Turbo I.D. Help

[CaptainM]

What’s up, everyone? I’m new to the forum and have, what I hope to be, an easy question to answer.

I just bought a 2001 Jetta TDI and immediately had power issues. Long story short, the turbo nozzles we’re completely seized. I pulled the turbo to attempt a cleaning from a guide I found on here, but ended up cracking the turbo cartridge trying to remove it from the exhaust housing. No matter how much finessing I was doing, it wouldn’t budge and I guess I weakened the casing enough for it to eventually crack trying to separate it with a punch and hammer. I just got a turbo from the local junkyard - seems like a good unit from a car that had 135k miles. My only concern is the numbering on the ID tag is different. On my factory turbo, the numbers are engraved into the compressor housing and clearly state a vnt-15 turbo. The junkyard unit has an actual Garrett - Honeywell I’d tag that appears to be adhered to the compressor housing in the usual spot. The m/n number on the tag is GT17V, which gives me some concern that it’s a GT17 turbo and not a vnt15. After doing some research on the part numbers, I keep seeing GT1749V, which seems to be another number for a vnt15. This is my first VW, and diesel at that, so I’m a noob when it comes to this stuff lol, but I’m learning. If someone could clarify or give me some piece of mind that this turbo is, in fact, a vnt15 with a newer part number, I would appreciate it before I install it lol. My gut says it is - it’s identical to the factory turbo that came off the car, but I’d hate to put it all back together just to have an issue.

Thanks in advance!

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• CaptainM
• Oct 14, 2024

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• CaptainM
• Oct 14, 2024

 

[STDOUBT]

Welcome to the club!
I asked perplexity.ai and got this back:

The part number 713673-5006S corresponds to a turbocharger, specifically a GT1749V model turbocharger
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. This turbocharger is designed for use in various Volkswagen (VW), Audi, Seat, Skoda, and Ford vehicles equipped with 1.9 TDI engines
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.Vehicle Applications

This turbocharger is compatible with several vehicle models, including:

• Volkswagen Bora (2000-2005)
• Volkswagen Golf IV (1999-2003)
• Ford Galaxy with 1.9 TDI engine
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Specifications

• Model: GT1749V
• OEM Part Numbers: May include 038253019D and 03G253014E
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• Engine Compatibility: 1.9 TDI engines, typically producing around 115 horsepower
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• The GT1749V is generally considered to be equivalent to a VNT15 turbo, not a VNT17. Here are the key points:
  1. The GT1749V is commonly referred to as a VNT15 turbo in the Volkswagen TDI community
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  2. The VNT15 (GT1749V) is smaller than the VNT17 (GT1752v):
     • The VNT15 is geared more towards bottom-end performance
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     • The VNT17 provides both bottom-end and top-end performance, offering more power overall
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So, it's a VNT15 like the stock units, if you believe the robot. Which I tend to do in this case.

 

[vwxyzero]

I asked perplexity.ai and got this back:

That's a pretty amazing tool, I just looked up the number on the power supply for my laptop and it told me exactly what it is with photos. It's not the first time I've tried AI, but perplexity AI surprised me as a search tool. Thanks!

 

[CaptainM]

Welcome to the club!
I asked perplexity.ai and got this back:

So, it's a VNT15 like the stock units, if you believe the robot. Which I tend to do in this case.

Thanks for the reply! At this point I'm pretty confident it’s a stock unit. With what you were kind enough to research for me, and the research I’ve done, Im confident in throwing it on the car. I was able to find a Garret GT series turbo catalog, which has the part number for this turbo listed as a GT1749V, which I’ve cross referenced with this forum and other resources that verified it is, in fact, the replacement for the older VNT15 turbo - same turbos but different part numbers. I was also able to ID the turbo as an independent after market/third party supplier, which leads me to believe this Turbo is a Garrett OEM replacement supplied by a third party supplier that replaced the factory turbo. If that’s actually the case, then this unit should have less miles than the 135k car it came out of. So I’m hoping I scored on this one lol.

 

[burpod]

measure the inside part of the exhaust side - it very well could be a vnt17 made from a vnt15 manifold/compressor housing. xman and powertdi (and likely others) all sell vnt17's that have been created to fit as a plug-n-play replacement for a vnt15

 

[CaptainM]

measure the inside part of the exhaust side - it very well could be a vnt17 made from a vnt15 manifold/compressor housing. xman and powertdi (and likely others) all sell vnt17's that have been created to fit as a plug-n-play replacement for a vnt15

I can do that. You just measure the ID of the exhaust housing?

