Turbocharger: Recommendations For Servicing and Care

What is good for a turbocharger?

The turbocharger is designed such that it will usually last as long as the engine. It does not require any special maintenance; and inspection is limited to a few periodic checks.

To ensure that the turbocharger's lifetime corresponds to that of the engine, the following engine manufacturer's service instructions must be strictly observed:

1. Oil change intervals
2. Oil filter system maintenance
3. Oil pressure control
4. Air filter system maintenance

What is bad for a turbocharger?

90 % of all turbocharger failures are due to the following causes:

1. Penetration of foreign bodies into the turbine or the compressor
2. Dirt in the oil
3. Inadequate oil supply (oil pressure/filter system)
4. High exhaust gas temperatures (ignition system/injection system)

These failures can be avoided by regular maintenance. When maintaining the air filter system, for example, care should be taken that no tramp material gets into the turbocharger.

Failure diagnosis

If the engine does not operate properly, one should not assume that the turbocharger is the cause of failure. It often happens that fully functioning turbochargers are replaced even though the failure does not lie here, but with the engine.
Before looking for faults in the turbocharger, the following points should be checked:

Power loss or black smoke:

1. Is the air filter dirty?
2. Is the engine compression too low?
3. Is the injection system operating correctly?

Blue smoke:

1. Is the PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) system operating correctly?
2. Are the compression ratios correct?
3. Are the spark plugs in good condition?
4. Is the oil drain free?

Only after all these points have been checked should one check the turbocharger for faults. Since the turbocharger components are manufactured on high-precision machines to close tolerances and the wheels rotate up to 300,000 rpm, turbochargers should be inspected by qualified specialists only