Turbo whinning noise.
 

I drive a 2008 3.0 sd X5. Last year around august I smelled oil when parked and I get out. BMW loked at the car and sais the turbo`s need replacement. They did such a bad job with oil leaks all over and the boost pie from the Turbo to the intercooler came off! 45000 km

During February 2010 I came back from the coast and heard this whinning noise, no loose of power just a high pitched noise between 2000 -3000 Rpm. Last week towing the boat the noise was much louder at lower Rpm.
So I decided to strip the motor down and remove the 2 turbo`s. 60 000km

I took the whole front end off to access the turbo`s. During removal there was once again oil on the motor and suspension, coming from the boost pipe that leads to the intercooler. On close inspection I noticed the pipe was damaged. Will have to re sleeve the pipe to ensure a proper seal this time.
As I got to the top Turbo I noticed that the flange between the 2 turbo`s and manifold was not properly bolted down. The small turbo was full of soot from the exhaust. Then I took the gasket and inspected it. The exhaust gas was leaking through gasket as it is made up of thin plates. So the whinning sound came from there. I blew the gasket with compressed air and got the same sound!!
However I send the turbo`s for servicing and ordered new pipes and gaskets. yes yes Motorplan what about it I can not give my car to butchers i am sorry!

Kobus, welcome to the board, you should find heaps of information here and some really great folk. we just recently posted about such a noise - but there currently seems to be no fix, we didn't have any oil leakage though. Which stealership in PTA are you working through?

Cheers,

Whinning noise
 

Thank you for the welcome Big Easy!
I think I am on the right track to blame the multilayered metal sheet gasket. Normally when you have a multilayered gasket you should have what we call a envelope from the inside. this will prevent any leakage through the layers. The BMW gasket is not build like this. I will now TIG weld the inside of the gasaket so ensure a proper seal. The oil leakage from the Torbo pipe to the intercooler was caused by the rubber gasket that was installed the wrong way around. It sohould be installed in such a way that the pressure will force the lip open. The lips should face forward. Mine was the other way round, you can feel the difference by pulling on the pipe.I will also use a special polymer sealand that works with an activator to seal all the pipe properly.the haet range is 260 deg C at 200 bar. This will stop all leaks!

Zambezi Auto did the services and the previous Turbo change which was not needed! The motorplan was cancelled by BMW because I did my own brakes when they refuse to help me December 2009, I have also stopped paying BMW.

Will keep you posted

My family used to own a 1987 911 Turbo and I used to drag 1/4 mile cars. One thing that I always understood with turbo/supercharged engines, is the these forced induction system oiling systems get very hot and help cook the oil much faster. I know anybody who had forced induction went with much more stringent oil maintenance due to the excess strain on the oil. I have a feeling that these super long oil windows may be causing premature wear on the turbos which may lead to the whine.

Our 911 turbo had 13qts of oil so that helped but it still had to be changed a bit sooner than normal...

I am not saying this is the issue but from my experience this could be a factor with noise.

whinning sound
 

I got my turbo`s back. No wear, no imbalance. I have put them both back and got the car goiing. 7 Hours of solid work to get it all done. No oil leaks no whinning any more! BMW eat your hearts out I do not need your untrained clowns. The bolts missing after they worked on the car 4. stripped bolts on the tubbo to the manifold 1 and 3 bolts was loose. 4 broken connectors.

Will keep you posted on the cars progress!!

Good to hear. Congrats on doing your own work. Imagine how powerless you would feel if you were forced to rely on them for this!

Surprised to hear that doing your own brakes caused them to refuse some other service/benefit...in the USA there are some laws that protect consumers from predatory dealer/manufacturer policies. (Indeed I've heard stories in the middle east where, if you did not buy from a dealer, they demand a $2500 'fee' to simply accept you car for investigations....)

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