NEW turbo alternatives?

[EmilysDad]

Re E clip. I always tie a piece of fishing line/strong thread to them when taking them on and off so they can be recovered without having to take the engine out.

Good idea

 

[Larkone]

Did you solve this?

 

[EmilysDad]

Did you solve this?

No, not yet ..... they keep making me go to work
The car has just dragged our large caravan 40 miles to a site with no problems. But I do intend to remove the actuator as a starting point and send it for testing/refurb'ing

 

[Steve@Avantgarde]

Personally, I have never had a good result replacing actuators and neither have the people that have also replaced them had a long term fix. You always end up with a new turbo. I never recommend the fix anymore.

Universal Turbos are my preferred supplier. A recon, fully rebuilt turbo is £595.00 which can be swapped inside 3 hours. Its a lot easier than messing around with actuators and having the car off the road for days waiting for a bit to be fixed.

 

[EmilysDad]

Thanks Steve. That's a similar price to what I've been quoted locally(ish) Just didn't fancy getting my turbo off ..... it's a bit more buried than in other cars.
Plus I don't want to spend loads on a 10 yr old car that I'd like to swap in the next year or so. It doesn't matter if it's off the road as I have other transport.

 

[LostKiwi]

Thanks Steve. That's a similar price to what I've been quoted locally(ish) Just didn't fancy getting my turbo off ..... it's a bit more buried than in other cars.
Plus I don't want to spend loads on a 10 yr old car that I'd like to swap in the next year or so. It doesn't matter if it's off the road as I have other transport.

Its Roadster time!

 

[EmilysDad]

Its Roadster time!

Certainly is. Always brings a smile to your face when you drive it after a while. Go into a corner at silly mph & it just goes round it .... as you know

 

[Botus]

I did that a few months back .... didn't make any difference. I didn't feel any evidence of it sticking at the time, but that doesn't mean it never sticks I have heard that the actuators fail

turbos shouldn't just fail. If driven and serviced sensibly (only thrashed when hot, allowed too cool before switch off and good oil regularly changed etc.

the turbo actuator is designed to fail and the little links often break (just like they do on ABS units), it is only a leisurely hour to pop the unit off open up and look inside.

 

[EmilysDad]

Thanks Botus. I will remove it for another look & probably get it at least tested.

As for a leisurely hour ...... Have you seen access on an R Class? You work completely blind as you can't get far enough forward in the engine bay & then when you drop your 1/4" drive extension down the back & then your magnet on a stick trying to retrieve the extension ......

 

[Botus]

not sure I follow about can't far enough forward? ...far enough back maybe, but never seen under bonnet on one of those.

It sits about 4" behind the fuel filter- take off the engine cover, remove heat shield from the turbo (3 bolts), its held on with one circlip on actuator arm and 6 bolts of which 3 hold unit to a bracket (on the turbo) and must be removed, and three hold bracket to turbo which if you loosen with give more space to wriggle it out.... pop wires off after you have almost got it off

the cover on the actuator is held on by 6 spring clips... of which on the plastic side they have a "hook" that digs in, so you need to pop off from the metal case side.... tweak with one large screwdriver, till you can tuck in a small one to peel outwards and away. then the cover will pull of once the reusable seal is encouraged to let go.

getting a continuity check between the board and the connections (not touching the wire links) is fun (I think there's a coating that's not conductive on them. wriggle the probe about

 

[EmilysDad]

not sure I follow about can't far enough forward? ...far enough back maybe, .....

That's what I meant

I have had it off the car & removed the cover

 

[Steve@Avantgarde]

R Classes aren't the easiest of motors to work on...

 

[EmilysDad]

R Classes aren't the easiest of motors to work on...

Indeed ....

 

[LostKiwi]

Indeed ....

You must have a masochism streak... Smarts, R Class....Neither are easy to work on!

 

[EmilysDad]

Dropped my actuator off at The Turbo Centre (as recommend by Lostkiwi) yesterday morning. He phoned me later in the say to say that it'd be ready for this morning ..... new gear box fitted. £180 sounded far better than £2500
Fitted it today & so far so good. It picks up straight away when given a bit more throttle ...... either that or it's psychological

 

[EmilysDad]

Just done a 400 mile round trip to Alnwick & back. Didn't miss a beat & no codes have returned ..... I wasn't doing it right on my icarsoft to start with ....
I'm considering it now fixed

 

[jshodgson]

Just done a 400 mile round trip to Alnwick & back. Didn't miss a beat & no codes have returned ..... I wasn't doing it right on my icarsoft to start with ....
I'm considering it now fixed

Did The Turbo Centre do something similar to the sellers on eBay that offer a refurb service? I live in Torquay and don’t know of anywhere I can ‘drop’ mine into so was thinking of posting it somewhere to be refurbished. Glad to hear you got a fix! Thought mine was behaving for the past few weeks but it kangaroo’d again today!

 

[EmilysDad]

Did The Turbo Centre do something similar to the sellers on eBay that offer a refurb service? I live in Torquay and don’t know of anywhere I can ‘drop’ mine into so was thinking of posting it somewhere to be refurbished. .....

They did. They fitted a new gearbox .... effectively half of the actuator .... and tested it.

 

[jshodgson]

Hi EmilysDad, now that it has been a couple of months do you consider the actuator refurb to have been a permanent fix?

 

[EmilysDad]

Hi EmilysDad, now that it has been a couple of months do you consider the actuator refurb to have been a permanent fix?

I do
I can pull out onto a main road with my foot planted with confidence.