2000 AWD S70 Turbo WAS making grinding/scraping noises.

Captain-Vintage95 · Post by **Captain-Vintage95** » 20 Jul 2015, 21:45

June 8th, I drove my S70 to pick up some friends. Upon doing so, My oil pressure light was on and off. This happens a lot, replaced switch 2 months prior, sludge/ dirt in system thanks to previous owner... I thought I was perhaps low on oil. I stopped at the gas station, using correct oil 10w30, BUT, a different brand. So drove along, when I started hearing a scraping/grinding noise. I pulled over, opened hood and the noise was coming right from the turbo. Dropped it off at the mechanic which was only a few blocks away from where I had the problem. They said the turbo is bad. $1600 to replace with new one. So yesterday, July 19th, I finally decided I'll fix it myself. Got a good used one in rebuild now. When I took the car home from the garage, upon start up noise was still there. Drove it nice and easy under 2000 RPMS, and about 3 minutes after leaving, noise went away completely and hasn't made it earlier today either. Here is my question, even in revving a little, the noise is gone. Could the turbo still be good being maybe an oil blockage blowing through, or is just seized and dead? Any help gladly appreciated. Thanks!

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 20 Jul 2015, 23:30

How is the end play on the turbo impeller. It should be slight, virtually none on a fresh rebuild and a few thousandths on a perfectly good one. I had one that got out as far as what seemed like about 1/8" of slop but it was just about ready to start scraping the housing.

A visual inspection will tell you much. If the impeller did start scraping the housing the turbo is likely done.

The flickering oil light needs to be addressed and soon. You could have either a clogged sump pickup screen or really bad sump O rings. On a 2000 you don't really hear lifter clatter like you do on the earlier engines when they are low on oil since it has solid lifters. Just because it isn't making lifter noise doesn't mean that the engine is not in the process of being internally damaged due to oil starvation.

On a used engine that I went through on the stand I found that the sump screen was clogged with several pieces of the foil that covers a bottle of oil under the cap.

...Lee

Captain-Vintage95 · Post by **Captain-Vintage95** » 20 Jul 2015, 23:49

Haven't taken the original out yet. How can I do that? I just got the Vida discs but havent installed yet. Thanks Lee!

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 21 Jul 2015, 07:17

You can check the play without removing the turbo, just remove the intake snorkel and the impeller is right there. Grab the nut on the end of the impeller with your finger and check for lateral play and vertical play. Any vertical play is bad but 0.010" or so of lateral play is pretty typical. Without setting up an elaborate measurement gauge you can't really measure the play but you can guestimate it fairly close.

...Lee