turbo question

[86subaru]

it's my 88 turbo , the light on the dash always came on , now it does not , power seems alittle low , like from a dead stop , runs fine after getting it back from the dealer [ 47.35 bill] very quiet , if the turbo has gone bad will it hurt anything ? , reason it was at the dealer was exhaust bolts were bad , they put new ones in , i have a spare ea82 turbo off a xt are they the same ?

[NorthWet]

Dashboard light is an indicator for positive manifold pressure, and lack of the light could be because of burned out bulb, bad pressure switch, or vacuum hose not being connected to pressure switch.

 

Car could seem slower off the line due to it being quieter: Much of our perception of "power" has to do with noise. I doubt that the turbo has gone bad... no boost makes an EA82T a REAL dog.

[86subaru]

ok, will check out all vacuum lines , it just seems a real dog , but my wife drives it , i will ask her to drive it , seems like it has gotton slower as time goes on , is the pressure switch easy to change ? any pic of it , etc...

[Elroy Jetson]

it's my 88 turbo , the light on the dash always came on , now it does not , power seems alittle low , like from a dead stop , runs fine after getting it back from the dealer [ 47.35 bill] very quiet , if the turbo has gone bad will it hurt anything ? , reason it was at the dealer was exhaust bolts were bad , they put new ones in , i have a spare ea82 turbo off a xt are they the same ?

 

I'd be very nervous about that, if they got debris or gasket material in the exhaust pipe it may have jammed the turbine. I'd pull off the outlet hose from the turbocharger and see if you can see/turn the implellor by hand. Should turn very easily. If you can't turn it, don't drive the car or start it till you have the unit checked. A stuck turbine will disintegrate pretty quickly:eek:

 

Wayne

[86subaru]

ok, but i am not use to driving it, and it is a/t 4speed also , or i could have by mistake gotton part of a gasket in it , thanks

[mrroot]

I'd be very nervous about that, if they got debris or gasket material in the exhaust pipe it may have jammed the turbine. I'd pull off the outlet hose from the turbocharger and see if you can see/turn the implellor by hand. Should turn very easily. If you can't turn it, don't drive the car or start it till you have the unit checked. A stuck turbine will disintegrate pretty quickly:eek:

 

Wayne

 

I'll agree with Wayne that you need to check it. Another thing to worry about is if the oil seal goes out and starts dumping oil into your intake manifold. Not a pretty sight ( just saw this at the JY last weekend ) and a *************** of a cleaning job ( prolly no permanent damage, but expect to spend $100 or more in gaskets and things as you tear the engine apart to clean it ).

[86subaru]

well i drove the car aleast 60 miles from the dealer home , i checked all vacuum lines last night all seem good, but one could be bad , there is a orange power light on the dash that does work when you really get on the gas from a dead stop , mpg are good, today i will check other things as suggested, this might be a dumb question but i have been running a heavier weight oil lately to slow the oil leak, [ 2 qt 15-40 - 2 qt 20-w50 ]

[86subaru]

where is the pressure switch for the turbo ?

[[HTi]Johnson]

If you were leaking exhaust before the turbo, that will make it "doggy" and the dealer said you had loose exhaust studs that needed repair, right? Because the turbo needs all the exhaust it can get to spool and produce boost, if the exhaust was going elsewhere, the turbo wouldn't spool,as much, then it won't produce boost that won't trigger switch, which means no boost light.

 

You should get a boost gauge. Either one you install or just one as a tool and hook it up to one of your boost lines on the intake. You'll probably need a T connection for that. Almost any line straight off the intake would work, just make sure you put it back to normal. Your boost should be about 7.5psi under complete load. It won't read much if you are in neutral, not going anywhere.

 

With Subarus, 9 times out of 10, it's the easy fix.

