dave2001auto

My 2009 e320 but is leaking oil at 85000 miles. The oil leak short circuits the swirl motor. Better to replace the a Garrett aftermarket or rebuild it with a XA Turbo kit? Does both of them need recalibration once on the car? the aftermarket turbo is $1500. No parts kit are available from Garrett.

A turbo failing at less than 80,000 mile? What is the expected life of a diesel turbo?

rapidoxidation

'96 Chevy 6.5 turbodiesel: 275K miles and no turbo work (sold it about 10 years ago)
'05 Chevy duramax: 215K miles and no turbo work (my work truck)
'03 Chevy duramax: 140K miles and no turbo work (wrecked about 6 years ago)
'85 Mercedes 300D: 240K miles, rebuilt the turbo at 220K but it didn't need it.
'05 Mercedes E320: 1114K miles, no sign of issues on the turbo (daily driver).

My understanding is that turbos rarely fail. That's also been my experience.

Seems like the worst thing you can do to a turbo is to not allow it time to cool before shutting off the engine after a hard run. If it is turned off with high exhaust temperatures, the oil on the bearings can coke up and cause issues. A minute or so of idle time after lots of throttle will allow things to cool to a safe temperature to not cook up the oil and wreck things.

kajtek1

I had couple if Powerstroke on original turbos and excess of 300,000 miles, but beside bearing, the only movable part on them was wastegate.
New generation turbos with variable fins are totally different animal.
Like comparing struts to airmatic.
I would rebuild original turbo.

dave2001auto

Some other numbers are AL0046. GT2056V So very likely a Garrett turbo, but Garrett does not sell a rebuilding kit for it.

Do not know if it has variable fins. Are there any other kit manufactures? XA Turbo kits good, bad, or ugly?

samaritrey

Are you sure the turbo is bad and its not just the common leak from the orange intake/turbo seal? (MB put a TSB out about this) That leak will make a mess and as you found out mess up the swirl motors (easy fix with resistor or tune).

dave2001auto

Rebuilding the turbo was a disaster. A slight intermediate noise at first. One week later the bearing flew appart. Major oil leak and limp mode. $600 down the drain with oil in intercooler and exhaust.
Leason learned: buy a rebuilt turbo with a warranty or get the new Garrett replacement.

It could of been "normal" oil leakage but the mechanic said it was excessive on the 80k mile turbo. I don't have a reference what is normal and what is excessive. Anyone has pictures. Also was without need to replenish oil between changes.

marc hanna

I don't have any pics, but when disconnecting the Y pipe from the turbo, it's normal to see about a table spoon of oil pooling at the inlet. This, in conjunction with the EGR can create quite a bit of coking up in the intake. This would in turn, result in poor heat dissipation and more work for the turbo.

A lot of things could impact the turbo indirectly, but one could speculate all day long, so it's hard to say anything against the mechanic who saw things first hand.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience.

dave2001auto

The fins were not variable. It was a Garret turbo. The Garret was a direct drop-in replacement.