VERY low power diagnosis EGR / exhaust / inlet manifold / Cat / other??

[MoToJoJo]

Dunno what that part number is, the part numbers I normally go with are on the turbo itself. Should be a flat surface on it somewhere with a load of numbers stamped on. Think it’s on the turbo inlet housing. Iirc, should also have the turbo type (GT1749VB should be the type) on there as well but there’s no guarantee

 

[CupraChris1981]

Dunno what that part number is, the part numbers I normally go with are on the turbo itself. Should be a flat surface on it somewhere with a load of numbers stamped on. Think it’s on the turbo inlet housing. Iirc, should also have the turbo type (GT1749VB should be the type) on there as well but there’s no guarantee

I have got the adaptor back off my old turbo now so can get started any tips when putting it back together, considering the number of noob errors I have made so far nothing is too obvious! Already forgot to put the gasket on the inlet manifold...

 

[Rich.T]

Try and get some oil into the turbo before start up. So theres oil on the bearings. Turbo bearings last seconds without oil.

 

[MoToJoJo]

Make a list of what to do in order and tick it off, helps remember stuff to do (learned through bitter experience ).

As @Rich.T said, be sure to prime the turbo with oil as no oil=quick turbo death.

Ok, so the following is NOT gospel, have at least a couple more people confirm if it's a sensible route before committing to it. I'm not taking responsibility if things go pear (or any other fruit) shaped.

Once the turbo is bolted on, bolt on the drain pipe at the bottom then syringe some oil in through the top oil feed.
Fit oil feed pipe
Disconnect the injector loom.
Pray to whatever deity you think may help.
Crank engine to get oil moving (more than 1 second less than 10 I think)
Reconnect injector loom
Pray once more
Fire it up
Curse or promise undying devotion to aforementioned deity depending on result.
Let it idle up to temp
Switch off and check for leaks (oil or boost... anything else and you've got problems not yet addressed)
If there's a problem then close bonnet, lock car, go have a sit down with beverage of your choice, think "That's tomorrow me's problem"
If all is good take it a drive. You're checking for noises or weird behaviour. Try to get it into boost (1500-1900rpm).
Make an appointment with someone with VCDS to log the turbo to make sure wastegate is good etc.
Aaand relax... till the next thing breaks... probably the door locks

 

[CupraChris1981]

Thanks for the advice, I'm not at that point yet, before I get to that I cannot remember where the heat shield goes! Also this red pipe connecting to the turbo does not seem to go in fully or securely, I still have the clips but no point in using them until it is fully in and secure..

 

[MoToJoJo]

Heat sheild goes on the drivers side of the manifold.

Do you have the horseshoe clip in place? If yes then lift it up, push pipe in (don't have to be gentle), push clip down to lock pipe into place.

 

[CupraChris1981]

Heat sheild goes on the drivers side of the manifold.

Do you have the horseshoe clip in place? If yes then lift it up, push pipe in (don't have to be gentle), push clip down to lock pipe into place.

I wish I could remember where on the manifold it went, I just remember it falling out somewhere over there, it has two holes so I'm guessing couple of bolts went through it but just can't figure out which ones...

 

[CupraChris1981]

This rubber pipe is split at the end, is it supposed to plug in to this cable (and is that cable damage significant), could I cut off the split section and just stick it in if it does go there?

 

[MoToJoJo]

The heat shield goes on the exhaust manifold, locates the cambelt side. Should be a stud or two sticking out, those are you locating points.

 

[iammooks]

This rubber pipe is split at the end, is it supposed to plug in to this cable (and is that cable damage significant), could I cut off the split section and just stick it in if it does go there?

The pipe is most likely your VNT actuator. It comes in a few pieces as it's one of the longest bits of vacuum hose, going from the actuator, up along your intake pipe and then into the rats nest of vacuum lines on the right of the engine bay.

You can shorten it, but you can buy silicone hose from somewhere like RamAir on eBay for not a lot of money. Off the top of my head I can't remember what size I've got on mine, but I've used a mix of 3mm and 4mm hose when I replaced all of my vacuum lines. I don't think you'd have any issues running 3mm everywhere, but I do know that 4mm is too big for the butterfly/anti-shudder valve on the EGR.

Keep the heat shielding on it when you replace it though - the turbo gets really hot and you don't want to melt through anything. It works like a Chinese finger trap...

 

[CupraChris1981]

Finally just turned the ignition for quarter of a second whole engine jumped, shat myself then had another look round had not attached air filter properly, would that have caused it? The car has been completely off the road going on 6 months though...

No oil was dripping out the return hose but maybe I had not turned it over long enough?

Only thing I know is coolant will be low as spilled tonnes but ordered some arriving tomorrow but that should not affect the turbo, really don't want to destroy it, I squirted oil in the top a few days ago hopefully it is still lubricated? Should I try and squirt some up the return hose?

 

[iammooks]

Finally just turned the ignition for quarter of a second whole engine jumped, shat myself then had another look round had not attached air filter properly, would that have caused it? The car has been completely off the road going on 6 months though...

No oil was dripping out the return hose but maybe I had not turned it over long enough?

Only thing I know is coolant will be low as spilled tonnes but ordered some arriving tomorrow but that should not affect the turbo, really don't want to destroy it, I squirted oil in the top a few days ago hopefully it is still lubricated? Should I try and squirt some up the return hose?

