Blown turbo!!

Well it happened coming home from work during the week. Took off in traffic, a loud pop and black smoke. I put the clutch in and the motor was revving hard. I switched it off quickly and rang NRMA. They towed us to my local diesel mechanic. Inspection revealed that the turbine wheel broke off and went through to motor They have the head off and luckily there's no bore damage. Still have to pull the valves and check for bent ones. Oil had pumped into motor but all pistons come up to deck height.

This nav is 2002 model with only 119k and serviced every 5k. Just bad luck I guess. Ball park quote $3-4k

If anyone's thinking about fitting an intercooler to a ZD30, it may be a good idea as it would have acted as a filter and stopped the turbo pieces getting into the head. The mechanic also said there's been a few Navaras with blown turbos lately. He thinks it could be a heat and age related thing.

New turbos from Nissan - $1,500

Damn, bad news mate, have you had it since new?

Sorry to hear about that. I guess you're right about the intercooler in that respect. The intercooler will give you some horsepower benefits as well, but you should take some care not to inhibit the flow of air into the radiator, or replace the radiator with a more efficient one, as some guys are having overheating issues - with front-mounted intercoolers in D40s in this thread and by D21 owners in this thread. Heat is an issue that the intercooler will have an impact on, so whether these discussions are about turbo or non-turbo versions, they may have some relevance.

It would be interesting to find out what might have caused your turbo to blow, too. Bad oil flow to the turbo? Do you let the vehicle idle, or drive calmly, for the last 2-3 minutes of engine run to let the turbo spin down? Was it some mechanical fault that can be checked by inspection or during a service? Was it something ingested by the engine - how's your air filter and filter box?

how did the turbine wheel break off?
any pics?

i wonder if it seized or bearings failed (tho they should be sleeve bearings).

did you always let the turbo cool down after it was driven?

My guess its just plain bad luck. Has anyone else on the forum had this problem? Look at it this way, at least it was the turbo and not the engine.
Did you have a oil catch can fitted?

We purchased the Nav in 2003 2nd hand with only 2k on the speedo. But apparently the motor was crook then? (using 1 litre of oil per 1,000km!). Under warranty Nissan replaced the motor and turbo at 10k.

Yes, I always drove calmly and let it idle before switch off. No I didn't have an oil catch can fitted. The EGR mod had been done. No photos - car is still at mechanics and I was too stressed at the time! LOL

This car was purchased for my wife but she felt it wasn't safe to leave it at the train station each day. I took it over and we later purchased a 2002 Pathfinder that my wife picked - it has proven to be a great car. We've used both cars offroading and been happy with them. The Pathy does like a drink but that's it's only bad point to date. The repair bill on the Nav would pay for a lot of fuel!

With two kids under two we haven't had a lot of spare time lately to go 4WDing. Since the Navara's been out of warranty I've done most of the servicing and it's been done every 5k with Nissan parts and oil. Aside from the motor dramas, I like this car. It's look was the reason we bought it and if you are doing a lot of touring, turbo diesels are the way to go. However, I wonder how these modern motors will age? We may have had some bad luck...we also have a 60 series Land Cruiser that we've owned for the last 16 years which I've serviced and it's still going strong. On a better note, looking at the bores on the Nav's motor (heads off) the hone marks are still there after 119k and there were some patrol blocks at the mechanics with over 250k and hardly any wear - pistons and turbo another story...

I told my mechanic about the EGR and he does not like the idea of blocking it off, he is highly against it and does not want to put his name to servicing my motor if i go ahead and do it.
He says you can better things from factory but not remove them, everything is there for a reason and you may not have a prob now but eventually you might. dont know myself how true this is but he does have a good reputation and personally i am still keen to do it anyway.

Mate so sorry to hear this bad news. Thats the last thing you want at this time of year.

Lets hope there is no other damage and scares left once it is up and running again, all the best.

Re EGR - the diesel people I've spoken to have not been against it. I did not do the butterfly mod however.

The EGR is there to lower the emissions - the cost of that means that the oil dirties a lot quicker and there is more carbon build up in the motor.

That's bloody bad luck Sman.

I hope all goes well both the repair and the repair bill!

BH

SOLID D22 said:

I told my mechanic about the EGR and he does not like the idea of blocking it off, he is highly against it and does not want to put his name to servicing my motor if i go ahead and do it.
.....

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hes just saving his arse because it technically illegal to block in aussie.

sman said:

Yes, I always drove calmly and let it idle before switch off. No I didn't have an oil catch can fitted. The EGR mod had been done.

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not doing the butterfly mod doesn't help but won't be cause of turbo failure.

when you say you let it idle, for how long was it left idling?

what oil where you useing?

make sure you get the mechanics to check the injectors lines under the rocker cover. if they leak it contaminates the oil and turbo is usually the first thing to let go.

sman said:

Re EGR - the diesel people I've spoken to have not been against it. I did not do the butterfly mod however.

