- Joined
- Jul 15, 2012
- Messages
- 2,178
So a few weekends ago I was running a new cable to the back of the 80 for the new camp trailer. To make it easier I removed the air box for better access with routing the cables. When I had it out I noticed some rust on the bottom that I thought I would give a quick clean up and a new coat of paint. Using the wire brush attachment on the drill the rust was worse than it looked and it went through to a whole. Bugger I thought. I quickly jumped on ebay and was lucky enough to find a whole new air box for less than £50 delivered! When refitting the old air box I noticed one of the top clips missing which I assumed had fallen off whilst I was cleaning it up. No problems I thought, it seemed to be sealing ok with the two clips and the central wing nut and I had a new one on the way.
So come to last weekend when I went to look at that rusty 100 series in Plymouth. I'm on the M5 south bound and all of a sudden there was a rattly noise and quite a loud turbo whistle. Slowed right down and pulled off onto the services. There hadn't seem to be loss of power at the time as I wasn't taking the revs very high and no big bellows of smoke. I gave Andy a quick call relaying that information (don't think I mentioned at the time the rattly noise as it was only very quick) and we hoped that it was just an exhaust leak. As I was nursing it and there was no big clouds of smoke I continued on keeping the revs as low as possible and all seemed happy. Still able to do 60 on the a roads we made it back to London with no dramas, the loud whistle even quietened down when the turbo was coming on boost.
So come to today where I dropped it off at a local mechanic who has an 80 series. I'm sure you can guess what is coming now. That missing clip was sucked into the turbo shattering all the vanes on the intake side .. which explains that intermittent rattling noise we also heard. There is an intercooler fitted luckily so I'm guessing that has saved the engine from the turbo vanes being sucked into that ... small blessings
So now i'm trying to figure out the options. I've just sent @karl webster a PM to get price/availability on a used turbo.
I'm happy to fit the turbo myself but I am concerned about the exhaust side and how hard this is going to be to get off. I've done the timing belt before and didn't encounter any major problems. Any advice here or are my concerned ill founded?
Second option I have is to drive it as is to Julian @ Overland cruisers.
The garage quoted £1.4k which seemed quite excessive which included £750 for the turbo rebuild. I've been in touch with a few rebuild places that do same day rebuilds for well under £300 but I don't know what kind of components they are using to be that cheap. So third option is to remove and have one of the companies recondition it.
Any others?
So come to last weekend when I went to look at that rusty 100 series in Plymouth. I'm on the M5 south bound and all of a sudden there was a rattly noise and quite a loud turbo whistle. Slowed right down and pulled off onto the services. There hadn't seem to be loss of power at the time as I wasn't taking the revs very high and no big bellows of smoke. I gave Andy a quick call relaying that information (don't think I mentioned at the time the rattly noise as it was only very quick) and we hoped that it was just an exhaust leak. As I was nursing it and there was no big clouds of smoke I continued on keeping the revs as low as possible and all seemed happy. Still able to do 60 on the a roads we made it back to London with no dramas, the loud whistle even quietened down when the turbo was coming on boost.
So come to today where I dropped it off at a local mechanic who has an 80 series. I'm sure you can guess what is coming now. That missing clip was sucked into the turbo shattering all the vanes on the intake side .. which explains that intermittent rattling noise we also heard. There is an intercooler fitted luckily so I'm guessing that has saved the engine from the turbo vanes being sucked into that ... small blessings
So now i'm trying to figure out the options. I've just sent @karl webster a PM to get price/availability on a used turbo.
I'm happy to fit the turbo myself but I am concerned about the exhaust side and how hard this is going to be to get off. I've done the timing belt before and didn't encounter any major problems. Any advice here or are my concerned ill founded?
Second option I have is to drive it as is to Julian @ Overland cruisers.
The garage quoted £1.4k which seemed quite excessive which included £750 for the turbo rebuild. I've been in touch with a few rebuild places that do same day rebuilds for well under £300 but I don't know what kind of components they are using to be that cheap. So third option is to remove and have one of the companies recondition it.
Any others?
