So, my wife's '02 S40 broke down on her on a long trip. It made a bunch of white/blue smoke and lost power, so she rented a car for the rest of the trip. Now that I have it back, I've dug out the turbo and it is definitely toast.

This may be unrelated, but the car had been repeatedly throwing a code for over a year, can't remember the number but it basically meant that the car wasn't warming up as fast as the computer thought it should. New OEM thermostat and coolant temp sensor, plus coolant flush and fill did not fix it, so she'd been living with it and I'd been resetting it occasionally.

The car has maybe 130k miles on it. Timing belt has been changed so we were expecting some more good years. The car had been running strong, but she did say it occasionally put out a puff of smoke on acceleration. I never saw it do it.

On disassembly, I found that the hose from the compressor outlet coming up over the engine was coated inside with oily/greasy substance.

One of the oil banjo bolts was completely clogged with gritty black substance, as in you couldn't even tell that there was a hole.

Same with the coolant banjo.

Several exhaust header to engine block studs or nuts were just plain missing.

The turbo is just toast. I can easily rattle the compressor wheel a couple of millimeters.

So, is it worth putting a new or used turbo in this? The best I've found is nearly $700 for a rebuilt. I'll do the labor myself. I figure with gaskets and other parts maybe $1000. I'll look in the forums here to see if an upgrader is selling their original one.

Anything else I should look at before boldly replacing the turbo, refilling oil and coolant, and firing it up?

Thanks,

Andy

 

Why not rebuild the turbo yourself? Rebuild kits are rather cheap (check eBay). Clean all the oil lines that go to the turbo before re-installing it. My car was also missing one exhaust header nut which caused it to make a horrible noise on cold starts.

 

Thanks, I didn't know that was an option. Do I just search "S40 turbo rebuild kit" or is there an identifier for the turbo?

 

How do I identify what kit I need? TD04? It's an '02 1.9T.

 

I'd call the G-Pop Shop. The last time I looked for a rebuild kit on an old Garrett T3 they had the best price. The also knew where to look for the ID tag on the turbo.

G-Pop Shop :: Rebuilt Kits quick links :: KKK Rebuild Kits

 

I did a quick search using "volvo s40 turbo kit" and I see several rebuild kits for about $55.00. I also found this link on how to rebuild it but I have not tried this as of yet: Volvo Engine: Turbo Rebuilding

 

I just had to get my turbo replaced ('01 s40), mechanic friend of mine put it in for a decent price. I was told it'd take about 50 miles or about 1-2 weeks of driving to get rid of the smoke coming out of the exhaust. Driven for about a week back and forth to work for about 130 miles and while it doesn't cropdust like it used to on the highways, it still blows out smoke while I'm waiting for lights. Am I being impatient here, or should I be seeing improvement there as well? Doesn't smoke at all while I'm idling it in park, just when I'm sitting at lights after driving along... Was told it's burning off the oil that was let into the exhaust-is there any way to speed this process up? Thanks!

 

Oil should never, ever get into the exhaust. When first installed there may be some oil used to keep things from rusting in storage but that would burn off in minutes.

Was the turbo you installed new or used? If used was it rebuilt?

 

Turbo was new. Was told the old turbo let the oil out and that I'd have to drive it around a week to get rid of it all.

 

I was looking on ebay and there are brand new ones for 195 bucks....