PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

patterson · #5 09-29-2002, 02:44 PM

I was lucky that I didn't lose boost.

On another story I had a 1994 Chevy 6.5 Turbo Diesel (pile of junk) that I was pulling a travel trailer with and all of a sudden lost all of its power and started smoking. It was so weak that I had to unhook from the trailer and drive it to the closest dealer. That thing had a vacuum pump whose only purpose was to hold the wastegate on the turbo shut! They have a complex system of vacuum switches and stuff and a vacuum operated wastegate. So when you lose vacuum the wastegate opens venting all the exhaust around the turbo. A horrible idea from GM.

The turbo on my Isuzu mini truck went out in much the same was as the Mercedes did but over a long enough period of time to make you think that the engine was getting tired ans starting to use oil from age. It got to where the turbo was as loud as a semi truck before I got it fixed and by then the impeller had hit the housing and screwed up all sorts of things. I sent that one off to Majestic Turbo and had it rebuilt. They did a great job on it. They sent a little letter with the turbo called how to make the turbo last longer. It said to change the oil every 2,500 miles, start the vehicle and wait 2 minutes before taking off or reving the engine, and let it cool off for five minutes before shutting the engine off. I figure the first turbo lasted 300,000 miles so I would put one on in another 300,000 rather than waste 7 minutes of idling every time I drove my truck. I could understand 30 seconds or so but 5 minutes is a little bit much I think.

I am biased against getting any wear part out of a junk yard unless you get it at core price. Many salvage yards think that new parts are worth half the price of new parts, but there is no way I would pay that for a wear part such as an engine or turbo.

The time factor is the biggest reason I went with used. I wanted the car for a trip this week and I really didn't want to take my other car because it is going to be in the mountains. The little 50 horsepower Isuzu hates mountains. Time will tell whether the used unit will be OK or not. I am considering going ahead and sending the one I took off to be rebuilt so I have a spare, but I haven't decided yet.

Peter, arent the Volvo TD's in the cars based somewhat on the VW Rabbit engines. I looked at one some time back and I thought that it looked like a copy of it. Are they aluminum head, timing belt engines? There is nothing wrong with timing belts as long as they are not neglected, but so many are neglected.

Well one more Mercedes problem patched up, what will come next?