Possible turbo failure..

[marshallma0504]

Some of you may know in January, I just finished replacing my front turbo that had failed due to the shaft snapping in half and was dumping oil into the exhaust. I immediately knew what it was and went about replacing it. The car has been running great and strong with plenty of power, but due to a P0016 code I am not beating on the car as I am saving money to replace the timing components myself as a dealer is far out of the question. Today on my way to work. I noticed a low pitch whistling noise that gradually got louder and louder and louder after driving down a very bumpy dirt road out of my neighborhood. I don’t usually go that way to work, but I did. After this whistling noise went away and I got back on smooth road again. I noticed that I had the symptoms that I had before in my previous very long thread of diagnosing and eventually replacing the front turbo. No turbo spooling sounds no boost whatsoever as well as I’m sure a P 0299 code as that was in there when the last turbo failed. I am now at work and have to baby the car home on my lunch break so I can get it up on the ramps and check all of my turbo piping for signs of splitting, oil caking or anything that could signify a huge boot leak. I’m also going to take the dreaded clamp off of my rear turbo and if anyone has had to do that before you would know how much of a pain it is so I can check to make sure that the rear turbo has not fully let go on me as I cannot justify replacing another turbo right now and would be looking to most likely scrap the car instead. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into with joining this platform, but this car has been nothing but headaches and if I can get some decent money for it, I might just be getting rid of it if this other turbo let go and the timing chains need done. It’s just gonna cost too much especially because the car was a rebuilt title so it’s not worth anything to a dealership trying to sell it

 

[marshallma0504]

Some of you may know in January, I just finished replacing my front turbo that had failed due to the shaft snapping in half and was dumping oil into the exhaust. I immediately knew what it was and went about replacing it. The car has been running great and strong with plenty of power, but due to a P0016 code I am not beating on the car as I am saving money to replace the timing components myself as a dealer is far out of the question. Today on my way to work. I noticed a low pitch whistling noise that gradually got louder and louder and louder after driving down a very bumpy dirt road out of my neighborhood. I don’t usually go that way to work, but I did. After this whistling noise went away and I got back on smooth road again. I noticed that I had the symptoms that I had before in my previous very long thread of diagnosing and eventually replacing the front turbo. No turbo spooling sounds no boost whatsoever as well as I’m sure a P 0299 code as that was in there when the last turbo failed. I am now at work and have to baby the car home on my lunch break so I can get it up on the ramps and check all of my turbo piping for signs of splitting, oil caking or anything that could signify a huge boot leak. I’m also going to take the dreaded clamp off of my rear turbo and if anyone has had to do that before you would know how much of a pain it is so I can check to make sure that the rear turbo has not fully let go on me as I cannot justify replacing another turbo right now and would be looking to most likely scrap the car instead. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into with joining this platform, but this car has been nothing but headaches and if I can get some decent money for it, I might just be getting rid of it if this other turbo let go and the timing chains need done. It’s just gonna cost too much especially because the car was a rebuilt title so it’s not worth anything to a dealership trying to sell it

Car now has 137,000 on it and was a FB marketplace find in Detroit so I’m the dummy for buying a car like this in the first place from the shotty rebuild capital of the Midwest. He had a ton of maintenance records including the rear turbo at 90k so I thought it seemed safe but here we are after $6,600 for the car, $800 front turbo, $300 in plugs, fluids, filters etc, $400 rear brakes (all this done myself via YouTube and common sense learning) and $800 for new rims and tires as one of my front rims was bent by a pothole causing serious vibration. Anyone interested in the car and would give me a decent price let me know at this point.

