1991 R32 Gtr - Turbo's Stopped Working

[Methor]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this should go here or in the General Maintenance Section but;

Today when I was driving to work, I started to drive up a hill and my Turbo's wouldn't engage. I looked out the rear mirror and the car wasn't blowing any smoke to indicate shagged Turbo's.

I thought it might have been the AFMs, but the last time I had an AFM die on me in the GTR the car would refuse to go above 4K rev's (Same thing with my old WRX) and a light would 'activate' on the dash on the right hand side (In the 4-cluster where the AWD light is) and it would just bog down when I tried to accelerate. This isn't happening this time.

However, as it is now, I can drive the car normally, it rev's out to 7K and feels like I'm driving an N/A car. The car just refuses to boost and on the standard 32 GTR 'boost' display it stops just before hitting 0. I can hear the Pod Filters sucking in a minute amount of air, but there's no blow-back when I take my foot off the accelerator.

Is there any way I can tell if this is an AFM, Turbo, ECU or Pod Filter without having to buy new parts? Obviously there's the standard "Take it to a Doctor" response, but if it's something simple that I could do myself, I'd rather do that, than take it to someone and have them waste their time on it being something simple.

Also, is there a possibility it could be the exhaust somehow? I noticed on the drive home that the exhaust sounded different to normal, can't really explain how it sounded different, I just know that it did.

Thanks in advance for any help provided

[Don Dada]

Hmmm....interesting

No smoke even when reving to 7k?

Any strange noise before it started to do it?

How much boost were you running before?

[10 4]

This happened to me.

My cat was totallllllllllllllllllllllly blocked (imploded after a run with an Evo..). Drop the exhaust before the cat and go for a quick drive - see if you get boost back

Edited October 18, 2011 by 10 4

[Don Dada]

Thought of that but wouldnt the cat temp light illuminate on the dash?....espcecially after reving t to 7k

Either way OP...Do eeet

[blue_vl_t]

The cat temp light will come on when the exhaust temp is too high and may damage your cat.

It doesnt know if your cat is stuffed.

Drop the exhaust and check the cat, and hope you don't find the turbine wheel in there too.

[The Mafia]

Lol I was gonna say, make sure the exhaust wheels are still there

[R.3.2.G.T.R]

time for new turbos maybe an engine, drop cat as suggested, I wud stop driving it

[zebra]

a split cooler piping joiner? and its opening up under boost

[Methor]

@Don: No, nothing out of the ordinary, one minute I had boost, next minute I didn't. And I'm running 5 pounds of boost (Which is the stock tuning I believe)

@Everyone else: Thanks for the help, I'll get it down to an exhaust place Thurs or Fri. It's probably time I thought about putting on a new exhaust anyway... Car is still stock standard

[lachlanw]

must be the transfer case to the turbos that wont engage . maybe the freewheeling hubs are playing up

or maybe your pod filter has runout of boost . might have to buy another one

[Sloane]

Lol!

Seriously though, time for new turbo's....

[32vspec2gtr]

Check that the wastegates haven't stuck open and are causing the turbos to not spool. As said above as well check that the cooler piping isn't split and that the cat isn't blocked.

The next step is to drop the exhaust off the back of the turbos and as said check that the exhaust wheels are still there.

Best of luck

[SiR_RB]

check the cooler pipes for leaks and a blocked cat, if the cat has bits of exhaust wheel in there, well then turbos are gone

[Rolls]

even with wastegates wide open it would make 2-3psi still.

[Methor]

I'm going to try and take it down to an exhaust place tomorrow and see if they can pull it off to have a look.

At least that way, I should be able to narrow down the problem.

I'd find it a little weird if it was the Turbo's themselves that had exploded/dropped parts, as there was literally no noise (Bangs, clunks, clangs, tingles, etc) when they stopped working. If they had dropped parts, I would probably have smoke out the exhaust as well, as it is... There's no smoke coming out at all.

I did manage to figure out how the exhaust sounded different though... It sounds strangled and muffled compared to normal... So that would say that there's some form of blockage. Fingers crossed this is an easy fix

And thanks to everyone for the help

[Rolls]

Sounds like your cat is blocked then, don't rev it out as it will cause extreme temps.

[Methor]

Yeah, even when I didn't have this problem, I didn't really push the car past 5K Rev's, so that's not an issue for me.

[MrStabby]

Boost leak = black smoke

Broken turbo(s) = no boost at all, rough running when you try to put the motor into the conditions that would used to have made boost. No black smoke IIRC, and they can go with no/little noise.

[Hiroshima Screamer]

if its a set of turbos you need pm me might have x 2 sets up for sale soon...

[Methor]

@MrStabby: Can you define 'Rough running' for me?

Do you mean popping/farting. Or it just struggles to get Rev's up?