[86subaru]

before exhaust studs were fixed i had boost , now i think no boost , but cars runs fine , and mpg is good , before i took it to the dealer the turbo light came on , the dealer retapped and put different bolts in + oem gasket , passanger side, with a can of carb cleaner i sprayed all vacuum lines no difference while car was running, ok, wife says something wrong,

[NorthWet]

Vacuum line to the switch shouldn't measurably effect power, just whether or not the light comes on. IIRC,the switch is on the inner fender (right-/passenger-/turbo-side), and there are a pair of them (one for the light, the other to tell the ECU that boost is high enough to go "open-loop" on mixture control.

 

The "Power" light on the dash is the 4EAT's controller (TCU) switching to firmer shifting.

 

Debris is possible, but I would thing that it is unlikely in this circumstance. Worth a check. Is the dealer close enough to you (I can't remember :-\ ) that you could check with them?

 

You can have a SEVERE exhaust leak and still get boost. My T-Loyale has the common fractured uppipe turbo flange, producing a halluva racket, especially at startup, but will still go positive boost (but not a lot) around 3k rpm.

[86subaru]

dealer 45min away, soooooooooo i guess drive it until she blows or rent a car until it gets fixed, checked vacuum lines at turbo all good, , check all wire connections all good, ,another trip to the dealer , wife has to stay with my boy , i have to work aleast 10-12 hr days , the rest of the week ,thing is the turbo was working before i took it to the dealer , plenty of boost

[NorthWet]

Jim, one thing that MIGHT have happened, depending on how they did the work and how down on power it is, is that the mechanic might have stuffed a rag into one of the pipes to prevent foreign object damage (FOD) to the turbo, and then forgotten to remove the rag. You might want to check with the Dealer's Service Manager, explain the situation, and ask exactly what they did, how they did it, and if they might have used a rag to prevent. Do this in a non-confrontational manner, and they might give you some useful info.

 

Go ahead and check to see if turbine spins freely. Try a boost gauge (vacuum/fuel pressure guage should work just fine). Pull the TURBO plenum off and see if a rag is sitting in the throttle body inlet; make sure that the clamps holding the throttle body are tight.

 

Might also be worth checking to make sure that they didn't touch the ignition timing. Throw in a fresh set of spark plugs... I had a set crap out when I used some fuel injection cleaner...

[86subaru]

i was thinking the same thing about the rag deal, because they did not pop the hood at all , reason i say this is because i left a small pry bar by the alt, a rag in the pipe would do it , i will check the timing .20 ,my wife will call the dealer tomorrow , thanks

[86subaru]

plugs good , timing set , after 50mph it seems to do ok , but before it is a real dog , with the exhaust leak at the head it had more power than what it does now , this is what my wife says and she drives it, and the turbo light came on and plenty of boost, trying to think of anyhing the dealer may have done

[86subaru]

wife called dealer , they did nothing to the turbo , ok, will it hurt anything else if the car is driven ? can't get it in until next week ,car seems to running better today ,wondering if i got a bad tank of gas?

[Elroy Jetson]

wife called dealer , they did nothing to the turbo , ok, will it hurt anything else if the car is driven ? can't get it in until next week ,car seems to running better today ,wondering if i got a bad tank of gas?

 

i recently installed a vacuum / boost gage in my XT Turbo and i can now read directly exactly what the Turbo is doing at any given moment. My 86 has the "yellow brick road" in the digi dash that only indicated whether or not there is boost- almost useless really.:-\

 

i got a really nice FAZE gauge from Advance for 40 bucks and mounted it below and to the side of the ignition switch. Tapped into the brake boost vacuum hose. (i just punched a tiny hole in the side of the hose and cut a diagonal off the end of the plastic gage tubing and forced it thru the side of the vacuum hose.) This has worked great.

 

If you are nervous about tapping the brake boost hose, there are many other places you can tap in on a post-turbo vacuum line. Avoid any metered lines near the throttle body or any of the crankcase vent lines.

 

If you don't get at least 6psi boost, there's a problem. If you're only getting 1 or 2psi, there's a serious problem even though that may be enought to trip the boost light. My yellow brick road trips at about 1-2psi.

 

Wayne

[86subaru]

thats what i am going to have to do , and then go from there with fixing it ,thanks to all