applied.

Perplexing as this indicates oil starvation to the turbo, but not the engine as there have been no oil pressure warnings. The sump is a different design to the TTiD as well, so not the same problem

[carrera]

I have made a start on this noisy turbo problem

Whipped the intake off and the first thing I noticed is that part of the sealing rubber was missing. Oh, I can guess where that went. 

Poking a finger in the intake housing to get a feel of the bearing shaft wasn't encouraging, so no option but to remove the turbo.

This glow on this engine is completely reversed from the TTiD and the petrol OG, so the exhaust side is at the back. It's a looong way back. The good news is that I think this has been off recently for some reason, as every turbo to exhaust nut / stud came out without any issue. I hope the turbo to exhaust manifold nuts undo with similar ease. That will just leave the oil & water connections, I think.

Access isn't that bad from the top, but the underside is terrible, unless you remove the cat, which will involve disturbing exhaust nuts, and looking at them I suspect the studs will snap

 

[carrera]

The turbo is off. I certainly did not do it by the book, because I did not want to disturb the exhaust pipe. I might remove / replace that because the flexi joiner looks to be too small, but I will leave that for whe the car is running again.

Key to removel was getting the top bolts from the manifold off from the top while the bottom pair are only accessible with spanners from the bottom. I found that the oil return was the last thing that had to be removed. WIS says undo the bolts. It's far easier to pull the pipe out from the sump

What's the diagnosis ?

Well, the turbine on the inlet side looks, shall we say, a little bit damaged. On the exhaust side the turbine housing is cracked. Best try & get a new one from somewhere then. Interestingly there's a turbo for sale on ebay with two cracks in the housing.

Having failed the finger test, just for fun I chucked the dial gauge on the compressor shaft. 0.7mm end play (along the axis) and 0.55mm axial play (total side to side), if I have my terms correct.

I'm fancying this https://www.turborebuild.co.uk/uprated-hybrid-turbo-uprated-chra-k04-vauxhall-opel-astra-gtc-vxr-insignia-saab rather than a straight swap. Options for the future.... but Karl doesn't do these

[sgould]

That looks bad.  I'm glad you caught it in time.  The turbo on my 9-5 let go on the autobahn and the damage looks similar.  However the nut on the inlet end of the shaft came off, but fortunately wasn't ingested!  I found out later that if the turbo hits the wall and stop dead from over 100,000 rpm, the nut spins off under its own inertia...

[carrera]

That looks bad as well...., you were even more fortunate that I, that the nut did not enter the combustion chambers.

Those bits of missing metal from my turbo must have gone somewhere, hopefully they passed through without causing damage in the cylinders or getting embedded in a valve seat. I won't know until it is all back together, but I am immensely relieved that I drove like a fuel economy granny and did not allow any boost / turbine speed to build.

No signs of any rubber from the inlet pipe seal anywhere, that has clearly been well shredded. I am wondering if that is the actual cause of the turbine damage or not

Fingers crossed, I'm going to dismantle the CHRA to inspect the components anyway

[carrera]

Oooh, look. New Toys