 

[Joshw0000]

I can't say for sure, but it sounds like the turbo. Do you know what brand the front turbo is? The reason I ask, is a buddy just bought a Flex with the 3.5 EB and the seller claimed it had a new turbo. When he test drove it, all was fine but on the drive home he heard a whistle. The next day, it was worse with some smoke. Over the weekend he pulled the front turbo and it was shot. It was not an OEM turbo. We can't tell what brand it is, but it looks like one of the $200 ones from China that are all over eBay. He's replacing it with an OEM for $750 and hopefully that fixes his issue. He also has a bunch of 02 related CEL's but we think they're related to oil in the exhaust. He's cleaned the 02's and hopefully they'll self resolve with a good turbo.

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[kryptto]

I can't say for sure, but it sounds like the turbo. Do you know what brand the front turbo is? The reason I ask, is a buddy just bought a Flex with the 3.5 EB and the seller claimed it had a new turbo. When he test drove it, all was fine but on the drive home he heard a whistle. The next day, it was worse with some smoke. Over the weekend he pulled the front turbo and it was shot. It was not an OEM turbo. We can't tell what brand it is, but it looks like one of the $200 ones from China that are all over eBay. He's replacing it with an OEM for $750 and hopefully that fixes his issue. He also has a bunch of 02 related CEL's but we think they're related to oil in the exhaust. He's cleaned the 02's and hopefully they'll self resolve with a good turbo.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

The oil is an issue - especially when it starts to pool, in the IC. Our cars have mucho oil blowby.

 

[marshallma0504]

I can't say for sure, but it sounds like the turbo. Do you know what brand the front turbo is? The reason I ask, is a buddy just bought a Flex with the 3.5 EB and the seller claimed it had a new turbo. When he test drove it, all was fine but on the drive home he heard a whistle. The next day, it was worse with some smoke. Over the weekend he pulled the front turbo and it was shot. It was not an OEM turbo. We can't tell what brand it is, but it looks like one of the $200 ones from China that are all over eBay. He's replacing it with an OEM for $750 and hopefully that fixes his issue. He also has a bunch of 02 related CEL's but we think they're related to oil in the exhaust. He's cleaned the 02's and hopefully they'll self resolve with a good turbo.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

It’s an oem front turbo that was rebuilt in the first picture. I bought it new off rock auto and it comes with a warranty. Rear turbo is OEM in the second picture.

 

[marshallma0504]

If I do end up selling the car, I will have a new updated OEM water pump and two new Ford updated OEM phasers for sale as well as some other parts. I would have to double check what all I have so far related to the timing components.

 

[marshallma0504]

New update, I checked all the pipes for the front turbo and IC and saw no metal just a tiny film of oil. Also checked the boost solenoid hoses and the BOV’s but all looks good there. However the blades on the front turbo are now chewed up to **** making me think the rear went and tried to take the front down with it. When I restarted the car to check for the whistling noise again the wrench light came up on the left display so I shut the car off immediately. Never seen that light before but I know it’s nothing good. And OE Turbo Power probably won’t warranty foreign object damage. So in short I’m probably screwed. Probably headed to the junkyard soon because $2,000 more in repairs is not gonna fly.

 

[luigisho]

SHO's to their owners

 

[marshallma0504]

Here’s my “brand new” front turbo after 2 months and not even 5k miles

 

[kryptto]

View attachment 93577Here’s my “brand new” front turbo after 2 months and not even 5k miles

Ugh....

 

[marshallma0504]

I got a grand total for the rest of my timing components, as well as a new rear turbo and it’s $1,150. With 139k on the car would it even be worth it? The trans could go, the turbos could keep failing, the suspension components are all worn out and I get a noticeable clunk from the front struts probably due to worn bushings, and the car is a rebuilt title so it will fetch no value down the road. But on the other hand it’ll have new turbos, new timing components, and as long as I keep up on the PTU and RDU and trans fluids it might run for a long time maybe even make it to 200k who knows. Let me know your guys thoughts. Junkyard or stick it out? What’s another $1200 bucks right?

