Urgh. Is it time for a cautionary tale of woe? /cautionary tale of woe/ My friend (no really i have a friend) had his charger go and replaced it with a brand new one which failed about a week later. The culprit being a shard of metal from the first failure wrecking an oil seal in the g-lader if i remember rightly. He had been pretty careful about cleaning all the relevant pipework before fitting the new one. I am pretty sure he ended up getting a new intercooler to be sure he was rid of any scraps of metal (on a rallye as well so he wasn't best pleased ) before fitting the next one. (not sure how stuff could get back from the IC to the charger? Is there some form of recirculation?) / End cautionary tale of woe/
Yeah - the above is exactly what my mate warned me about. He told me about someone with a G40 that had a charger go, so a brand new one was fitted. The pipework wasn't cleaned out and the new charger just died almost straight away. You're right - the air is recirculated. There is an additional recirculation butterfly valve on the G60 throttle body that routes the forced air back into the G-lader. So you got me thinking now, how the hell do I clean the intercooler and pipework out properly? This car has air-con so it has a little intercooler at the top (like the one I sold you, Keith) rather than a massive FMIC. I know that some people run G60s without the recirculation but offhand I don't know what the pros and cons of this are, nor what parts I'd need (presumably a blanking plate for the G60 and maybe a filter to attach to the recirc port on the TB). I am just thinking that this would be a sure way of preventing any metal going into the new charger. Any metal I didn't clean out would collect inside the filter...? Will phone Pitstop for some advice later but would appreciate any ideas you guys can give. I would love to be able to clean it all out and fit the new charger on Friday afternoon so I can use it at the weekend after all.
Ouch, know exactly how you feel Trev. Didnt quite beat my 6 days of ownership record. I used lots of gunk in the intercooler, plenty of chunks of metal came out. Left it soaking overnight to begin with, then swilled it out repeatedly gunk, soapy water, gunk, soapy water. Was squeaky clean inside afterwards. You will have to do the same with all bost pipes, and i bet there will be some shards in and around the TB area. Replace the oil feed and return lines as a matter of course too. Makes those screw compressors seem even more inviting eh? 200,000km lifespan, no rebuilds.
I think my friend used a tea bag sized sieve from tescos as a filter as an extra precaution. Not a metal one. It was a fine plastic gauze. I guess he must have used it in the recirc pipework somewhere.
Sorry to hear that Trev, important to know how many miles a 'charger has done since rebuild, IMO sticking with factory pulley and belt is the best option, boring maybe but my car is quick enough, intercooler and throttle body are on the upgrade list for the future I read an article years ago in a non VW mag, a guy had a rallye with well over 90000 miles on, and G lader had never been rebuilt, would like to know how long it lasted
sorry to hear its busted already trev did it sound fine before...was you giving it lots of beans that day?
Oh dear, sorry to hear that Trev, best of luck sorting it! On the plus side though you appear to have (in my opinion) the holy grail of Mk2's, a G60 with 4wd and more importantly air-conditioning... you know how I like my air-con! If only it was oak green....
Was that the car advertised on here mate? Was going to have a look myself, but it was a long way away.
Thanks guys. It was advertised on here some time ago. Gave it a bit of beans but would ever never thrash this car. I was stupid enough to keep driving for absolutely ages after I first noticed the strange noise. It was a strange, almost musical ringing noise. Thought my mobile was going off at first. Looked up wondering if it was wind through the sunroof, to be reminded that it doesn't actually have one. Decided it must be an alternator or water pump bearing or something. Thought about the supercharger and thought 'naaaaaaah.... won't happen to me'!! I started to work on removing the G-lader tonight. The amount of broken metal sitting in the supercharger outlet is amazing. Absolutely loads of it sitting within the inlet of the intercooler. What I'm really worried about is how much has reached the TB. I could see a little bit in the tube between IC and TB. Could not see anything in the TB but I'll take the inlet manifold off tomorrow to clean that out as well. Obviously I really want to get away with not removing the head. Take the risk. It's probably the wrong time now to consider spending money on the cosmetic side of things, but my neighbour is a good bodyshop worker and gave me a quote tonight to have some bodywork issues rectified. I want to keep the car standard on the outside, but I have a pair of doors with Audi 80 handles that I'm tempted to get painted up at the same time and fitted to it. Dunno if it'd be a crime not to keep it original though. Not sure about putting the 16V G60 into it. I told myself that I'm not pulling this car to pieces. But, uhm... Trev
theres not that many syncros about as you know Trev, even less 16V's !! now that would be worthy of putting on a certain VW motor sport badge on bad luck about the engine mate, I know how bad it is, I'm currently stripping the tdi down, found I need more bits than I thought
This is what i was going to suggest or something similar to catch the shards. Just keep checking it until its clear. Loverly car btw Trev, you got good tasste in MK2's. 2 Oak greens and this G60 very nice
gutted to hear about the car trev I had the charger die on my g40 within an hour of driving it. After quite a bit of and some waiting around i got a replacement from pitstop.Can't recommend them enough for advice (steve must have had about 40 phonecalls when mine went) Touch wood mine is running ok at the moment, but everythime i hear a metallic sound while im driving the car i always think the worst which kind of takes the pleasure out of driving it.
Trev, I haven`t used the aircon i/c so you can have it back if you need it?, I powerwashed my i/c out after the oil seal went but it was only oil inside, not magnesuim..