It's hard to say, but the important thing to keep in mind is that the turbo will only spool when the engine is under load. Don't take my word for it, as I've not done the work you have, but I don't know that it would cause any harm to the turbo until you actually drive the car. I've cleaned my turbo before using Mr Muscle, which would have cleaned out most of the oil and lubrication, and haven't had an issue when I eventually turned the car over.

My thoughts are that with the amount of work you've done here, there will be a couple of hiccups, bangs and spurts as the engine adjusts to all the things you've done, and it would be hard to pin it down to just one thing. Maybe just check the feeds, make sure the pipes are on properly, check the manifold bolts are tight, that sort of thing. I know when I've done some jobs, there have been moments of panic when something makes a noise I'm not expecting. Some of it could be to do with how long the engine has been sat and not been turned over. If you can, maybe turn the engine over by hand to see if you're getting any resistance or grittiness from the cylinders.

As I say though, you've done a lot of work here so it could be one of many things.

 

[MoToJoJo]

Ok, are your engine and transmission mounts in good condition? Are they properly attached? If so then nowt wrong with cranking by hand to see if it spins smoothly (although doubt it’s a problem if it wasn’t before)

 

[CupraChris1981]

Ok, are your engine and transmission mounts in good condition? Are they properly attached? If so then nowt wrong with cranking by hand to see if it spins smoothly (although doubt it’s a problem if it wasn’t before)

Can't get my hand in there now it's all done up, just turned it over for the first time, bit of smoke and shuddering on starting but seemed to idle pretty normally, gave a bit of gas to try and hear the turbo and it was a bit of a squeaking sound dont want to do more damage if there is a problem took couple video showing underneath and the sound but won't let me upload here, sounded like a frictiony squeak, when I undid the oil return the oil was coming out so there is definitely oil getting there... Any thoughts? Is this normal for a newly installed turbo?

 

[CupraChris1981]

Started again today when at 1.5krpm starts to squeal a bit and gets worse as it revs, i am pretty sure the sound is coming from the turbo, it improved a but after a few tries but the sound seems to be persisting (i have probably run it for about 3 mins total) any thoughts on what is causing the noise or how to fix it?

 

[CupraChris1981]

Found out where the noise was coming from, the actuator on the turbo i bought seems to have something loose on top where the noise is coming from under load, also noticed some oil leaking out where a couple of the bolts were not all the way in by the looks of it, main issue is the top of the actuator as cannot drive it like that, have messaged the seller of the refurbed turbo to see what they have to say before I take the whole thing apart again, absolute ball ache, unless someone knows of a way of fixing the actuator in situ?

 

[CupraChris1981]

I have a new theory, perhaps it is not the actuator but right above the actuator there were missing bolts, when I removed the manifolds again there were 2 bolts missing (shown in pic) the gasket there was damaged when I took it off and it definitely was not damaged when I installed it which makes me think that could have been the source of the squealing when revving as opposed to the turbo actuator which only feels a little wobbly but i think that might be normal?

I also touched the turbo to spin it and where I touched it it appears to have turned black, is this a problem?

Appreciate any help, this has been going on near a year now and i just want a working car!

 

[CupraChris1981]

Replaced damaged gasket and bolts and all seems to be working fine, just have the egr error seems to have persisted for a long time but is normal with the 150 pd engines from what I read.

 

[iammooks]

Have you had a go at cleaning your EGR valve? It's an easy job compared to what you've already done - just a bit messy. Well, a lot messy. I've never had any codes about my valve, even though mine was quite blocked, so for it to actually be throwing a code, it's either really blocked or it's something else. I've read that the code can also be caused by a vacuum leak, so it's worth keeping an eye out for that.

Looking at the 'no nuts' picture, it looks like that's the lower EGR cooler pipe? You definitely need a strong connection there as even a small leak can cause some big performance issues. I never gave gaskets and tight fittings too much thought, until I had one allen bolt slightly loose on my EGR valve and I had absolutely no boost pressure and exhaust fumes and smoke in the engine bay.

I wouldn't worry too much about the turbo impeller turning black - with all the exhaust gases that'll eventually be going through there, the turbo will long for the day it only had a little bit of finger grease on it...

 

[CupraChris1981]

Have you had a go at cleaning your EGR valve? It's an easy job compared to what you've already done - just a bit messy. Well, a lot messy. I've never had any codes about my valve, even though mine was quite blocked, so for it to actually be throwing a code, it's either really blocked or it's something else. I've read that the code can also be caused by a vacuum leak, so it's worth keeping an eye out for that.

Looking at the 'no nuts' picture, it looks like that's the lower EGR cooler pipe? You definitely need a strong connection there as even a small leak can cause some big performance issues. I never gave gaskets and tight fittings too much thought, until I had one allen bolt slightly loose on my EGR valve and I had absolutely no boost pressure and exhaust fumes and smoke in the engine bay.

I wouldn't worry too much about the turbo impeller turning black - with all the exhaust gases that'll eventually be going through there, the turbo will long for the day it only had a little bit of finger grease on it...

Cleaned egr a couple of times now so pretty sure it's not that, some kind of leak seems quite likely given the state of a lot of the pipework, i have the front off now as there seemed to be significant offside damage which I why I could not attach the offside lamp properly, also can see a kinked pipe underneath I presume as a result of offside contact from the front, and what looks like some radiator damage? Wondering cheapest way to get road legal, although mot said only power steering hose leak(which I cannot find) and insecure headlamp, as the problems at the front (also have to fix binding on the rear wheels but waiting for another wind back tool to tackle that)