S60 Turbo Rebuild

S60 Blues · Post by **S60 Blues** » 01 May 2009, 11:19

I just completed rebuilding my turbo on a 2001 S60 and thought I would share my experience. You can refer to my previous post on troubleshooting a smoking exhaust and some vital steps to identify the turbo as the problem.

The turbo is a TD04H-13 built by Mitsubishi and almost identical to the turbo featured in the attached file. I purchased a complete rebuild kit,$120.00, rather than the standard rebuild kit, $89.00, from the G-Pop Shop, www.gpopshop.com/html. You will need to know if you have a flatback or superback compressor wheel. Mine was the superback and the guy helping me with my order was able to confirm this. I chose the G-Pop shop over e-bay kits for two reasons:
#1 They actually work on turbos and offer the same quality parts they would install. FYI- The e-bay kits look similar.
#2 Customer service, They included installation instructions and offer assistance if needed. Fortunately I didn't need it.

Removing the Turbo and installing it was deceptively simple. Only four bolts holding the turbo to the manifold and three holding the exhaust pipe. Its the tight fit and the location of the vacuum hoses, air discharge and especially the cooling banjo bolts that will have you seeing red. I easily spent five hours removing it and two afternoons installing it. Your really going to love that cooling banjo bolt and it washers, Yikes! My estimate of three hours to reinstall the turned into two days, it fought me every step of the way. I have no lift so I was on my back as well as laying over the engine attempting to get my little hands in the right position.

Rebuild: Follow the included guide for the rebuild, its extremely well done and the turbo looks identical to the TD04H https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=19203.
I took my time marking the exhaust and compressor housing and it was not necessary as both are pined for proper alignment. Do mark the relationship of both fans to assist in keeping it balanced. You will need heavy duty snap ring pliers! Expect the internal housing to be caked with coke or burnt oil. Get it all out and be thorough with your cleaning. The Complete rebuild kit comes with a new Seal Plate for the extra dough. You can save a couple of bucks with the standard kit. The Seal Plate is a stainless part that cleaned up and I felt didn't need replacing.
The G-Pop shop recommended torquing the nut by simply counting revolutions of the locknut.

So far It appears ok. Expect to see the cloud of smoke re-appear when you first fire the car up. My hart sank, but it cleared as the car was driven and the residual oil in the exhaust burnt off. I vow to change my oil more frequently and I will soon switch to synthetic. Thanks again to MIJ and matthew for your help. Long live my turbo and yours!!

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 01 May 2009, 17:02

Nice! And, great job! Yes....long live your turbo!

ced715 · Post by **ced715** » 05 Dec 2018, 14:18

Thanks very much to the original poster of this topic and also the person that made the great write up on the UK forums! Just rebuilt the turbo in my 1997 850 GLT with a 2.4 and this information helped me immensely! G Pop shop was easy to deal with and could tell me the correct kit to buy just by reading the part number from the turbo.

Biggest issue I ran into was getting a large enough pair of snap ring pliers for the job. Most wont open far enough. And it was a lot more difficult to get the big snap ring re-installed than it was to remove it!

Thanks again

curt698 · Post by **curt698** » 05 Dec 2018, 17:24

I'm curious what your impression is of the before/after. My S60 has 208k so I'm sure the turbo is far from tight these days.

Post by **erikv11** » 07 Dec 2018, 09:46

curt698 wrote: ↑05 Dec 2018, 17:24 I'm curious what your impression is of the before/after. My S60 has 208k so I'm sure the turbo is far from tight these days.

These mitsu turbos are super hardy, 208k by itself is nothing to worry about at all, if there are no failure symptoms. Remove the snorkel tube, check the turbo wheel for shaft play, there should be almost none side to side.

Refresh all the vacuum hoses if they are the original rubber, that might help!

curt698 · Post by **curt698** » 07 Dec 2018, 10:55

erikv11 wrote: ↑07 Dec 2018, 09:46 These mitsu turbos are super hardy, 208k by itself is nothing to worry about at all, if there are no failure symptoms. Remove the snorkel tube, check the turbo wheel for shaft play, there should be almost none side to side.

Refresh all the vacuum hoses if they are the original rubber, that might help!

On the long list of things to check I have vacuum lines and blow off diaphragm but when cooling down the turbo sounds like marbles in a clothes driver so I think there MAY be issues with the bearings.

Post by **SuperHerman** » 07 Dec 2018, 14:32

Check it now before it is too late. If the fins are rubbing you could either completely ruin the turbo fan fins or throw it off balance to a point you will have to send it in for balancing (if possible at all). Replacing the shaft is an expensive part. I had to source a used turbo to get the shaft - so I ended up buying the rebuild kit (Midwest Turbo in Hudson WI) and a used turbo.

Don't buy an Ebay chinese clone - mine was leaking oil after two weeks.

22volvo · Post by **22volvo** » 14 Jan 2019, 14:06

SH,

I appreciate your educating.

"Fins are rubbing"?

I have a 2004 v70 2.5T w/ 228K miles. Its consuming a quart in about 3500 miles so I just did a complete genuine Volvo PCV kit from IPD. Has quite the oil coating on the turbo compressor outlet to the inter-cooler. Attempting to determine play on the visible compressor wheel it was tough to get two fingers on it but I'm pretty sure there is a little bit of play. If the play is excessive enough to have the fins rubbing would I look for a polished area somewhere? It spools nicely. No bad sounds.

It's the wife's car and she's trained to idle for 30 seconds before shutdown. No idea how the prior owner treated it.

Thanks.

acquired at 130K miles w/ all work done by me via the wealth of information on this site. Synthetics since acquisition.
Transmission Flushed w/ BG at 130K
Timing belt w/ WP at 210K
CEM repaired.