Well my 2004 Baja turbo has come apart. Shop wants $2100 to change it, I ain't got it. So I'm going to do it myself, any tips?

If the turbo came apart, the engine might have ate it.. Turbo is a couple hundred for a good one, and a couple hours to swap doing it in no hurry. But if the engine ate turbo bearings, then the price and damages go up

Engine is OK, they borescoped the turbo and the turbine nut came loose and blades rubbed the housing.

Take it slow. Old rubber parts are going to be fairly brittle. Replace all three rubber coolant and oil hoses along with the exhaust gaskets and the copper crush washers for the little oil line. Sometimes removing the air box helps with room to get at the lower hoses when removing the turbo. Be careful with the rubber inlet hose when installing the new turbo as they can rip easily.

you'll likely have seized up turbo flange nuts considering how old the car is.  they will round off if you're not careful.  I usually use a propane torch directly to the nuts until they are slightly red.  Then they'll break free with hand tools.

 

inspect the oil inlet pipe on the turbo, they commonly to fail near the weld point after a while.  you can bend it out of the way to remove the old turbo as long as you're doing it by hand and making a bend in the center of the pipe; don't use pliers.  bend it back to exactly line up with the inlet hole afterwards.

 

the oil outlet hose that connects to the bottom of the turbo should be soft and pliable.  replace if it feels hard when squeezing with fingers.

 

when installing the new turbo, as caboobaroo said, the inlet hose can rip if you're not careful.  i loosen the bolt holding the intake pipe so it could slide forward a bit, then wiggle the turbo in.  sometimes when working with a bigger turbo that can't be fit with wiggling alone, i loosen the uppipe brackets and remove the exhaust header.  that leaves the uppipe dangling and enough clearance to wiggle the turbo onto the intake hose.

 

look up how to prime the new turbo with oil before first start of the engine.

Plan on replacing the turbo inlet hose w/an aftermarket Silicone model - as I'd be VERY surprised if it's not already cracked....all that heat wears 'em out.

 

Find 'em used (along w/a turbo) on NaSIOC and read up on install as the after market  - not stock version -  CAN be installed w/out removing the intake manifold - I've done it.

 

TD

Yeah, can't cheap out with "rubber" pipe couplers. They MUST be silicone if near the turbo as the heat will cause cheap couplers to slip off or fail as they get VERY soft when hot. I made the mistake on my Saab after shoe-horning the current turbo in and used a non-silicone 90 degree elbow right at the inlet on the cold side, and it slipped off during a 2-3 tromp coming around a turn and inhaled a piece of the elbow spacer, which busted a blade off the then fresh rebuilt turbo. Had to replace the compressor (which was already new) and pay for another CHRA balance. Didn't make that mistake a second time, and sprung for a more heat resistant elbow that cost almost double, but definitely a must.

 

It'll be cheaper to just replace the turbo with a good used unit, but you need to inspect for play in/out up/down by grabbing the compressor nut with thumb ans index finger, then lifting up/down while trying to spin. It should NOT touch the wall or bind excessively. In/out should be solid with no movement or binding.

 

The compressor nut threads should be left-handed, so I'm surprised the nut came off? Usually, the bearings wear (cheap oil going beyond oil change recommendations) or more likely the thrust washer fails first, which causes the shaft to move laterally, and every time it goes from vacuum to boost, it rams the thrust washer more and more, until the blades clip themselves on compressor housing. As long as you have an intercooler, it'll prevent most chunks from reaching the intake manifold. They might get lodged into the intercooler rows (internally) or be laying loose on the intercooler's inlet side. You should remove the intercooler and shake anything out. You can also rinse tjhem out (I suggest filling intercooler outlet side first so anything in there will have least resistance to exit) and hopefully and small bits exit.

 

If you are up to it and can afford not driving the car for a few weeks, go online and buy a replacement compressor wheel (must be exact) then send that plus the CHRA (or send the entire turbo if you don't know how to separate the housings) to G-Pop. They've done my turbo balancing and prices are decent. They can install new bearings, new thrust washer, put your new compressor wheel on, then balance the entire assembly and ship it back. I think they charge $65 for balancing. If you buy a compressor wheel directly from them, it'll probably cost more. The upside however is they'll do a full inspection and check for stress cracks, etc. (hopefully your hot wheel/shaft are undamaged) and you'll essentially have a "new", "tight" turbo that should go 100k miles ++.

 

Here's G-Pop shop's site: http://gpopshop.com/   Call them and explain what's happened, and see if they'll give you a quote. It'll be cheaper than buying a new turbo, which will need adapted to your housings, clocked, your fittings swapped over, etc.

 

If you have them rebuild it, and you can install/remove the turbo itself, I imagine you can keep prices in the $200-600 range depending on how much they have to do it. If your hot wheel/shaft are OK, bearing kits online are $50 roughly, cold wheel on common turbo is $45-75; balance is $65, then whatever they'd charge to reassemble. I had to buy a hot wheel/shaft as I missed some stress cracks that were hidden under carbon build up, and I think it was close to $125 for just the wheel/shaft. I bought everything else myself aftermarket, and had an upgraded turbo with larger compressor housing, larger compressor wheel, new bearings and 360 degree thrust kit, for roughly $550 not including the error I made and damages from the rubber elbow, and this was on a Garrett GT25 series turbo. Just doing the wheel, bearings (a must) and thrust collar kit + balance should be a fraction of that.

Edited March 21, 201610 yr by Bushwick

Just be prepared to spend extra money on gaskets, hoses and the like.  Turbos store a lot of excess heat in the engine compartment, so don't be surprised if it has made plastic/rubber parts brittle and prone to cracking.