The EGR is there to lower the emissions - the cost of that means that the oil dirties a lot quicker and there is more carbon build up in the motor.

Click to expand...

It should be noted that pollution gear is installed for a reason/ADR laws and thus is against the law to remove such items
and also making your vehicle unroadworthy
and can incur some hefty fines,
and if they start catching on about these mods, the rest of the 4by population will cop stick from the authorities and greens.

Do it at your own risk and dont spoil things for the rest of us.

Happy 4bying.

Krankin said:

It should be noted that pollution gear is installed for a reason/ADR laws and thus is against the law to remove such items
and also making your vehicle unroadworthy
and can incur some hefty fines,
and if they start catching on about these mods, the rest of the 4by population will cop stick from the authorities and greens.

Do it at your own risk and dont spoil things for the rest of us.

Happy 4bying.

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It should also be noted that a vehicle modified to be "unroadworthy" is more likely have it's insurance canned if there is a claim made. It depends on the company and the mod but a mate of mine had his insurance company refuse the pay out after he lowered the car below legal, the police report stated the lowered state didn't cause the accident but did deem the car unroadworthy and the insurance company refused to pay based on that. Personally I don't care what mods people make if they are safe but it is a risk, unless the vehicle is uninsured anyway

sman said:

The EGR is there to lower the emissions - the cost of that means that the oil dirties a lot quicker and there is more carbon build up in the motor.

Click to expand...

That is exactly what i am thinking, but i guess il just wait and see what i do.
As for it being illegal and unroadworthy my insurance will cover you even if mods are illegal but were not a direct cause of the accident.

my insurance will cover you even if mods are illegal but were not a direct cause of the accident.

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That's lucky. Technically, if your motor vehicle is unroadworthy, having it on the road is in breach of the road rules to start with, so having an accident in a vehicle that you should not have taken onto the road becomes entirely your responsibility.

Most insurance companies have fine print that state that the policy is only valid if the vehicle is kept in a roadworthy condition. They'll make obvious exceptions for things like a blown parker bulb - the sort of things that would fail the vehicle from passing a pit inspection, but weren't a deliberate act by the owner/driver. But if you go and deliberately make a change to the vehicle that would preclude that vehicle from passing a pit inspection, the insurance company has every right to avoid paying out on its policy, despite their acceptance of your money - because you "declare" the vehicle to be in a roadworthy state.

It might not seem like a nice way to go about their business, but we also have a responsibility to ourselves, and other road users, to ensure that the vehicles we are using are compliant with the rules.

Like I said, if your insurance company doesn't weasel out of the policy because of these kind of mods, you're very, very lucky.

I haven't read the fine print of my policy in a long time to know if that information is there, I know it used to be but it makes sense that it is there. Apart from the insurance companies wanting to save money where ever they can and some are unscrupulous in doing so it could easily get them in trouble because they are effectively allowing unsafe vehicles in the road.

The majority of assessors are paid to find the loopholes they don't have to pay on.

I dont want to keep bringing my charger and the club im in for that car into this forum but we did have a shannons head representative come in to talk to us for the night (im insured with shannons) and you could just imagine the million and one questions he got asked that night, anyway he basically said if your driving your muscle car lowered, loud big fat tyres past the guards with a massive 6/71 blower sticking out the bonnet and you come up to a roundabout, you stop give way to your right then proceed forward when clear, if you get hit in the left by someone else not giving way, firstly its not your fault but secondly tyres, lowered loud noise did not cause the accident and then they will access if the blower was in the way of view from the point of where the accident happened, if not then your still covered.
Your basically covered for all mods as long as you state them when you insure your car and they will cover all mods even illegal ones to a certain extent and thats when they charge big dollars.
He even went to mention when a client had bald tyres on his car and the accident was his fault but they still paid out because the roads were dry not wet and the tyres wouldnt of made much difference in that situation if they had tread on them, but if it was a wet road then it would have been a different story.

Mate, your livin in dreamland,
that muscle car lowered, loud big fat tyres past the guards with a massive 6/71 blower sticking out the bonnet, POLLUTION GEAR REMOVED, and bald tyres,
would not pass through Vic roads pits let alone get street rego,
so don't for a moment think what shannons are telling you is gospel cause they are'nt the law.

Is it Vicroads, the Gov/ADR's and the police who make /govern
road vehicle laws or
you and shannons?

It passes, my misses skyline did not even get an assesor come out to look at the damage at her car cos it was under 4g quote, just had to send in photos, so i believe em. Thats why if you have got those extremes you do pay through the roof, otherwise its the same as saying a 76mdl charger with tripple webbers is illegal cos it does not have its pollution cannister where as a 72mdl charger with tripple webbers is just fine cos it never came out with it, a mod is a mod thats how they look at it, not at the actual part.
They WILL NOT cover you for any race track use.