GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Well?After about 40k miles, and 3 years of boosted driving, my turbo has started to fail it simply wont boost past 4psi! I thought maybe it was a waste gate issue. It was not. Then I thought maybe my cat was clogged up or something. I went down to SF, and we disconnected the down pipe to see if if the boosting would come back, but it did not. If the cat was clogged , then the boosting would have resumed. I have been putting oil into the motor every couple of weeks. This was the tip off that the bearings on the turbo are going out! Oh No!. Apparently, the turbo does not spool to full speed with the bearings being wearing out. The seals are leaking oil, so the oil is going into the air stream into the motor. It is not a big deal, on one level, but I am having to get my turbo rebuilt. It is a few hundred bucks, but when finished , the turbo will be as good as new. Instead of having my car down for a while, I am just waiting for a rebuilt turbo to arrive, so that I can exchange the new one with mine in one day 4psi is still a nice boost , but I cant wait to get back to normal levels, even to 10 psi

Too bad about the turbo, but the good news I see in that is is that after 40K boosted miles, the engine is still fine. Hope you're back to full boost soon

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »Too bad about the turbo, but the good news I see in that is is that after 40K boosted miles, the engine is still fine. Hope you're back to full boost soon Agreed!

wow thats a lot of miles with your engine still doing great! good to hear

Quote, originally posted by northvibe »wow thats a lot of miles with your engine still doing great! good to hearIsn't 40,000 km about 25,000 miles? At an average speed of 45 mph that is 555 hours of engine run time. One would hope that the engine would still be doing great. Sorry - I see that I mistook K for km and it is really K for 1,000. Still - would assume that 99.9% of these engines would still be running great at only 40,000 miles.

Quote, originally posted by jake75 »Sorry - I see that I mistook K for km and it is really K for 1,000. Still - would assume that 99.9% of these engines would still be running great at only 40,000 miles.Not necessarily when you're boosting your engine well beyond manufacturers specs. People blow engines in very short times doing stuff like that.

Quote, originally posted by damronjr »Not necessarily when you're boosting your engine well beyond manufacturers specs. People blow engines in very short times doing stuff like that.If it is a Vibe GT then isn't the turbo part of the speccs?

Quote, originally posted by damronjr »Not necessarily when you're boosting your engine well beyond manufacturers specs. People blow engines in very short times doing stuff like that.Yeah, it's true. I remember the time I upped the boost to 14psi ...just to see!...and what I saw was the engine light flashing, which is the code for ignition misfire, which means predentonation, which means blowing your motor...and of course I backed off the throttle , and all was well...Of course I had to do that a couple of times. It didnt misfire everytime, so I really enjoyed the moment!..great power. I am not really too crazy. I think that if I ran 5 psi all the time, I would get well over 100k on this motor, but when I am running 6psi to 10psi all the time??? Who knows?? If I do blow the motor, I will decide if I just want to get a junkyard motor, or actually have it rebuilt to handle ...like 300hp or something....I would just like to mention, that the Vibe ecu is pretty smart, and the knock sensor retards the timing at any sign of predentonation...It is a great safety feature.

Garrets are easy to rebuild, 150 bucks for the kit and I have done two of those. Mitsubishis on the other hand are much harder. My guess form the garrets Ive rebuilt is your dumping oil into the intake side. Pull the intake boot and check for side- to-side play on the shaft.

Man, I almost panic moment when I read the title! Glad it's just the turbo housing and not the engine!Keep up the awesome work!

how much did u spend for your turbo?

Quote, originally posted by lucho »how much did u spend for your turbo?Welcome to the boards lucho.I paid 3k to have it made and installed by Stafford Fabrications. My kit became a prototype for a kit that is no longer available.

thats ****ing awsome, i would love to boost my vibe gt, and fly some mother ****er that judge my vibe.

it sucks that your boost is dying if u want u can sell that kit to me!!! jajajajjk

Quote, originally posted by lucho »it sucks that your boost is dying if u want u can sell that kit to me!!! jajajajjk I still have not had the time to get the new turbo in....Yep, and I aint selling!!!!!!!!!