 

[burpod]

measure the innermost ID of the exhaust housing - where the wheel is - it's stepped out (larger) at the flange surface. i can't remember the exact numbers, but a true vnt15 will have a smaller diameter. you could also take off the compressor housing (handful of 8mm bolts) and measure the compressor wheel

 

[BobnOH]

I'd say if it fits, all the openings and holes are the same size, it will turbocharge.

 

[fatmobile]

Yeah, you really got to put some heat to the exhaust manifold, near the cartridge to get them apart.
Gotta turn it a little red.
I use a torch but don't squeeze the cutter.

I got away with it once without a torch.
Broke the next two. On one I cracked the cast iron cartridge and I think I broke the aluminum housing on the next.
If I had broken the first one I probably wouldn't have tried it without the torch and broke two more.
That first one gave me hope.

Now I do it before I even fight with those little bolts.

 

[CaptainM]

measure the innermost ID of the exhaust housing - where the wheel is - it's stepped out (larger) at the flange surface. i can't remember the exact numbers, but a true vnt15 will have a smaller diameter. you could also take off the compressor housing (handful of 8mm bolts) and measure the compressor wheel

I’ll see what I can come up with. The good thing is I have one to compare it against

 

[CaptainM]

I'd say if it fits, all the openings and holes are the same size, it will turbocharge.

For sure! I’ve just read a lot about the vnt17 causing more lag on the bottom end, due to being a larger turbo and taking longer to spoil. Honestly, either way it isn’t a big deal as long as everything does line up (which it should because it looks identical to the factory turbo) because it’s just going to be a daily commuter car for work. I do a lot of driving and wanted the mileage and reliability of the tdi - plus I got a reasonable deal on it. I just need the thing to wake up lol. With the stuck vanes in the turbo the car wouldn’t get out of its own way. I’m hoping, once I install the junkyard unit, it’ll be a completely different car.

 

[CaptainM]

Yeah, you really got to put some heat to the exhaust manifold, near the cartridge to get them apart.
Gotta turn it a little red.
I use a torch but don't squeeze the cutter.

I got away with it once without a torch.
Broke the next two. On one I cracked the cast iron cartridge and I think I broke the aluminum housing on the next.
If I had broken the first one I probably wouldn't have tried it without the torch and broke two more.
That first one gave me hope.

Now I do it before I even fight with those little bolts.

Honestly, I should’ve known better, too. I shouldn’t have kept working it and got the torch out. My hope came from reading multiple people being able to bang theirs out with good success. Given how stuck the vanes were, and the mileage on the car, I should’ve gone straight for the torch. I usually do with anything exhaust related, being in the rust belt and just about anything on wheels ends up being a rolling pile of rust sooner rather than later. Should I find myself in this situation again, the torch is going to be the first tool that comes out

 

[burpod]

a vnt17 is so small it should not have lag on the low end, it's just barely bigger than a 15. if it has lag, then something else is wrong

 

[CaptainM]

a vnt17 is so small it should not have lag on the low end, it's just barely bigger than a 15. if it has lag, then something else is wrong

My information on that came from other forums where people were weighing the pros and cons of a vnt15 vs vnt17. Some said you gain higher end with the 17 but lose some grunt on the low end, while the 15 was the opposite. I figured, even if you did lose some low end, it would have to be quite negligible. Either way, it’s not a huge issue. Like I said, I bought this car to daily drive, be reliable, and get great fuel mileage. I only have trucks that get 16mpg on a good day, so I whole heartedly welcome 45mpg lol. It’s just when I picked up the junkyard unit it had gt17v as the part number, making me question if this was somehow a vnt17. But after a lot of research I’m pretty confident it is, in fact, a vnt15. Everything matches and lines up. It appears the vnt15 number was superseded by a gt17v/gt1749v part number, but they’re the same unit.

 

[burpod]

that plate over the top of the original numbering/sepcs looks to me like it was added by someone who rebuilt it to be a vnt17, is my guess. measuring the wheels and the exhaust ID would tell you what it actually is