Hello again, hope I'm not going over common ground. I have a problem with the turbo on my bx tzd 1700, ever scince I foolishly attempted to cross a flooded road and took in water it has progresively got worse. obviously i rescued the engine by taking out the glow plugs and turning the engine over and forcing the water out, and dumped all the contaminated oil asap after the embarrasing river incident Anyway four months down the line and my turbo is whistling away and when you get past 3000 rpm it 'pops' and gets significantly louder. To be fair the car in its long life has had more abuse than a guantanamo bay inmate, and i dont think the turbo has been changed. time for a new one, or overhaul.
Really what I'm after is any tips on getting at and removing the bloody thing.
thanks
Hhmm, I doubt the turbo itself has died TBH, it's a stupidly rare occurance that.
They are not that hard to remove though.
You can either remove the turbo off the manifold, or remove the turbo with the manifold, which tends to be rather easier since the studs that hold the turbo to the manifold are usually rusted solid.
Disconnect the down pipe (two 10mm nuts and bolts)
Undo the clamp at the arse end of the front pipe and remove the front pipe completely (gives better access to the blower)
Uno turbo feed pipe and remove (bit fiddly but doable)
Undo the oil return hose from the engine, but you can leave the other end attached to the turbo.
Undo the jubilee clips on the two rubber hoses attached to the turbo (again, can be bloody fiddly for access)
Undo the 6 13mm nuts that hold the manifold to the head.
Drop the whole thing down and kinda rotate it to one side to get it round the drive shaft (that you can remove if your feeling adventurous, but not totally necessary).
Job done the things on the floor.
Replacing is a reversal of removal.
Obviousley you'll need to be under the car, so usual safety precautions apply.
Smokes lots, because enough's enough already!
Far too many BX's, a bus, an ambulance a few trucks, not enough time and never enough cash...
What tune does it play!!! Seriously though,mine has been whistling for the last 4+ years and 40k miles,with no adverse effect on the car.I have put it down to an air leak somewhere in the system,and as it doesn't affect the performance,have left it. If the turbo bearings were going,then the car would probably start smoking as the bearing seal will go and oil would be sucked into the inlet or the exhaust system,and it would also make a noise,as the clearances are quite tight in the housing.Geoff
1995 ZX Memphis TD Saloon 176k
1997 XANTIA VSX ESTATE-112K(the Wife's!!)
1993 BX TZD Turbo Estate 202k waiting repairs for mot.(Just started to fix it!!)
1985 2CV 100k - waiting full restoration.
citronut wrote:someone told me if a TURBO is whistling the bearings are on there way out
What about a turbo in lowercase? Same effect?
Whoever said that really didn't have much of a clue. The vast majority of turbochargers use fluid bearings (in this case engine oil) so don't really "fail" so to speak. Much more likely that the turbo will start passing loads of oil if one of the fluid bearing surfaces is damaged.
Turbo whistle can be caused by a number of things, including leaks, so it's worth doing a visual check before jumping to conclusions. Does it still boost properly? if so, it's likely that it's undamaged.
Well there is a bit of synchronicity happening here - and I am not talking Police I am talking turbo.
I have just started the task of replacing a definately failed smoking turbo today. It is pretty much disconnected but I cannot see any way of getting it out either downwards or upwards. There is just not enough room unless it is removed from the manifold and possibly has the exhaust pipe flange removed too. If I were able to do this, and I have tried and failed, then it could be extricated as Doc describes above but not otherwise I fear.
Whenever I have tried in the past to get a turbo off the manifold it has proved extrememely difficult to remove the top 16mm bolt, only accessible with a bent ring spanner. It it always rusted in and there is very little room to get a decent spanner or even chisel on it.
So I am left with the prospect of engine out or head off, unless someone can tell me otherwise................................................
Why do I bother with all these old cars ???
The Joy of BX with just one Citroën BX to my name now. Will I sing Bye Bye to my GTI or will it be Till death us do part.
Jaba wrote:So I am left with the prospect of engine out or head off, unless someone can tell me otherwise................................................
