AET Blogs

Compressor Wheel – ‘Mouse & Nut’ Damage You couldn’t make this one up. One of our customers had parked their car up for winter and during this time, some mice had taken refuge in the airbox. When the customer came to use the car again in the spring and started up the engine, some nuts…

Compressor Cover Damage – Scoring This image illustrates scoring out of the compressor cover profile, and occurs when excessive wear and movement in either the thrust bearing or journal bearing (or both) causes excessive movement in the rotor. In turn, this causes the compressor wheel to rub against the compressor cover, scoring out the profile.…

Compressor Cover damage – Corrosion In the image, you can see corrosion damage to the seal area and inlet of the compressor cover. This type of damage is extremely common with Porsche units as, with the turbos sited so low down on the vehicle, they catch all the road debris that gets flung up from…

Wastegate Actuator damage Faulty or damaged actuators are the cause of many of the turbo problems we see at AET, but they can be easy to overlook. The wastegate actuator acts as a pressure relief valve, which ultimately controls the boost output of a turbocharger. It works by holding the wastegate shut until the required…

Compressor wheel damage – Overspeeding In these images, you can see that the back of the compressor wheel has become rippled and pitted, which are early signs of damage caused by overspeeding. Overspeeding damage like this occurs when a vehicle’s engine causes the turbo to spin faster than it is designed to. This excessive speed…

Compressor wheel damage – serious overspeeding Here’s a more serious example of overspeeding damage - in this image, the compressor wheel has actually exploded into pieces due to extreme overspeeding! Damage like this can be caused when a turbo spins so fast that it starts to bend the turbine shaft at the thrust shoulder. In…

Turbine Shaft & Wheel – Broken Turbine Wheel Base This image shows a damaged turbine wheel base – look closely and you can see that the base has several sections cut out of it, which have been chipped off. Damage like this is caused by excessive thrust bearing wear, which has caused the turbine wheel…

Bearing Housing – corrosion damage Here you can see an example of bearing housing corrosion . Corrosion damage like this results in a loss of seal between the bearing housing and turbine housing, and can cause a series of knock on effects, including damage to the bearings, turbine, compressor wheel, and housing. This kind of…

Turbine Shaft & Wheel – Corroded Piston Ring Seal Area In this image, you can see some moderate corrosion to the piston ring seal area of the turbine shaft – the surface of the metal has become worn, pitted and roughened. A corroded piston ring can lead to major faults in your turbo and is…

Bearing Housing – Carbonised Oil Blockage in the Galleries In this example, we'll discuss how the bearing housing galleries can become completely blocked and choked up with carbonised oil (oil blockage). Whilst build up of oil in the bearing housing like this has a number of causes, the most common are a lack of regular…

Turbine Shaft & Wheel – Worn Piston Ring Seal Groove This example shows a worn piston ring seal groove – in the image, you can see that the outer edge of the piston ring seal groove is sloping outwards, when it should be straight. This is fairly common, and has a number of causes. Sometimes,…

Turbine Shaft & Wheel - Engine Failure This image shows a turbine shaft and wheel with fairly serious impact damage as a result of engine failure. If you look at the wheel itself, you can see that the blades are uneven and chipped, and that the surface of the wheel has become severely pitted. In…