Is there any maintenence needed on the turbo?
 

I was just reading the other guy's post about his turbo going out, after just a year. I'm assuming mine is the original, 19 years old. Since they spin so fast, is there any maintenence needed on these? Any oiling or greasing of anything?

Also, where the air tube meets up to the turbo, there is black carbon around that area, as though the air tube isn't on tight enough. My general mechanic said that's normal, which, I'm taking his word for it as gospel, he's pretty good.

When will they make a car with no moving parts so we don't have to fix anything?

Jeff 1991 300d, 151k

The turbo needs no maintenance. Keep a clean air filter installed, change the engine oil on time and the turbo will live a long happy life. Its bearing is lubricated by engine oil under pressure.

Maintenence
 

1.Pre-Luber (Pre-Pressurizing the Oil System)[AND Post Lube Pressure]
2.Class IV Synthetic Motor Oil.

'Can't really qualify both as maintenence.
They'll EXTEND the life of the Turbo...
(Howeveah,they run for 100 s of Ks on mineral oil.)

No.

My last MB was a turbo SD, 16-years old with 305K miles. Ask me how much maintenance it needed?

I've replaced many parts that don't move. The dash is a major PITA. The car doesn't run a lick better since I replaced it :P

Sixto
87 300D

The only up-keep you need to do on the turbo is to have it rebuilt when it gets worn. You'll see that manifest itself with oil consumption or funny sounds.

On your car there will be some upkeep of the control system, IE the vacuum lines. Not that big of a deal though. The vacuum switchover valve could get dirty and hang up resulting in poor boost control, but you could probably clean it.

My friend's 91 ECOdiesel still has its original KKK turbo after almost 430,000 miles If you keep the oil changed and the air filter in place they will go for a long, long time. Not turning the car off when its hot helps too, but is less of an issue with modern synthetic oils.

-J

Real diesel MBs don't need dashboards........ask me how I know??? *smile*

Second that....

Dash, ... funny.

Probably the only thing that you want to avoid is running the engine hard/hot, and immediately shutting down. You don't want the turbo spinning down with no oil flow, and when the turbo is really hot, shutting down the oil flow before it cools can cause (especially dino oil) oil to fry in the bearing, causing less than optimum oil flow and lubrication after.

The turbos seldom wear out catastrophically, usually just start to lubricate the exhaust and need re-building but as others have mentioned, that too is a rare occurance.