Either top engine mount off and heave the engine forwards (with the radiator removed to avoid damage) or long driveshaft out and drop it down.
Tourist wrote:The wastegate can cause the turbo to whistle, if it gets stuck. If this were the case you'd also be down on power ...
Red herring. Sorry. A stuck wastegate will cause no more whistle than a working wastegate. All it means is that you will have permanent bypass of the expander wheel (and hence probably less whistle)
If there's a constant whistle, then I was told it could be the wastegate stuck open. This is the suspected problem with my car; no power, loud whistle ... this information comes from club members.
Wow, ive sparked a turbo discussion. sorry for the long reply everyone. did a couple of initial checks in my lunch break at work today on the intake and inlet pipes on the intercooler and they're working fine. so it is most likely a problem with the waste gate i think because i have had a considerable loss of power. I wouldn't be suprised if the bearings were damaged too, the old girl's done 181986 miles, and i doubt the turbo's ever been replaced, let alone serviced, and the cars taken a thrashing over the years.
Anyway. I have to prospone that problem because the starting problem has come back. Its happened every fortnight for the last four months, I was getting by on a streak of it being tepramental then completely dead and suddenly firing up fine after i fixed something that looked suspect in the circuit: I found a broken wire and repaired it & cleaned the earth points - car worked for a week - no problems. suspected the relay box so replaced that with a spare - car worked for three weeks - then dead. inspected starter motor, replaced the starter motor - worked fine for two days. Then we went at every connection - checking it for a current then cleaning it up - oh she liked a bit of a pampering and a tickle - 3 weeks. then she coughed again, on my way to the lake, came out of takle shop and it wouldnt start, 10 attempts each time tinkering with a differnt wire. the last thing i moved was the far black relaybox on the far kerbside. surely that was it, next stop - shop, taking the risk i know. yep wouldn't start until i tinkered with the relaybox plug. it worked again two nights later, enough to see me back from the lake. so i taped the plug in temporarily while my dad was in wales at his brothers for a week, salvaging parts off another bx. car worked fine that week after taping the plug. he braught back a couple of relays and today the car wouldnt start again so we tried the relay boxes he'd got and still nothing ? the plug's a really tight fit, and the connecters are not exscessively corroded and i am pretty sure we did a function check with a multimeter across all the wires.
Anyway sorry to drag on a bit but that is the extent of it. it has been so tempermental, could it be a complete faliaure of all the electrics one by one ? i don't know how much more of it I can take, altho finishing my beer at the moment i feel I can tackle it again. dont want to let her die, not yet, certainly can't afford to. haha
Your starting prob. When you turn the key nothing happens, right ?
If so do you hear the click of the starter solenoid energising ?
If not it could well be the starter motor contacts within the ignition switch. A quick fix is to fit a push button switch for starting to save having to change the ignition switch and all the locks around the car if you want to retain one key operation.
The Joy of BX with just one Citroën BX to my name now. Will I sing Bye Bye to my GTI or will it be Till death us do part.
Jaba wrote:
I have just started the task of replacing a definately failed smoking turbo today. It is pretty much disconnected but I cannot see any way of getting it out either downwards or upwards. There is just not enough room unless it is removed from the manifold and possibly has the exhaust pipe flange removed too. If I were able to do this, and I have tried and failed, then it could be extricated as Doc describes above but not otherwise I fear.
Odd! I've replaced the Garrett on mine three times now, and each time the methods been the same, drop it out the bottom, complete with manifold.
First time I did it I extracted the manifold studs and had the bottom torque link disconnected, and it took all bloody day to do.
By the third one I had it down to under an hour, didn't remove the studs.
Although the torque link / O/S driveshaft were off the car at the time for unrelated reasons.
Smokes lots, because enough's enough already!
Far too many BX's, a bus, an ambulance a few trucks, not enough time and never enough cash...
Anyway four months down the line and my turbo is whistling away and when you get past 3000 rpm it 'pops' and gets significantly louder. To be fair the car in its long life has had more abuse than a guantanamo bay inmate, and i dont think the turbo has been changed. time for a new one, or overhaul. 
