Turbo Failure

TURBO FAILURE

Turbo failure is quite often due to four main reasons:

1)     Not allowing an engine to warm up fully

2)     Switching off before a turbo has begun to slow down in speed

3)     Lack of oil changes or incorrect oil used.

4)     Low oil level

The most overlooked factor with a Turbo is that when the engine has stopped, so has the oil pressure.

A Turbo spins at around 40,000 Revolutions Per Minute and when the engine has stopped the Turbo continues spinning for a few minutes afterwards. This means that the Turbo is spinning with no oil pressure and is only lubricated by the oil within the housing and inlet hose for this period of time. When the engine is restarted it takes a few seconds for the oil pressure to build up and reach the bearings, this means that a turbo is quite often running with very little lubrication.

Dirty oil can also speed up bearing wear due to contaminates within the oil. These same contaminates can also make the oil run hotter making the lubricants less efficient.

FORTE who are a company who produce treatments and additives of all sorts for the motor industry, have analysed the reasons why a turbo has failed. They found that 20% is due to a lack of lubricant, 30% is due to there being a delay of lubrication to the turbo bearings, 13% through lubricant contamination and a further 12% is from the fact that the lubricant is overheating.

A lack of oil in the engine is also a very common reason and can be a contributing factor towards the lack or delay of lubricant to the bearings and the contaminated or overheating of lubricants being used.

This means that a massive 75% of Turbo failures will be down to driver error in some way.

Why Check Your Oil Level?

How important is it to check your vehicles oil level regularly?

It has always amazed me when a customer rings up to book their car in because the engine management light has come on and when quizzed their cars oil level has not been checked.

The realities of the situation are, when the oil light illuminates, it is too late and you would have certainly caused some damage to your engine.

Even if you car is relatively new it could still use oil, an engine will eventually begin to wear out and use a little oil and if it is never checked when would you ever find out?

So make a point of checking your oil regularly. If your car is new to you, check firstly on a daily basis and after a few days you can then spread these checks out to weekly and if the levels still appear to be always correct you can then spread your checks to monthly.

It is so important to have the correct amount and grade of oil lubricating your engine. The oil in your engine does many things. It not only acts as a lubricant and helps to reduce friction and wear but it also can reduce noise, it helps keep the engine cool, can help to produce more power and clean combustion deposits. All this helps maintain the efficient running of the vehicle.

If the engine management light comes on, this could be due to the lack of oil circulating the engine. The engine could be on the verge of seizing up and will undoubtedly be running hotter. If the engine is running hotter than it could lead to a sensor failure. Many sensors have internal soldered joints that can become weak when exposed to hotter than normal temperatures. Weak joints are in danger of braking which could lead onto other running faults.

In summary check your vehicle’s engine oil regularly.