Cleaned turbo. Sticky vanes 3 weeks later.

I'm stumped.

Pulled, cleaned, rebuild turbo... and 3 weeks later it's getting stick vanes again. There's no oil leakage, the carbon buildup is dry as the sahara. Turbo has been cleaned 3 times in last 2yrs.

Was told to check for camshaft wear causing excess fuel injection. Checked cam, looks great. All lobes pointy with good lift.

Ideas why it's gumming up so fast? Can anyone confirm if this carbon looks like excessive fueling at least? If so, IP would be the next place to look I'm thinking...

Appreciate your insights

https://ibb.co/K2pBN34

I've tried cleaning a few turbos before. Always seems like it's hit and miss on if it remains clean. Wouldn't necessarily say it's an overfuelling issue, but more of just a tired turbo. May be time to get a new one.

I’ve cleaned close to a dozen of these and never had one plug up again like the pic you’ve got.
Something is leaking into the exhaust or you have a severe air restriction somewhere.

1. How many miles on car?

2. Has the intake ever been cleaned?

3. Still running a snow screen? Been checked lately?

4. Ever done any Italian tun ups?

5. Have you ever removed the lower boost pipe to see how much oil you pour out?
Tablespoon ok more than that possible leaking turbo.

6. Pull the boost pie off intake of turbo and how muck wiggle do you have ( radial play, also in and out axial play).

7. Ever run a can of diesel purge pure through the injection pump? Well worth it.8. How old is the air filter?

Thanks for this!

1. 220,000km
2. Intake cleaned 3x in last 2yr. Cleaned it with EGR and turbo on each turbo removal.
3. Never knew what a snow screen was. Just looked it up. Will have to check. Air filter would be 1yr old. Haven't checked in a while.
4. If Italian tuneup means driving the piss out of it, yes.
5. Lower boost came off with Turbo. Not a hint of oil from turbo in or out (compressor side). However lots of oil making its way into intake/EGR/upper pressurized intake hose. Always baffled me how...
6. Very minimal shaft play.
7. Ran diesel conditioner 2-3 weeks prior to turbo cleaning.

Thanks for your great questions. Thoroughly stumped.

Nero I'm seeing what you mean. I can't justify buying a new turbo without verifying 100% that the turbo is the cause.

Vane assembly is probably worn. I got tired of pulling my turbo every few months (and i drive the hell out of it) to clean it, due to the same issue. The turbo can live if you drive responsibly even when overboosting. Not that it's recommended. Just going to buy a new one, or get a good junkyard one.

See that's the thing. I swapped turbos on the last cleaning. I used my original turbo cartridge, and a different manifold/vane assembly. That's why I'm really reluctant to think it's turbo related.

I didn't swap cartridges, since the replacement cartridge was leaking some oil. My original was bone dry on compressor side.

For context. Original turbo lasted about 2mths after cleaning last fall, before sticky vane induced limp mode began.

Have you checked the turbo actuator that operates the VNT for leaks does it hold pressure? Another could be the n75 valve or vacuum pipes going to actuator. If the actuator has restricted movement from any of the above problems it could cause carbon to pit around the varible vane mechanism.

Turbos and IPs are not easily re-buildable. You can often make repairs, but they're not like starters or alternators. Something else is going on, intake should not need cleaned that much.

You have two problems: the control ring is in upside down, and the actuator flag is in the wrong hole too. I will explain later, GTG.


OP, with the turbo control ring in the wrong position the exhaust will never achieve the proper temperature, or build the requested amount of boost.

AceTdi, did you ever get your car running right again?

the head lifters are usually the issue as they leak oil into the valve causing the cake up.

Mongler98 said:

the head lifters are usually the issue as they leak oil into the valve causing the cake up.

Click to expand...

But then there would be an oil consumption issue.

no, not too much, its a very small area and can leak only during cold not warm. many stuck vtn's after cleaning are from worn lifters.

If it were there would definitely be an oil consumption issue. I'm currently helping someone out that has the same issue. Smokes on startup due to lifters bleeding down and past valves, but runs fine after it clears out. Burns through a quart every 500 miles. I think this particular case is different.

well oil vapor mixing with exhaust is usually the only reason they gunk up this fast.

I am the only person who looked the picture and noticed something wrong?


AceTdi has not posted in six-plus weeks to this thread.

haha hey Nevada. Sorry been so busy.

I got the symptom manageable but not fixed. Coincidental fluke.

Long story short: the lower EGR pipe was leaking when I put it back together. So I blocked off the pipe (half ass delete). This really helped the turbo.

Also giving it a good 2 minute Italian tuneup upon startup and running through vane range of motion (pedal down, pedal up). Usually I run it in 2nd gear in city, blow the crap out, then settle down in to drive (auto trans). The limp subsides and turbo responds well most of the time until engine shutdown.

Definitely think it's vaporized oil like you guys were mentioning because it blows blue on first blast and is good from there. Only thing I can't figure out is why the turbo is dry carbon, not oily.

PS that attached pic isn't of my turbo. I forgot to take pic when it was out, but that's how dirty mine was for reference.

AceTdi, thank you for responding. I am glad to know the picture of the turbo wasn't yours. Heat is the answer. If you had wet oil in the turbo, you would be have a serious oil leak in the top end of the motor.

oil vapor will mostly all burn off, but its enough to gum up the soot. Get it hot enough, it should mostly cook out of it like you said with your ITALIAN WARM UP LOLOLOL