 

[kryptto]

Get her working - maintain the fluids and decide to resell before you get concerned. Cars are always a losing prop, as my old man told me, you need to have a reliable set of wheels to keep the job to pay for the maintenance. Once the costs go beyond a replacement car payment... Nowadays a 60/72 month loan on a current sedan, say 60 grand. Now ya know. 800/900 per month?

 

[marshallma0504]

Get her working - maintain the fluids and decide to resell before you get concerned. Cars are always a losing prop, as my old man told me, you need to have a reliable set of wheels to keep the job to pay for the maintenance. Once the costs go beyond a replacement car payment... Nowadays a 60/72 month loan on a current sedan, say 60 grand. Now ya know. 800/900 per month?

That’s what I’m gonna end up doing. It’s just a really nice car overall and once I get this sorted and the dumb heated seat module working again I’ll have a car I put $10k into total, that has better features and more enjoyable to drive than anything else short of a 30-60k sedan. It really is a cool car and maybe in the next 5-10 years demand will increase to the point where I could sell it for $8k who knows. What I’m still worried about now is what I tell the turbo company about the front ones blades being torn up somehow even with me deep cleaning every single intake pipe, and putting a new air filter in the day the turbo went on? Are they going to deny my warranty because of the blades? Probably. But what do y’all think I should tell them? Can’t really justify yet ANOTHER $700 turbo only 2 months later..

 

[marshallma0504]

Get her working - maintain the fluids and decide to resell before you get concerned. Cars are always a losing prop, as my old man told me, you need to have a reliable set of wheels to keep the job to pay for the maintenance. Once the costs go beyond a replacement car payment... Nowadays a 60/72 month loan on a current sedan, say 60 grand. Now ya know. 800/900 per month?

Also what do you think about the yellow wrench light? Oil in the intake fouling the map sensors and throttle body sensor? I know these engines love to eat throttle bodies and sensors and I’m pretty sure all of those are original on my 139k engine.

 

[Texas Marauder]

Also what do you think about the yellow wrench light? Oil in the intake fouling the map sensors and throttle body sensor? I know these engines love to eat throttle bodies and sensors and I’m pretty sure all of those are original on my 139k engine.

Scan for DTCs, anything else is guess.

 

[Texas Marauder]

That’s what I’m gonna end up doing. It’s just a really nice car overall and once I get this sorted and the dumb heated seat module working again I’ll have a car I put $10k into total, that has better features and more enjoyable to drive than anything else short of a 30-60k sedan. It really is a cool car and maybe in the next 5-10 years demand will increase to the point where I could sell it for $8k who knows. What I’m still worried about now is what I tell the turbo company about the front ones blades being torn up somehow even with me deep cleaning every single intake pipe, and putting a new air filter in the day the turbo went on? Are they going to deny my warranty because of the blades? Probably. But what do y’all think I should tell them? Can’t really justify yet ANOTHER $700 turbo only 2 months later..

The only thing that will cause damage like that is debris in the intake tract.

 

[marshallma0504]

The only thing that will cause damage like that is debris in the intake tract.

Just have no idea how that’s possible.. back pressure from leftover crap in the IC? Maybe that retaining nut from the first turbo was still in the system somewhere and it ate it somehow.

 

[Texas Marauder]

Just have no idea how that’s possible.. back pressure from leftover crap in the IC? Maybe that retaining nut from the first turbo was still in the system somewhere and it ate it somehow.

The damage on both of your turbos is on the inlet side. Between the turbo and the air filter. The only connection between the inlet and outlet is through the blow off valve. I'm not sure what could actually pass through the BOV.

 

[kryptto]

Dirt in the clean air system - dirty filter, someone left debris in the system. Filter not sized correctly or allowing debris passby. Intake system leaks. Bottom line inspection to find root cause will be the only way to guarantee it won't happen again.

 

[marshallma0504]

Idk where to even start with that since I did all that once I saw the condition of the blades the first time. And I replaced the BOV that had oil in the connector so that it wasn’t stuck open. And I used electrical cleaner on all the connectors.